Inside Greenwood Park Gallery and Framing, 4233 W. Fond du Lac Ave., attendees gathered for a Mindful Mondays MKE event. There, a display of intricately carved fruits drew people in for a bite, as Imani Raiyne, founder of Kreative Fruitz, educated visitors on what fruit could become.
“I always say (it started) in my mother’s womb. I know that may sound crazy, but I was the only one of my siblings that my mother made a watermelon creation for her baby shower,” Raiyne said. “She didn’t do it for my other siblings.”
Mindful Mondays MKE is a community initiative that brings together residents and local business owners through events focused on networking.
Raiyne’s introduction to fruit art began at home with her mother, Gina.
Following her diagnosis of lupus at 11, one year after her mother’s own diagnosis of lupus, she became homeschooled.
As a part of her new curriculum, her mother taught her fruit art, combining nutrition lessons with art classes.
“January 2017 is when the lupus took my mother away from me, in the physical form,” Raiyne said. “It definitely was a very, very dark and rough time for me.”
Six months later, while creating a fruit display for her father’s retirement party, Raiyne found a renewed sense of purpose.
“I felt reconnected with my mother, and at that moment, I knew that this is what I needed to do. It saved my life,” Raiyne said.
What started as a special activity with her mother grew into a business. Raiyne officially launched Kreative Fruitz, offering catering, fruit arrangements and hands-on workshops designed to make healthy eating more engaging.
Almost nine years later, she’s still doing what she loves despite her limitations.
“I’m not able to just work a regular nine-to-five job because of my health. Doing fruit art has given me an outlet to be free to do what I want to do, when I want to do it and how I want to do it,” Raiyne said.
Through her work across Milwaukee, Raiyne said she has seen first-hand how unfamiliar people can be with fruits.
“I have been blown away at the amount of people that I’ve come in contact with in my nine years that have never had fruit before, but they try it with me,” Raiyne said.
Raiyne completed her National Nutrition Educator certification recently, with her goal being to help bridge the gap by making fruit approachable and creative for people, while remaining nutritious and educational.
“I’m not a magician or a medical doctor or anything like that, but I just try to help make people feel better,” Raiyne said.
Chrishella Roché, founder and owner of VIBEZ Creative Arts Space, recently had Raiyne teach a workshop on fruit art and nutritional education through the Together We Create program.
VIBEZ Creative Arts Space is for the community to explore art through all different mediums.
“She was very intentional and the kids really enjoyed it,” Roché said. “One of the fruits they tried was dragon fruit. It was new to some of the students, and that’s really what we enjoy, especially healthy snack options.”
As she expands Kreative Fruitz, Raiyne said she hopes to educate and empower Milwaukeeans, one piece of fruit at a time.
Jonathan Aguilar is a visual journalist at Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service who is supported through a partnership between CatchLight Local and Report for America.
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