ABOUT ME

Shaní (Sha-nay) Nicole is an Artist, Educator, a Public Speaker, Writer, Creative Consultant, and Healer with over 12 years of experience in both the marketing and music industry. Originally from Houston, TX, she made her way to New York City in 2008 to pursue her then dreams of becoming an Advertising Executive and Singer / Performer. Her life would change at the end of 2015 when her father unexpectedly passed away. This traumatic life event would be the catalyst that aligned Shani to her true path of seeking justice, equality and healing for the marginalized communities and for Mother Earth. She left her corporate job at the end of 2016 to begin this new journey. Over the next 3 years, Shani would dedicate herself to re-education (decolonial studies), social justice movements, and holistic health & healing, as she felt these areas were vital to her well-being as a marginalized body. Re-education became the foundation of Shani’s work as she felt that the structural systems within her country of origin failed her as an African American woman with indigenous roots as well as failing her family and local community. In 2018, she decided to pursue a second degree in Africana / Puerto Rican Latin Studies. This degree allowed her to get a closer look at how colonialism severely and negatively impacted both Black / African and Indigenous communities across the Americas. She also travelled across Europe to connect with Black and Indigenous movements doing the re-education work locally. She unearthed a common thread of colonial harm within Black and Indigenous communities across the globe.   It became clear that the system which severely oppressed her ancestors based on the social construct of race, were now oppressing more people based on their economic status as well; crossing gender, cultural, racial, and religious lines. In 2020, Shani created The Empathic Realist, a project (and community based platform) rooted in re-education through a compassionate decolonial lens, allowing room for infinite possibilities of accountability, liberation, and healing across communities. This work is done through writing, music, poetry, public speaking, and community engagements / dialogue. The other elements of her work are rooted in providing tools for restorative healing as well as generating creative solutions for community building & transformation.