(Jan 20, 2022) - Ra’anaa Brown, a graduate from the McEwen School of Architecture, will be honoured by the YWCA‘s 2021 Sudbury Young Woman of Distinction award. As a Laurentian student, she obtained her Bachelor in Architectural Studies (2018), and Masters in Architecture (2020). Brown is currently pursuing a PhD in Art History at Concordia University.
YWCA Sudbury is a charitable service organization that seeks to empower women and their families to reach their full potential in body, mind, and spirit through action, advocacy, community collaboration and education. Annually and over the course of the last fifteen years, the organization has honoured inspirational women in Sudbury who have positively impacted the community. About being a recipient of this award, Brown described the following: “I am so excited. I am so honoured. It feels so good to be recognized. I feel absolutely incredible. It all just feels so surreal.”
In 2020, Brown co-founded Sudbury's Black Lives Matter (BLM) chapter. Since the inception of this registered not-for-profit, Brown shared that she has felt more powerful as a Black woman. “Together, we feel so strong and so empowered….[BLM] is about educating one another to move the world forward and make it a better place….It’s about creating space to cultivate education and knowledge and create a safe space for one another for open sharing,” she described. “The BLM movement supports the fight against systemic racism predominantly towards the Black community. We have to let Black people speak for themselves.” For Brown, BLM is significantly more than a group of activists. “We’ve become this kind of family…. [Being] involved [with BLM] has been a beautiful journey.”
In addition to her work with BLM, Brown has been heavily involved in the Sudbury community in a variety of other ways. During her six years of education as a Laurentian student, she was a member of the founding group of the McEwen School of Architecture's Nuit Blanche. This event celebrates the growth and prosperity of the local Sudbury Arts scene. “I’m so proud of this work [having] co-founded Nuit Blanche. Art really brings people together and….Sudbury has worked so hard to cultivate the Arts which creates a sense of connectivity,” said Brown.
Brown has also played a leadership role in Sudbury’s Up Here festival. She’s been the festival’s Installation Coordinator since 2018, as has she volunteered her time as a guest curator. Exhibits she has recently curated, she explained, “have had the main goal of highlighting Black artists.” In addition to last year’s ETHEREAL a collaborative photography installation centralized around the theme of Black beauty, she and her friends Isak Vaillancourt and Sonia Ekiyor-Katimi, both themselves graduates of Laurentian, produced Into the Matrix: Unearthing Black Futures. This immersive multimedia experience allows for the contemplation of a tangible, afrofuturistic tomorrow.
Other recipients of 2021 YWCA Women of Distinction awards who have connections to Laurentian University include Renée Fuchs, Lisa Long, and Angela Vendette. Congratulations to all recipients.
Tickets for the YWCA Sudbury’s 2021 Women of Distinction Virtual Awards Gala can be purchased via EventBrite. More information can also be found on the organization’s Facebook.