Ashley ‘Ifayomi’ Douglas is a Black multidisciplinary artist residing in Detroit, MI.

Ifayomi’s artistic practice lands in the mediums of wellness, film, photography, writing, and music. This ever evolving practice centers ritual, memory, self intimacy, prayer and how they can work to restore and nourish the Black and Afro Diasporic experience and identity. She finds inspiration in the layered stories and experiences of Black Femmes, African diasporic connections to water, ancestral magic, and what it means to find “home” whether embodied or in community.  Ifayomi uses her experience as a Writer, Reiki Practitioner, Yogi, Family Archivist, Sound Healer, and Aborisha, to synthesize the worlds of storytelling, intergenerational healing, art, and wellness.

Artist Statement

Ritual and collective healing inform my artistic practice. 

I aim to practice and center the intimacy of ritual in Black existence as a means of cultural preservation. In my own identity being Woman, Fat, Dark, Black, and Queer, it’s important to uplift practices that demand my being SEEN/VISIBLE as a sacred being. To me, highlighting the sacred nature of the "mundane" Black experience creates opportunities for depth. To take the power back from being overshadowed by displacement, anti-Blackness, inaccessible space, and oppression, my lens serves as a space for widening the scope of how we see and love one another, where honesty, connection and BLACK rituals contribute to our healing and liberation.

I often ask questions in relationship to the social and spiritual dynamics that inform the ways that Black people connect with one another. What are the small and large rituals we have that cultivate intimacy with one another? What is their impact? How do our individual rituals or lack of impact our collective movement and the collective ritual of healing? These questions have been consistent themes that have informed my view of my relationship to art, the space and place I inhabit and communities that I share identities with.