Daily Inspiration: Meet Radiance Bukari

Today we’d like to introduce you to Radiance Bukari.

Hi Radiance, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
I was lucky enough to be introduced to the art of tie dye in high school, as a I had a very close friend whose family would often choose tie dye as their communal activity any time they had people over (shoutout to Hannah York and the York Family, love you!). Once I got older and started having my own communal gatherings, I followed their lead and would purchase tie dye kits from Grateful Dyes (a.k.a. Colorado Wholesale Dye Corporation) in Littleton, CO to use with friends and family, typically when I had family visiting from out of town. After one of the aforementioned gatherings, I was left with a lot of materials and supplies to do some more of my own dyeing, but too much to keep all to myself. So I called my mom one day and mentioned this to her, and she suggested that I register my LLC and try to sell some of them since I enjoyed the dyeing process anyway; I took her advice (and am grateful to have parents who are also entrepreneurs who would encourage me to make such a choice)! Since then, I have been working diligently on aligning my business to the things that I loved about tie dye in the first place: It offers a safe, creative space where participants are required to surrender to the process. This surrender encourages our sense of imagination, provides moments to bond and connect with those around you, and teaches a valuable skill on how to make something new out of something you may have previously considered ordinary.

Tie dye is a visually stunning medium and my love for fashion and color made this craft an easy love of mine, but I found myself much more enticed by the communal aspect of teaching the process and working in community. For this reason, the efforts of my business have shifted to focus more on bringing my creative expertise to my community and providing a new form of expression where it is needed. I am glad to say that I am currently transitioning into full time entrepreneurship after leaving my day job, and this decision continues to bear fruit and remind me that I chose to pour into something I care deeply about. Although it may look risky to some, I know how much this change has already positively impacted my life and I would encourage all creatives to find a way for their arts to take up as much space in their lives as possible.

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Smooth is relative. Some might look at my profit margins or sales over time and see something that is NOT so fruitful. However, what I quickly learned was that I did not start this business because I wanted to sell tie dye. As cliche as it may sound, I truly wish that I could give my creations away for free, help people style them, and be a part of the journey of my supporters finding their stylistic voice through fashion and color. That mentality made it very difficult to look at my business and make decisions from a sales or even monetary standpoint, which subsequently made it hard to “get things off the ground” so to speak.

As an entrepreneur, the mental gymnastics that must be played in order to follow the systems that are available to you can take a huge toll on your mental, emotional, and spiritual wellbeing. Certain processes feel (and are) convoluted and redundant, so I experienced moments of overwhelm many times throughout this journey, especially while working a fulltime job that had very little relation to my business. There is a lot of work to be done behind the scenes, separate from creating the products you wish to sell (or service that you want to provide). That can feel very disheartening when you are feeling inspired to create and you intentionally have to keep yourself from the thing that you actually want to be doing. That is where a lot of my personal obstacles have shown up because so much of the needed efforts are going to backend and and administrative infrastructure of my business at the moment.

Discipline has been a big theme of my personal goals recently, learning how to work towards something even when I am NOT feeling inspired. As creatives, I think this is sometimes the one thing standing in our way of achieving what we hope to. So this phase of my life is presenting me with a lot of opportunities to work on that skill, train that muscle, so that as more business and creative opportunities arise, I am truly equipped to handle them (and flourish, even).

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I guess you could say that I am a sort of creative multihyphenate. All of my passions are creative, but not directly linked to one another. For that reason, I am dedicated to creating a life that is full of my creative passions, however they may overlap. I am a vocalist, currently working with a roots-rock band based in Boulder, CO called Jason Brandt & The Build-Out. I am a poet currently sitting on the board for an amazing youth poetry organization called Sacred Voices based in Denver, CO. I am a fashion designer, textile artist, and instructor, specializing in resist dyeing (what you know as tie dye) under my own business called Radical Creations.

This unique intersection of creativity is something that I am extremely proud of because we are often faced with the tension of trying to fit our complexities into small boxes, but I am making an active choice to pour into all of the parts of myself that make me who I am. This mentality is what sets me apart from others because I show up knowing that there is immense value in the intersectionality of us all, and that influences my work deeply. I don’t aim to simply teach you how to dye a garment, I aim to cultivate and nurture creative spaces, take risks, and find ways to use all of that to create an experience that resonates with those who participate enough to inspire them to create on their own. If my work helps another to create or connect, then I have done my job, and I take pride in this.

Who else deserves credit in your story?
I am so fortunate to have a great community lifting me up and supporting me in all my endeavors. For the sake of this interview, I will group them together and give thanks to them all:

The York Family: I am not sure if I would have found this passion if it wasn’t for you. Thank you Hannah for being such a great friend to me, thank you to Jim and Beth for taking me in as one of your own, and subsequently inspiring the thing that would soon take over my life in the best way.

My Family: To my mother, you are endlessly inspiring and impressing me with how much you have accomplished and continue to accomplish. As a single mom, you and grandma have been and will always be my heroes. Thank you for encouraging me to dig in to my passions and leading by example.

My Partner: It is hard to find the right words to describe how influential and transformational our time together has been, but you know that so many of the major life changes that I have made over the last year have only been possible because you have been by my side. You have offered more support than I knew was possible and I truly cannot imagine making it though all of this without you.

My Friends: I am lucky enough to say that I have friends of all different backgrounds, cultures, and interests. Somehow, they have all found it in their hearts to support me in one way or another. As someone who struggles with social anxiety and balancing my social and work life, every bit of interest and support means THE WORLD to me.

Thank you so much to my bountiful and colorful community for showing up in the ways that you do. You are the reason I have made it this far.

Pricing:

• All garments are hand-dyed
• All garments of one-of-a-kind
• Due to the curing process, all items take AT LEAST 24 hours to create.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.radicalcreations.co/
• Instagram: @radicalcreationsco
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100084564647448
• Soundcloud: https://on.soundcloud.com/QFZR3r21ohaxb8GhOQ
• Other: https://linktr.ee/radiancebukari

Image Credits
@Nappyheadedmedia
@Chelseyrayphoto