Coffee, sorting shit out, and material memories: meet our mural coordinator, Ra’anaa Ekundayo

Photo provided by Ra’anaa

They helped start the McEwen School of Architecture's Nuit Blanche while they were in their undergrad at the school. They co-founded Sudbury’s Black Lives Matter chapter. They’re doing their PhD in Art History at Concordia. Honestly, with everything they’re always working on, we’re not really sure how Ra’anaa Ekundayo finds time to help us with Up Here, but we’re not going to question it. We’re just beyond stoked.

As the festival rushes towards us, we wanted to introduce you Ra’anaa to get a glimpse at what’s going on beyond the scenes.

Photo provided by Ra’anaa

When did you first get involved in Up Here?

2017 was my first Up Here, and as soon as I went, I was like, “I want to get involved with this.”

Then, in early 2018, I was in my fourth year of architecture, and Christian [editor’s note: Christian is one of our dear founders] came to give a lecture on public art in communities. I sent him an email to learn a bit more, and he said, “Dope, let’s grab coffee.”

The rest is history. I wound up coordinating installations from 2018 until 2022, adding Power Up support to my portfolio in 2021, and then I took a year off to run Culture Matrix, a Black Lives Matter arts festival.

What are you doing for the festival now?

I’m coordinating murals this year, dipping my foot in the water. I’m working with the muralists, figuring out their sites, planning the lifts, running water and snacks—basically sorting out any shit as it happens on the fly. It’s the first year I’m looking more specifically at murals. I get to talk to all these cool artists who I’ve admired for a long time.

Photo provided by Ra’anaa

What are you most excited about this year?

There are great diverse artists this year. Not just in race and gender identity, but in terms of their backgrounds, walks of life, and style.

I’m really excited for Yung Yemi, A Black afrofuturist doing exciting stuff in Toronto.

There’s a wheat pasting artist this year. It’s a historical, radical form of postering. You’d originally use flour and water—now we use glue or wallpaper paste—and you’d slap posters onto wood really quickly. It’s usually for more grunge/radical works, when they’re not supposed to be postering. Faces of Sudbury at the market was wheat pasted, and New York does a lot. It’s just paper at the end of the day, with really radical roots in activism and protest. It’s cool to see muralists bring it back to a contemporary context. Katie Green works with novagel, a paint without a pigment, for a similar effect.

Festival time is the best time and the worst time. We’re running around like chickens with our heads cut off. I really love the time leading up to it. It’s a really good time to be alive.

What keeps you coming back to Up Here?

It’s all about the community for me. And that’s what I love about Sudbury

Murals are the way the festival leaves its mark year round. They’re material memories: the concept of things that give you memories when you see them. That's why I really love the murals. When I see them, I think back to everything surrounding it.

I think about connecting with DRPN Soul when he did the mural we co-presented with Black Lives Matter Sudbury in 2021. I think about hanging out with Ric Wilson and his crew the first time he came to Sudbury in 2019, and how I’m so stoked for his triumphant return this year. Or I remember how helping RISK spray paint the old hospital destroyed my fresh pair of VANS, and it was so beyond worth it. I love looking around and remembering what was happening when those murals went up. It’s a spectacular thing.

What would you want people to know about the festival?

If you haven’t come to Up Here, come to Up Here. There’s a ton of different genres of music and art, and it’s community. Post-pandemic, it’s one of the few times where you can be with each other. You meet new people but see so many people you know. And Up Here Square is such a great place to be. It’s like living in a university dorm on the streets. Everyone’s grabbing a drink at the end of the day. There are spots you can hang out. It’s this massive, beautiful, awesome arts party.

Photo provided by Ra’anaa