Inspirations- An Interview with Ruby Singh

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - Inspirations: An interview with Ruby Singh Juno-nominated musician Ruby Singh recently returned to Cortes Island, both as a facilitator for the CASE Youth Leadership Conference at Hollyhock and to give a concert at Manson's Hall. In this morning's interview, he talks about his many forms of artistic expression, inspirations, and relationship with Cortes Island. Ruby Singh: "I find inspiration in a lot of different ways. I feel like we are all just small tendrils of creation, so the act of creation and the act of creativity are among the most natural ways of being. Other artists really inspire me. I am deeply inspired by ancestry and futurity at the same time, so finding ourselves where we are in this timeline of inheritance from our ancestors, and what we are thinking about leaving here when we leave. Long timelines really inspire me, and deep time is a very inspirational thing. I get a lot of inspiration from my community, from the people around me, and from this more-than-human world that surrounds us." Cortes Currents: What brought you to Cortes? Ruby Singh: "Years and years and years ago, I think it was Mook and Monique who invited our band to come up and play. It might have been the late ’90s, maybe even ’98, and we played over at the Gorge. We had a band called Sapna. Who was the fantastic woman who ran that bakery there for a long time? Truda baked us a cake on our first arrival, and then after the gig we were shuffled off over to Channel Rock, spent some time there, and instantly felt the gorgeousness of this place. In the ’90s and 2000s, a few of us went to Carrington Bay and camped out there for a while because it was so beautiful." "We’re looking back over 25 years now. Every August I’m usually back, because that was when we were doing the youth camps. I love coming here in August and just being here, close to the water and the forest, and having a great summertime on Cortes." Cortes Currents: I was reading the bio the Cortes Island Academy provides for the CASE Youth Leadership Summit. Tell me how your work is at the intersection of social justice, the arts, capacity building, and systemic change. Ruby Singh: "I have worked in social and ecological organizing and education for over 20 years—working within education systems, within detention centers, and within universities and colleges, running workshops. There’s really something powerful about being able to express our stories and have them listened to. That moves into an idea of agency and being able to move in the world. My artwork has those things at the basis of creation, but I am also just coming off working with all the young people today."