We were lucky to catch up with Rakaiya Araé recently and have shared our conversation below.

Rakaiya, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.

The thing I love the most about my crafts is that the learning is endless. From reading tarot to modeling I am constantly learning something new that helps me improve my technique. However I did dive deeply into the art of tarot, and I learned a lot in very small amount of time. That does not stop me from wanting to know more and is that is case for pretty much everything I do. I also feel like a big part of learning especially as a business owner is admitting when you’re wrong and thinking critically. When ever I come across new information that contradicts something I have learned I do not deny that information, but I do ask more questions. When it comes to creating art whether it be on a canvas, modeling, or a music my main goal will always be to express myself. Everyday I am learning of news ways to express myself creatively, and for me it’s because I want to continue to grow. In art there truly is no wrong our right way it just about finding your own way, and the love people give is just a plus. That is why for me I don’t think there is maximum amount of knowledge to achieve to become some kind of “master”. If I am constantly learning and evolving, so will the ways express myself through my various crafts.

Rakaiya, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

My name is Rakaiya Araé, but I would prefer if you call me Rae. I started my entrepreneurial journey in the summer of 2021 as a tarot reader. I have done so much more since then such as creating my business Araé of Sunshine, where I have my apparel and so much more. I started reading tarot because I had a few friends that pushed me to push myself. Honestly it is never something I thought would be doing, but once I found it I realized how much I could help people. I have always been inspired by Ghandi’s infamous quote “Be the change you wish to see” and I soon realized the change I wanted to be and already was. My mother always called my her a rae of sunshine, but what I didn’t realize is that even on my cloudy days I was still a rae of sunshine. This became my business motto because I want to help people realize that even on their cloudiest days they are a rae of sunshine as well. However in addition reading tarot I have an apparel line that features graphic art made by me on my website and I make music, and modeling as well. I also have the Araé of Sunsine AOS community garden in Ellenwood, GA. Recently I have been working with RaggStar Records curating various events, and managing their social media presence. That has been a fun venture that allows me to connect with many different artist and creative around the city. I think what sets me apart from other is my authenticity and my tenacious resilience to get things accomplished. I am most proud of how far I’ve come and overcoming all the things that have tried to set me back. I very excited to see what God has in store for me next, because I truly believe my faith has fully been a driving force in my accomplishments as well.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

I had to unlearn not asking for help and doing it all by myself. I think I had a hard time doing this because for me I felt like no one could understand the vision in my head. Honestly the way I got through this was just working on my communication style. In doing that I realized there will genuinely be moments where there is miscommunication, but I also had to understand the communication styles of the different people I’m working with. Helping out with various events at Underground Atlanta has shown me many different ways of working together to bring a vision to life. I also realized how much easier it is to do things with help than with out. It also is so much more fun working with other people, and I feel like that helps me stay out of creative blocks. This was not something that was easy I had to really dig deep and understand where I was going wrong in my communication, because it really is frustrating to have miscommunication especially when there are goals and deadlines.

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

My goal when it comes to creating is to help people realize they are a rae of sunshine even on cloudiest days you are still brining light to someone’s life. I want to help people who feel unseen feel seen because sometimes we are drowning and no one notices. The smallest actions and words we do for other people can truly make a huge impact on someone’s life. Even just the smallest amount of love you show towards some one else can really help them out. That is something I see all the time when doing tarot readings sometime people just need encouragement to make the decisions they know are best for their lives. I feel like I do that for people not only though tarot, but through art, music and modeling too. I feel as though sometime I am encouraging people to be their most authentic self despite of what other may think about it.      

Contact Info:

• Website: https://linktr.ee/araeofsunshineaos?fbclid=PAAaaHNfnPbM_nYwuu4kPgO9oNq59UCboaTJ-CCAYZH8n8z6WaLpUTDA0datY_aem_AVTaI2MEjOAfUoygqkfqPTdfzI0LFXrhrcZqNE7s7SueA8Aghln7KHBS_AgKR2nxSOE
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/araeofsunshine.lc?igshid=MjEwN2IyYWYwYw==
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/araeosunshinelc
• Youtube: https://m.youtube.com/channel/UCIk9SVpsE-_XPOPIKcGn5zg#bottom-sheet
• Other: https://soundcloud.com/aos-arae-of-sunshineee

Image Credits
@_rashad.Andre @thombess on Instagram and at Gallery 992.