Meet Waladi Ali

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

Hi Waladi, we’d love to hear about how you approach risk and risk-taking.
When I think about risk, I immediately and exclusively think about this past summer of my business. Whether it be purchasing supplies to venture out into unknown territory, or releasing the project of my dreams, plenty of uncertainties were daunting, and present.

Throughout my life, my opinion on risk has varied. Sometimes there’s necessary risks to be made, and unnecessary risks that are made. I wasn’t always one to stay in my comfort zone, though, unless it immediately benefitted me, wasn’t often quick to take uncalculated risks either. Ironically, with starting this business, risk has played a major part in our lessons and success. But without taking a chance on the unseen, nothing of fruition was bound to grow.

Surely, I completed “Justice Rain” officially over three years ago, and felt it wasn’t met with the reception I desired. And surely, two of our rather expensive tents for summer vending blew away and shattered, post selling. Plenty of reasons to give up and pivot in an entirely new direction out of fear and uncertainty. Though had that been the case, we wouldn’t have sold well over one hundred copies of our comic book this summer and provided our community with the ability to tell their story, their way, and provide the medium for them to be empowered by their voice. That, and much more, was certainly worth the risk.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
In my profession not as a visual artist, CEO, business owner, or anything associated with an outward label, has been beautifully difficult. My profession as a human being and growing spirit, has not been consistently pretty.

I do my best to put my one hundred percent effort into things that I truly enjoy, and if it is any otherwise, I may change my trajectory or finish as strong as I can. Even if it wasn’t art as my current career path, my “why” has always testified to saying what I have to say as unapologetically as possible through a creative outlet. I take pride in that. Though I’ve been learning to balance actually communicating things that may bother or excite me, without forcing myself to lean into the conduit of visual art or musical poetry.

I’ve found in the whole of my life, that if I’m not right with my spirit, and can get a good night’s rest, satisfied with the decisions that I’ve made in the preceding day, things will slowly begin to break down. So, I practice what I preach, in journaling, art healing, therapy, talking to family and loved ones, and being as honest as possible with myself, and the world around me.

If I had to impart anything to the world about my story thus far, is that everything is and will be okay in the end. And if it’s not okay, then it isn’t the end. We’ll air quote the preceding line because it’s not my original thought haha. All we can control is our responses to life, everything has the possibility of getting a lot better once we realize that.

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?
Funny! As of writing this I do have a best friend coming into town soon, we love you Mr. Martin. We are hitting downtown Denver at night to see the lights and the thrill of the city. We absolutely will need to bike ride, find a trail to visit somewhere in Boulder. And while I can list off a few of my favorite things in my city to do that I absolutely enjoy; I’d wager leaving the city or better yet the state for a fresh new experience. Plenty of places in Colorado I haven’t been so a staycation up North or far East can be in the cards, but leaving the state in exchange for a fresh new experience? Can’t be beat. By the by, anyone reading this at any point in the future, I’m learning French right now so I can go see Paris. This year or next year, hold me to it!

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
There are a multitude of entities and people that I would love to thank. My parents absolutely for curating my interests ever since I was old enough to hold a pencil. My Mother for supporting me heavily in my educational, studious, relational, financial and interpersonal aspects. And my Father for supporting me heavily in my spiritual, cultural, independent, mature and self-respecting aspects. My grandparents all the same. My incredible and supportive siblings. My beautiful cousins, aunts, uncles and all of the above. My brothers, here and passed. Colorado central community organizations that gave me a chance and trusted me with their will. All of my Atlanta cohorts and mentors that provided me a platform to curate my voice at Morehouse, Spelman and Clark, in particular as well my professor Louis Delsarte, may he rest peacefully. All of the people I’ve had relationships with in the past that may be no more. And to those I have yet to meet on this journey. I acknowledge and affirm you. We did this and will continue onwards.

Lastly a big thank you to Voyage Denver, Shoutout Colorado, Bold Journey, and Canvas Rebel, for helping me document this story for the last five years.

Website: wbaart.com

Instagram: @ida_law

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/waladi-ali-15289419a/

Other: Tiktok: @ida_law

Image Credits
Tiffany Medina Courthney Russell Justin Evans