On a fall evening as the sun tucks itself behind the horizon of buildings in downtown Rochester, Ashante Gills leads fourteen girls through a guided meditation. Barefoot, she paces between them as they lay, with eyes closed on indigo yoga mats lining the small space. A half hour before they were brimming with laughter. Their fidgety hands and legs still learning to hold the strange new poses. Yet under Ashante’s guidance, the soothing tone of her voice calls them back into their bodies, into the four walls of the space, into the solid ground holding them. And a peace starts to settle into their being as they surrender.
Surrender is a word Ashante uses often as we chat about her life, her journey to find alignment and harmony, and her vision for what she is cultivating next. “Surrender has been really beneficial to me, even when it’s hard. I’ve had to surrender to life instead of having full control. I find that this has opened more doors for me and things find their way to me through that surrender.”
There is a quiet grace about Ashante. A physical and even spiritual posture of openness and ease. She seems fully present, rooted oceans deep. But, she will be the first to admit that this was not always the case. Young Ashante’s life in her hometown of Chicago was marked by an environment that all too often fostered aggression, hypervigilance, and dis-regulation within her. It was an environment where the powerful women and young girls in her life were not well-resourced and supported in leaning into their vulnerability and softness as a source of strength. Still, Ashante was always curious, always observant. She credits this early trait with her ability to seek out models of a different kind of womanhood and grace. It also allowed her to focus on how she could build more meaningful relationships.
Growing up, her mother prioritized education, ensuring she attended the best schools possible. It was in school and church that she began to see different role models and could begin imagining new possibilities for herself. Alongside her twin brother, Ashante excelled in high school. The dream was to pursue medicine. She laughs as she recalls this saying, “I wanted to be a doctor when I was young because I wanted to change the world. I wanted to heal the world. But I learned that the world doesn’t need more doctors or leaders. We need more compassion— compassion for ourselves, compassion for others. This fuels me.”
At each juncture growing up, Ashante seemed to be faced with allowing the toxic force of her environment to consume her or to ground in herself, in her inner wisdom, in the models she knew were out there and to choose a different path, make a different choice. These choices led her into a pre-med program at the University of Illinois, and later, joining the military. But even in college and in the service, the residue of her traumas kept creeping up, kept threatening to pull her under. In her debut memoir School Daze, Ashante talks openly about the tangle of life, her environment, and post-traumatic stress that seemed to always have a grip on her— a grip she knew she would have to release in order to thrive.
For her the key to this release was to ground, align, and slow down. And there, in the quiet of her own beating, tender heart she found answers. “One guiding principle has carried me through each transition: ‘Protect your heart, for all things you do flow from it.’ This is both a reminder and a boundary that calls me to move with integrity, honor my energy, and keep my heart light. When work, relationships, or environments no longer align with my values, I don’t force it. I pause, reflect, and proceed accordingly. That’s how resentment is prevented and how joy remains intact.”
Heart and harmony are the rhythm of her life. They shape how she loves, leads, and lives. “Every season has reminded me that peace comes from choosing what truly matters.”
Advocacy, storytelling, and healing work are central to how Ashante continues to ground herself and also to cultivate opportunities and restorative practices for youth, families, and other women. It is work that is evident in the ways she shows up in her professional roles and in service to her community as an artist, a social worker in training, and yoga instructor. This past year she has collaborated with Griot Arts to offer a space for youth of color to explore literature and the arts. After completing her yoga teacher training in Bali, Indonesia in summer of 2025, she swiftly set out to offer free community classes for youth and adults. In key ways, Ashante’s approach to life is a creative one, one of imagination and holding storms of change and transition.
As a writer and poet, she uses her words to share her story and uplift others in the process. A recent Go Back and Fetch It Emerging Artist Fellow with More Than A Single Story, she is leaning into the power of her words and storytelling as healing. Listening to Ashante reflect on her life and where she is headed, feels like watching a gardener tending to a lush garden— each choice made with care, hands deeply rooted in the earth of inner wisdom and knowing, harvesting what has been seeded with intention and a lot of faith. All of it harmonious. All of it heart-led.
Ashante is now in the process of relaunching a program called Garden of LYPH (Lending Your People a Hand). A program that she hopes will be a hub rooted in compassion, collaboration, and community care. Through “The Garden”, Ashante will continue to curate and facilitate safe spaces for reflection and real connection to help individuals and groups “cultivate restorative practices that honors authenticity and compassion as the soil where true growth begins.” Her vision is to use her rich life experiences and their lessons as well as the skills she has developed to guide educators, organizations, youth, and adults.
After the recent sudden loss of her childhood friend, Ari, Ashante has found even deeper perspective on her purpose and future outlook. Reflecting on this, Ashante says, “While her passing has been deeply felt, it has also reaffirmed my commitment to lead with love, stay connected, and drop the ladder of overcoming back down for others. It reminded me that the real measure of success isn’t how much is accomplished, but how deeply we care for one another in the process.”
