About
R.I.S.E. Arts and Community Services (R.I.S.E.) was founded in 2012 by Randell Adjei–Ontario’s first and current Poet Laureate–to fill an absence in his majority Black Scarborough community. There were no platforms for safe, inclusive, meaningful self-expression for Black youth, and few opportunities to experience art performed by their peers and form a healthy community rooted in shared experiences and identities.
R.I.S.E stands for “Reaching Intelligent Souls Everywhere” and, over 12 years, we’ve become a platform for Black and Racialized youth to express themselves, develop their artistic practice and share their stories and challenges in a constructive way that opens new possibilities for growth – both in themselves, and in the community around them.
R.I.S.E’s mission is to create safe and inclusive spaces that foster self-expression and healing through the arts, and develop pathways to artistic achievement and professionalization for emerging artists.
Our mandate is to amplify young Black and Racialized voices to find new possibilities for self-expression and avenues for professionalization and employment in the arts through R.I.S.E’s extended network in Canada’s arts and creative sector.
Our Edutainment methodology empowers artists to create meaningful art rooted in experience, which, in turn, supports Black youth mental health, opportunities for self-expression through the arts, community building and avenues for professionalization and paid performance all support positive mental health outcomes. Through R.I.S.E emerging Black and Racialized artists realize that their words have the power and capacity to change the world.
R.I.S.E. is a community-led grassroots initiative. We are not simply an organization reaching out to an underserved population—we are that population, reaching up and supporting our communities through the arts.
Our Impact
R.I.S.E has become a pillar of the arts community in Ontario and a celebrated stage for Black and Racialized youth to develop their artistic practices, with many performers emerging as professional artists from these events including TOBi (Juno Rap Recording of the Year Winner), JP Saxe (Grammy Nominated, Juno Breakthrough Artist Winner), Lu Kala, Zak’isha Brown, Dynesti Williams, and more.
Since 2012 we’ve platformed 5000+ performing artists, gathered 35,000+ audience members, and paid over $1 million in artist fees—and we’re still growing.
We engage about 500 artists each year across our programming and produce 30+ events per year, providing opportunities and platforms for emerging artists.
Participants have said the following about R.I.S.E:
– “I took away so much from this program. The main things being how to put yourself out there with intention and purpose. How to not be afraid to express yourself and find your crowd and the people that like you for you.”
– “[R.I.S.E] was a transformative experience for me. It was a place where I started to feel accepted for being myself and being unapologetic. I feel more like myself as an artist and performer.”
