Central to raya's practice is a belief in the transformative power of collective mourning. In a time of compounding crises, she offers grief as a political framework for understanding the roots of violence and seeding new worlds. In her ritual performance practice, she facilitates grief rituals as playful, somatic containers for alchemizing loss and choreographing alternative relations. As the daughter of multiple diasporas, she feels compelled to investigate how making new ritual can allow for a re-connection to place and collectivity within diasporic communities.