Meet Rhys Caraway | Curator, Advocate

We had the good fortune of connecting with Rhys Caraway and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Rhys, how does your business help the community?
I had reached my peak with forcing my creativity into the boxes that came along with the job roles of working for someone else. I begin to feel like my career started to suffer because I didn’t have enough room to dream as big as I needed to in order to create the truth in the change I wanted to see. While I’m still new to entrepreneurship and the hustle that comes along with building from the ground up, I’ve learned how important it is to honor the evolution of my ideas and visions and I keep that in mind as I’m planning and growing.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
Saint Noir is a concept that I dreamed up during one of the most difficult times of my life. I had just lost my job and it felt like I had reached a dead end. Throughout my public health career, while working for other organizations, I had opportunities to curate community based events and I was able to witness how powerful the spaces I created could be. I had been told all my life that “your gifts would make room for you” and so I began to take that literally and started to declutter my mental and just allow myself to be present in every creative space that presented itself. By doing that, I began to learn that through my photography and the ability to bring people together in a way that could be transformative that my art had value and it deserved a space to exist and it would be my responsibility to create that space for myself as well as other QPOC artist, curators and visionaries. So now, I’m here in this current space birthing the Saint Noir brand that is a collective of artists and change agents who have the voice but not the platform. Those of us who know that their is strength in numbers and its our individual and collective work to achieve liberation.

I would want the world to know that Saint Noir was created because of pain and exhaustion, which sometimes we don’t always cease the opportunities and lessons that happen during our pain but if we choose to feel that for a moment and not let it overtake us that from these feelings come some of your greatest work.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Gloria’s in Midtown would definitely be one of my first stops, it’s one of my favorite brunch places. A few other stops would be Cooking With Flavour (another one of my favorites), Tout Suite and Throughgood which houses a taco truck called Soul Taco that I highly recommend. Culture HTX would be my top choice for nightlife and for more of a chill vibe, I would choose either the Contemporary Art Museum or The Museum of Fine Arts

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
I would first like to dedicate my shoutout to my 21 year old self who battled suicide. I would want for him to read this and know that everything will be just fine. There are so many people who have and still continuously pour into me. My pastors Rudy & Juanita Rasmus have been exemplary models of what it looks like to be selfless servants to some of our most vulnerable populations. Because of their leadership, I know what it looks like to love someone beyond the things that society will use to define a persons humanity. My friend circle has been my saving grace throughout so much of my life, they are incredible in the way that they show up for me in every area of my life. On the days where I don’t see it for myself, I think of my nephews and my niece and I know that I have work to do for the world that they will inherit. Lastly, my community, I stand on their shoulders. My passion for my community fuels my fight.

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Image Credits
Rhys Caraway Courtney Riley Ryan Sherman