St. Louisan Genera Moore considers herself a futurist.
A jack of many trades with an entrepreneurial spirit, she founded a global art brand called Ra | Naissance in 2021 while overseas, and she’s traveled the world hosting art exhibits across the U.S., as well as in Ghana and Dubai.
Now she’s planning to open a new exhibit in St. Louis as part of a fresh art tour centered on soccer legends that she hopes will bring healing to the St. Louis region. The exhibit will also showcase art in honor of St. Louis Mayor Tishaura Jones, she said.
She’s hoping to build connections and curate an art exhibition now, two years ahead of the 2026 FIFA World Cup. Six cup games will be hosted in Kansas City, including five group stage matches and a quarterfinal.
“Ra | Naissance is showing the world how to heal through the arts,” Moore said. “‘Ra’ is what they would call the sun in Egypt. So if you look at the sun, what does the sun do? It heals, it provides, it has this creative life force energy that exists in all things. And this is what this whole thing is about when it comes to a [soccer] renaissance. We’re honoring legends. We’re celebrating honoring legends and healing through the arts.”
Moore, 41, grew up in south St. Louis and graduated from Ladue High School in 2000. After leaving high school, she studied computer science at St. Louis Community College–Forest Park but left and went to Clark Atlanta University in 2001.
She spent two years there before transferring to Georgia State University, where she ultimately got her bachelor’s degree in business management. She’s the second youngest of her six siblings and the daughter of Cornelius Moore, who pastors the Fountain Temple Church of God in Christ near Fountain Park.
Moore said she’s passionate about the World Cup and the economic gains that can be obtained through it, by way of art. She completed an art tour in Ghana in 2022 during the FIFA World Cup called “Ghana Feels Good.” Through the tour, her art company Ra | Naissance honored world football greats, including Brazil legend Edson Arantes do Nascimento, popularly known as Pelé.
“It’s art that highlights the soccer renaissance, which is the No. 1 sport in the world and is rapidly expanding in the United States,” Moore said. “This year [2024] would be a perfect opportunity for St. Louis to have a pre-World Cup marketing strategy to attract tourists and international media exposure.”
Moore focuses on heart-centered communication, she said, which simply means she is following her heart. While preparing and planning for a global art tour, Moore said she noticed how things began to supernaturally line up for her. She pays attention to numbers and noticed how Argentine soccer star Lionel Messi debuted in the United States on her birthday on July 21, 2023. When you add 7 + 2 + 1, she said, that equals 10, which was Messi’s jersey number.
“The number 10 in the soccer world is the top player of the team’s jersey number,” Moore said. “Since that’s the most significant number I align with, it helps me to know that all these things are happening on my behalf. Following your heart, it will show you why going after your creativity and passions within you can unlock a world you didn’t know existed. But you can’t give up.”
But art isn’t Moore’s only trade. As a matter of fact, she didn’t get into curating art exhibits until 2021.
In 2009, she organized bookings for Janet Jackson to appear at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
“For them, a lot of people didn’t have contacts, and I kept my integrity and I knew how important it was to keep my word while working with people,” Moore said. “That’s how I was able to grow. It was about building relationships, that’s how it worked.”
She left after organizing that event and eventually moved to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates in 2011. Then she started booking different artists and entertainers at various events and helping other event organizers plan events. She worked as a live event manager with the government in Dubai from 2013 to 2014.
But soon after, she felt she hit her ceiling with planning events and left Dubai in late 2015 to pursue the automotive business, leading her to create an auto parts company called MotorParts Nation.
“Dubai is a big international trading hub,” Moore said. “A lot of people that travel from other countries would buy auto parts and trade, which is a huge source of revenue for Dubai.” She said she started going to networking events and connecting with people involved in the automotive industry, which included shipping in oil and auto parts to and from Nigeria.
In February 2018, Moore joined the National Black MBA and went on a trip to Ghana as a member. While there, she began sharing and selling her auto part samples while networking. She eventually partnered with Eco Bank to help mechanics get approved for loans to be able to learn financial literacy, as well as helping them set up retirement accounts. She also helped them get loans for diagnostic equipment and tools that mechanics need to fix vehicles.
She said her goal was to transform the auto industry. Moore made the move to Ghana official in 2020, she said.
With networking at the core of what she does, Moore eventually shifted gears again. While in Ghana, she was inspired to begin curating art by one of her colleagues who hosted a networking event and showcased work by a local artist, she said.
“I saw how amazing the art was, and began discussing ideas with him about how to showcase the work.” Within two weeks, they had curated an art event at a creative space in Accra, Ghana, called the Mix Design Hub — a multifunctional space that also hosts a restaurant. She came back to St. Louis in May 2023 and is now looking forward to curating a soccer-focused art exhibition in her hometown.
“I’ve organized concerts and other social and art events in Atlanta; Washington, D.C.; and Beverly Hills, but I’ve never done one here,” she said. “It’s time.
“Art exhibits can boost any city’s economy. If art built the world, then you best believe art is going to help build soccer, by honoring legends.”
