Cynn Adereti

Tell me a bit about yourself?

I am a Nigerian born Canadian in my 20’s. I have a passion for house plants, inspired by Covid 19 isolation, sobriety, and a new love for dirt between my fingers. In my past life I have modelled but want to come back to.

What neighborhood are you a part of?

Currently I am a part of the Bloordale/Bloorwest neighborhood. I havn’t really lived here that long to have any places of importance to me, and don’t really have any places of significance that I go to yet

What is your relationship with the rivers in your neighborhood?

Unfortunately I’m not connected to any water near me right now. I’m terrified of deep water, I find it calming when I’m not in my fright mode. I find I sleep a lot better with rain, and enjoy what water does for us, the sustainability and fuel of water. One day I would like to get through my fear of drowning so that I can be in water more often, I feel like that’s a connection missing. I am very much reconnecting with the land and myself a lot. It’s going in steps I think, first dirt and land, and then hopefully I’ll get closer to water.

I feel like I have always wanted to be around nature when I was younger, I would always be climbing trees and playing outside, but as I got older veered away from that, seeing it as gross/dirty. Though, living in the city from moving back here when I was 15 it was really difficult to find places where you can have those relationships that are close to where you live, or not get too distracted by city life. Forgetting that relationship is really important for your mind, body and spirit. With being in early sobriety, having things that I know are beneficial for me that are physical and tangible, aids in my spiritual growth. It’s really great to watch things growing as you’re growing, to know that what you are giving to the things you are growing they are also giving to you - a reciprocity.
Places that are missed:

I find that I’ve never really stayed in one place of the city for long enough to be able to explore, or feel like “a regular”, like even if I were to move it would be a space I would come back to. I;ve never had that. I’ve moved probably at minimum once a year, and haven’t really fallen in love with any particular place. The one place I can think of is Rec Room, the first time I began going to Yes Yes Y’all became a really big part of queer community when I first moved to Toronto. At that point I was still probably living in the shelter system, getting overnights once a month to go to this party right outside of Bathurst station, just the space inside, it was so fun and so queer and every single time you were there you’d be filled with so much joy. Even just being outside of it on days where it wasn’t the party, it was really special. I remember the first time I heard that the party was moving from that location I was like “noooo, why!?” I asked the organizers and the space just didn’t want to keep going in that direction or hold that particular space, it evened up turning into a house music white party. So that was it. That would be a place I miss.

Do you have a favourite Black author or poet? A particular book? When you think about this book, what was a part that stood out to you, impacted you —tell me about it

My favourite author is a poet named Rudy Francisco, love James Baldwin as much as I’ve read. Those right now are my two!