Ashara Ekundayo is an independent curator, artist, creative industries entrepreneur and organizer working internationally across cultural, spiritual, civic, and social innovation spaces. Through her company AECreative Consulting Partners she places artists and cultural production as essential in equitable design practices, real estate development, and movement-building. Her intersectional worldview offers both an Afrofuturist and radical Black feminist framework to the public sector by centering the lives, traditions, and expertise of Black womxn of the African Diaspora.
As a social practice installation artist who designs site-specific commissioned altar pieces, stewards public meditation ceremonies, and designs public printmaking sessions - often participating in direct actions at political protests, Ashara’s works are intentionally collaborative, interdisciplinary, and intergenerational. Her altars have been installed in galleries and natural landscapes in over 13 countries.
Currently, Ashara serves as Chief Creative Catalyst at the Bay Area Girls & Womxn of Color Collaborative and sits on the Advisory Board of the Oakland Public Conservatory of Music and the Regional Advisory Board for Arts Web Alameda County. Her newest creative projects include BLATANT - a multi-disciplinary, monthly forum presented in collaboration with the Museum of the African Diaspora as well as a published maga(zine) offered in conjunction with her platform Artist As First Responder which excavates, documents, and archives the stories of present-day and next-generation cultural workers whose art practices heal communities and save lives. Ashara recently launched a mutual aid fund for Black Bay Area creatives and is co-founder of Black [Space] Residency, a physical container for imagination, inquiry, activity, and rest.
Twisted, fragmented, out of context identities, and ideals represent many Black women's views - our stories made up of strips of fiber, memories, fluid, rage, and pleasure. "Subscribe To Blackness" by multimedia artist Ashara Ekundayo is the first in a series of (3) unique collage prints all created from the exact same set of 38 archival photos and text pulled from a single issue of a 1978 Essence magazine. This collage speaks to the multi-faceted sense of well-being and readiness Black women are publicly presenting while also contemplating their ability to stay safe, wild, and not crazy in the midst of global cry to sign-on to the latest message. Oh, haven't you heard, we love the Blacks now? Meanwhile, Sistahs continue to create counter-imaginations and strategies for how to get free.
