We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Edward Eubanks a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Edward thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to hear the backstory behind a risk you’ve taken – whether big or small, walk us through what it was like and how it ultimately turned out.

We all have one thing that subconsciously circulates throughout our minds on any given day: survival. In today’s world, our survival and well-being are linked to monetary values. Following your heart, disobeying the status quo and speaking out of turn can leave the most talented creative looking for shelter and a consistent source of food.

Like me, if you grew up in the U.S. you’ve heard countless stories of people disobeying orders, following their dreams and finding success. For each of these success stories told I can recount twice as many stories of people doing the same to find they were unable to achieve their dreams.
The sheer weight of this “survival of the fittest” mentality was enough to deter me from pursuing my dreams as a creative. After highschool my twin chased their dreams around the country and overseas. Seeing how hard they worked to achieve their goals spurred me to take a screenprinting internship position at Alchemist Printing Co. This lead to me meeting and partnering with the owner of the minnesota based jamaican skate brand, “DUNTLK.”

6 years later after joining and partnering with the local non profit organization Young Kingdom (YKD) I found a team of like minded creatives and entrepreneurs who were equally focused on turning their dreams into reality.
Suddenly the risk of pouring all my spare time and money into projects that may never garner traction disappeared.
The feeling of anticipation and often times adrenaline that comes with walking into the unknown never goes away; however, with my team behind me I’ve gained the ability to turn these feelings into inspiration.

Here are two things to take away from my experiences that you can apply to your daily life:

Don’t stop dreaming and never stop taking risks.

Edward, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

For most of us, our creative journey begins at birth; however, I’ll focus on my time In high school when I became notoriously adventurous. I was enamored with exploring the hidden spaces within our communities, often coming across art pieces that unknown masters had spent hours or days perfecting. Some of my biggest inspirations then were artists WUNDR, KATER, SWAMPY and GATS.
At that time, I was inspired to create a clothing line that could only be purchased by meeting people wearing the brand in the community.

While learning the skills required to print and design my brand I got distracted. I was working 4 jobs, each helped me develop a skill that I directly benefit from today. I worked 7 days a week between Zumiez (to perfect my customer service skills), The Hampden Co-op (to learn about the community volunteer process), Alchemist Print Shop (to hone my screen-printing blade) and finally Burrigato- a small asian-mexican fusion restaurant started by two of my friends and ran by four of us.

Flash forward to the end of the pandemic, when I joined up with Young Kingdom (YKD), a team of creatives with the goal of opening studio spaces where youth can learn from artists in the community while exploring different creative outlets. In 2023, Dajhir Adams, the founder of YKD, and I opened our print shop, Red Pepper Prints LLC. There are benefits in having a creative team, especially when you are financially investing in your craft. Dajhir and I worked together to build and purchase the equipment required to screenprint, sew, tuft rugs, record music, and shoot videos. Our goal for Red Pepper Prints in 2024 is focusing on serving local companies and working with creatives who want to make their textile dreams a reality.

In addition to Red Pepper Prints, the DUNTLK clothing brand we’re managing is taking off around the city. The goals for the brand are to be the number one skate brand in the Midwest, strengthen the skate community in Minnesota by hosting monthly events such as barbecues and giveaways, and encourage Saint Paul skaters to visit skateparks in Minneapolis and vice versa. During the summer of 2023 the DUNTLK team went to Thailand and Japan to give away clothes we printed and designed and to find artists who might be interested in partnering with YKD.

What sets us apart from others?
We’re eager to find and work with all levels of creatives from the community. Whether we’re creating clothes for a local artist’s music production, creating a design for a store-front mural, or shooting a video to advertise a local event, our main goal is to include as many members from the community as possible.

I’m proud of the progress I’ve made so far in each of my pursuits, despite the lack of in-depth practical training.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

My mission is to counteract the negative energy that people are consuming and becoming addicted to. Feelings, Energy and thought patterns can all be addictive. With the increase in activity on social media and the decrease of in person interactions breaking out of these addictive patterns is increasingly difficult. On top of these factors many people no longer have a ‘village” or a thriving community they can be apart of.

Creating a space where physical, visual or performance creators can thrive and interact is the goal. What will this look like? A warehouse space with Murals and art on display, rooms where different creative mediums are being working with and instructors (community artists) can impart their knowledge to the next wave of creatives. I’ll know we’ve reached our goal when someone who has no idea how to channel their creative energy can join YKD and leave with the skills and opportunities to express themselves and live life as they see fit.

Any resources you can share with us that might be helpful to other creatives?

As crazy as it sounds the best resource available to you is the people who live with you in your community. A huge part of our society today revolves around the success of one individual. Many of us are told, “Leave when you are of age. Don’t prioritizing others, save yourself.”

These ideas are planted in our heads from birth causing us to be distrustful and uninterested in working together.
As a child I wish there were leaders in our communities telling us to get organized, get together and focus on how we can create opportunities within. My goal is to work together with my associates to find and place creative leaders at key studios and locations where youth can look up to them and the energy surrounding them for inspiration.

I cannot emphasize enough that my current success and the success of all my future ventures is riding on my ability to form lasting connections and be a positive, present member of the twin cities.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.redpepperprints.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/duntlk?igsh=MXdjMTI3azN4YjBpbA%3D%3D&utm_source=qr
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/eddo.eubanks.9?mibextid=LQQJ4d
• Other: DUNTLK Discord: https://discord.gg/4MT8ZqBp DUNTLK Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/u/DUNTLK/s/QxOe1O4LwR

Image Credits
dajhir adams, hayley shellum