who i am

i am an artist and culture bearer who holds more than a decade of experience in community-based facilitation and design. i collaborate with people and communities who are committed to co-creating a just, future world. in my work, i am concerned with cultivating access, accountability, and cooperation within and beyond my communities.

Much of my work visualizes what Black liberation and Indigenous sovereignty might look like beyond our current conditions. i am a multimedium artist and culture bearer who mostly works in traditional craft, visual art, graphic design, and education.

i am a descendant of the Yoruba people and an enrolled member of the Narragansett Indian Tribe. i reside on my ancestral homelands with my partner and our child.

gender pronouns: xi/xem/xyrz or they/them/theirs
view CV
An arch-shaped portrait of k. funmilayo aileru in a seated position under purple and pink studio lights. The portrait is captured from an upward tilt, meeting funmi’s downward gaze.
photo credit: E. Charlot

core values

solidarity across struggle

i believe that access to art and accountability in design needs solidarity between different people and diverse communities. Coalition building ensures that creative problem solving and expression considers how an array of lived experiences and identities might be impacted.

honoring the land and labor

Honoring the land and labor begins by acknowledging our history and culture of dispossession, exploitation, and genocide. i believe honoring the land we occupy and the labor accompanies it instills us with wisdom and insight on how we might approach art and design in more humane, generative and sustainable ways.

experimentation and expansiveness

Social change is preceded by challenging oppressive culture. i believe creative practice must be experimental and expansive if we are to develop alternative ways of being that promote healing and justice.

Aerial photograph of the 'All Black Lives Matter' street mural in Kennedy Plaza, Providence, RI.
photo credit: Stephen Cooke

interested in working together?