Ashara Ekundayo is a Detroit-born, Oakland, CA based independent curator, artist, designer, creative industries entrepreneur and organizer working internationally across cultural, spiritual, civic, and social innovation spaces. Through her company AECreative Consulting Partners and her projects Omi Arts Project + Space and Ashara Ekundayo Gallery, 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 Black radical feminist framework to the public sector by centering the lives, traditions, and expertise of Black womxn of the African Diaspora.

Currently, Ashara serves as Chief Creative Catalyst for the Bay Area Girls & Womxn of Color Collaborative, serves on the Advisory Board of the Oakland Public Conservatory of Music, and is a member of the See Black Womxn collective. As part of her creative arts practice she recently launched BLATANT as a multi-disciplinary forum with the Museum of the African Diaspora in San Francisco, CA as well as a zine series offered in conjunction with her platform and forthcoming book “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.

Twitter/IG: blublakwomyn
Websites: ArtistAsFirstResponder.com and Ashara.io