Rashad M. Davis | From Finding Community to Creating Constellations

The first time Rashad M. Davis walked into a Gay Social coffee meetup, he almost turned around.

He had seen an ad, felt a pull, and then - like many of us do when we’re on the edge of something new - felt the hesitation creep in. He was looking for connection beyond apps and screens, beyond the comfortable routines that can sometimes keep us isolated without us realizing it. What he wanted was simple and huge at the same time: people. Real ones. A circle to call his own.

So he stayed.

And that quiet, personal, and a little terrifying decision became the start of something much bigger than a single meetup.

"What I was seeking was a core group of Queer men — and all other gender identities — to call my own. I went terrified and alone, and the rest is gay history.”

What Rashad found wasn’t just a calendar of events or a list of new acquaintances. He found community in the truest sense of the word: friendships that outlast seasons, conversations that deepen over time, and a sense of belonging that doesn’t ask you to edit yourself to fit in. He often says Gay Social didn’t just give him something to do; it gave him lifelong brothers, sisters, and dear friends.

And when you understand Rashad’s creative life, that makes perfect sense.

Because Rashad has always been a builder of worlds.

He is an illustrator, author, educator, and business owner but more than any title, he is a storyteller. His work centers equity, justice, imagination, and emotional honesty. He has illustrated best-selling children’s books, written award-winning stories about empathy and inclusion, and created characters and universes where young readers can see themselves as brave, magical, and worthy. His academic background in anthropology and language studies adds another layer, giving his art a cultural and historical depth that feels both grounded and expansive.

But Rashad’s creativity isn’t separate from his identity or his search for belonging. It grows directly from it.

That connection becomes especially clear in his upcoming exhibition, “Celestial Bodies,” on view January 27 through February 28, 2026, at Artworks Trenton, with an opening reception on February 7 from 6–8 PM. The show is not simply a collection of paintings and sculpted masks; it is a personal and cultural reclamation. Through vivid acrylic portraits and hand-cut wooden works, Rashad explores the intersection of Blackness and Queerness, two identities that society has often tried to frame as incompatible, but which he reveals as deeply intertwined and spiritually powerful.

While studying anthropology, Rashad encountered histories of indigenous African cultures that honored queer and gender-nonconforming individuals as essential to social and cosmic balance. Those discoveries shifted something in him. “Celestial Bodies” carries that revelation forward, celebrating ancestral knowledge while challenging the erasure left behind by colonial narratives. The pieces feel less like artifacts and more like living memories that serve as reminders that queerness has always existed, always held meaning, always had a place among the stars.

It’s art born from research, reflection, and lived experience.

It’s also art born from courage. The same kind of courage it took to walk into that first coffee meetup alone.

Today, Rashad’s relationship with Gay Social has come full circle. In 2025, he joined as a board advisor, bringing not only his professional expertise but the perspective of someone who knows exactly what it feels like to need a welcoming space and to find one. He helps guide the organization with the same values that shape his art: inclusion, empowerment, and connection across differences. He isn’t advising from the outside; he’s nurturing the kind of environment that once nurtured him.

And that reciprocity is what makes his story resonate so deeply.

Rashad didn’t just discover a community; he became part of the force that strengthens it. The friendships he built fueled his confidence. That confidence fed his creativity. That creativity now reaches audiences in galleries and bookstores and classrooms. And through it all, the thread remains the same: a belief that people deserve spaces where they can exist fully and be celebrated for who they are.

His journey is a reminder that growth rarely happens in isolation. Sometimes it starts with a small, nervous step into a room of strangers. Sometimes it unfolds through art that reclaims forgotten histories. And sometimes it comes back around in the form of giving others the same sense of welcome you once needed yourself.