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Life & Work with Radiance Bukari

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

Hi Radiance, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
As a black woman, a Denver native, and a creative, I grew up with very few people around me that I saw myself in. Growing up in a small school where I could count the number of black and brown kids, on one hand, creating a mental space for me that always found changing myself as a solution to living a happy life. As the oldest of four raised primarily by a single mother who was both a creative (via music and poetry) and a businesswoman (via real estate), I understood at an early age that I would never just do one thing; I understood that I was a multihyphenate but at the same time did not know what to do with this realization. Fashion and creative writing were both mediums that allowed me to tap into my creative spirit early on, but it was not until college that I learned how deep my love for self-expression ran through me. I started participating in poetry slams while in school at the University of Northern Colorado in Greeley and quickly learned that I could get so much from this experience; I found a new way of expressing myself, particularly expressing the things about myself that felt hard or heavy to deal with, I discovered that I found solace in the stage and all kinds of performing arts, and I found a creative community that took me as I was. This community brought me closer to myself, helped me to understand how deeply musical I was and set the stage for my adult life and all the many paths it would take.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Smooth is not the word I would use to describe my life’s path. I often call myself spoiled in the way that I never saw my family having to struggle for money, and could usually find a way to get material things that I wanted, but many of my deepest struggles were internal. Dealing with mental and emotional health without really understanding what that even meant at a young age made it difficult for me to connect with those around me, and eventually, this lack of connection took its toll on my creative life. Going to college right after high school with very little understanding of what I wanted to do in my life or how I would even spend my college time, I put myself in a very fickle position, focused on so many things other than schoo, looking for validation in those around me and in my experiences. I found myself taking customer service jobs that would just drain me of all of my social energy and made it okay to seek numbness outside of that part of my life, but of course that honesty with myself came so much later. My younger sister who passed when I was only eight years old set off a strange domino effect in my life, especially because I didn’t recognize my mother’s struggle to deal with such an extreme tragedy until much later. On top of that, I came to realize that I had developed a deep disconnect from some of the best parts of myself, made other attempts at social connection seem disingenuous, and working all the customer service jobs in life only furthered this problem of pretending to be this false version of myself. For this reason, my mental and emotional journey feels less than smooth, but that is not always obvious to those who do not know me well.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
At my heart’s core, I am a vocalist and a writer of soul music and poetry commenting on my black experience and my journey of self-acceptance and self-discovery. I really just aim to give the clearest example of what it means to fully live life through all it’s intricacies. Through my art, I remind myself that what sets me apart from others is what connects me to my world.

Though sporadic, I am so grateful for all of my creative endeavors! I have worked with so many extremely talented artists, including Slake Dransky, Esu the Illest, Spectacle, Xue Castaño in our duo SoulRay, and even fronted the amazing Boulder-based band B-Love, with so much more on the horizon. As a poet, being a member of yhe UNC CUPSI (Collegiate Union Poetry Slam Invitational) team in 2016 was definitely my most public affair outside of our neighborhood slams. But there are some dope live performances to look forward to this summer (6.4.22 @ EastFax Tap on Colfax) and so much art that have, that I want to share with the world and with my community in a special way. For this reason I am so grateful to be involved in this publication and interacting with the community on another level.

Who else deserves credit in your story?
Ebony Bukari – My amazing mother who is one of the strongest people that I know. Seeing her take time out of her busy life to be an amazing mother to me and my siblings, while also running her own business, releasing albums, and writing poetry books, let me know that everything that I want to do is possible.

Corliss Case – My fiery grandmother who never lets anyone tell her what SHE is going to do has cared for me my entire life and set an example for me by being a truly unstoppable woman. It is her fire that keeps her warm and ready to create.

Michael Case – My sweet, intelligent grandfather. He is truly the backbone of our family and I cannot imagine a life without him. He has always seemed like the opposite of my grandmother, but once I got older, I learned that his strength, his fire, comes from a different place, a place of study, deliberation, a place of knowledge. He reminds me of how important it is to see my creativity as a study that can be crafted and cared for deeply.

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Image Credits
Sipar Saydaliev
Dyon Siregar
Juliana Moskow

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