FAWZI

CEDAR COMMISSIONS SPOTLIGHT INTERVIEWS

Over the next few weeks we’re featuring the six artists of the 2022-2023 Cedar Commissions (taking place Friday, February 17th, and Saturday, February 18th at The Cedar) in a series of interviews on our site. The Cedar Commissions is a flagship program for emerging Minnesotan composers and musicians made possible with a grant from the Jerome Foundation.

In 2022, the first year that The Cedar was open from January to December since 2019, these artists began crafting their commissions with a bit more normalcy on the horizon, but a lot of strangeness, newness, and darkness in the rearview. They’ve been composing, exploring new ideas, and assembling teams of musicians to bring their work to fruition on The Cedar’s stage later this month. Over the two nights of the Twelfth Annual Cedar Commissions, audience members will witness performances about the existential threat of petrol, the importance of protecting and embracing Somali youth, how to find meaning in the indescribable, how to listen to the song of the planet, an illustration of journeying gender transition, and a depiction of the soul-body reunion after trauma.

Our fourth spotlight interview in this year’s cohort is with Fawzi (she/her). Fawzi is a DJ and rapper. Her creation for the 2022-2023 Cedar Commissions Caruurteena is a mournful invitation to Somali parents and elders to witness harsh and heartbreaking truths of fentanyl abuse amongst Somali youth. The title translates to “for our children.” Fawzi compassionately addresses the topic of drug addiction and asks if we can place the stigma aside in order to save the lives of these young people. Fawzi spoke with Twin Cities music writer Youa Vang about her steadfast commitment to music-making, her visioning, and the hopeful impact of this work in Somali communities.

“I asked myself when I wrote “Caruurteena.” What is it that I’m trying to portray? The whole song is about me crying, mostly to the parents, “There are kids dying. Mom, where are you? Dad, where are you? Aunties, where are you? Uncles, where are you? Our kids are dying every day. Why are we not talking to the kids?” It’s gonna be very emotional for me, because whenever I get to the mic I always cry. ”

— Fawzi

Youa Vang (she/her): What was your initial goal with your Cedar Commission?

DJ Fawzi (she/her): There's this crisis that's happening in the community. It's happening everywhere in all of the Somali communities, there's this pill called fentanyl. It’s hurting a lot of kids, and youth in our community. The numbers are rising up to more than 300 and it's very hurtful to see. I've had friends and family members that are affected by this, and it's very close to me. I asked, “How can I help as a community member, as a community leader? What can I do, and how can I bring this epidemic into the world so we could help each other and the communities can help one another as well?” I am well known and respected. For me, it’s about healing. I'm a counselor and I love music. I do a lot of counseling in the community as well, so I felt I wanted to reach and create music at the same time.

I wanted to write a song about it, and I named it “Caruurteena” where I'm crying out loud to the parents, to the community leaders, “Kids are dying every single day. Every day the kids are dying, what's going on? What can we do about it as a community to come and heal our community?” I want to make sure I can voice myself through my music.

Youa: Is the song geared more towards the community or is it geared more towards the outside world?

DJ Fawzi: It’s outward facing towards the whole world, but it's gonna be through my language. I'm singing and rapping in my language. Have you watched or heard the song “We Are the World”? That was my visual where I went to connect with other singers, I can connect to Somali singers and other community members who were musicians. It’s so we can come together and cry out loud. It's hurting a lot of people to see this.

Youa: Are you doing all the composition yourself? How has that been going?

DJ Fawzi: The toughest part was finding the right beat, because I wanted something that was soulful. It was about finding the right beat, and it’s more emotional. I know a lot of producers that I work with in Africa via Zoom or Whatsapp. Finding the right beat was the most challenging part. For the writing part, I do work with a group team of people who are helping me bridge everything together to make this a very powerful project.

Youa: How far along are you in the process? Are you pretty close to being done? How is it coming?

DJ Fawzi: I’m pretty close to being done. I'm in the studio. I'm connecting to a lot of the artists. There are some that are in Africa. I’m calling them and they are sending their work to me to make sure that the pieces are mixed and mastered the right way.

Youa: You're a DJ, but what's your specialty? Is it to curate music or is it to write music, what do you enjoy doing better?

DJ Fawzi: Creating. I like getting into the process of writing, but I like to work in collaboration. I have a vision for something, and I hear the beats. That’s when I bring in people to come and get my vision out.

Youa: Who have you worked with on this project so far?

DJ Fawzi: So far I have been working with a lot of Somali artists. I am trying to see if I can get some well-known artists in the community.

Youa: Are you the one steering the project or does it change when a new artist comes along? How does that work?

DJ Fawzi: Since it’s my vision, I steer the project, but they're very appreciative of what I'm trying to do. I'm working with a guy named Mohamed who went through this process. He was addicted to drugs, and then got himself out of it. He has a powerful story and ended up starting a company where he helped a lot of kids. He does a poem with a guy who's gonna do the portrait. When the song begins, my vision is for him to come on and do one or two minutes of poetry and talk about his story. It will help a lot of people to understand it. It will help the community a lot. We start with the poetry, and then we're gonna do something called Buraanbur, a traditional Somali dance. It’s where a group of people come together, mostly women, and they dance in circles. Then I come in and I rap, and I mix some English in with Somali.

Youa: When you approached Mohamed about this, was he hesitant about sharing his story?

DJ Fawzi: He's very open because he does a lot of interviews about the subject. He has a podcast, so he actually interviews kids who are going through the stuff right now. He’s very open about helping and saying, “Hey, if anything you need, I’m here to help.”

Youa: Why do you want to talk about this? Why not talk about something else that might be easier? Why was it important to you?

DJ Fawzi: Number one, this is something that should be talked about. The Somali community is very secretive. If you are going through pain, people don’t want to talk about it. Nobody has ever written a song about it. A lot of the youth are dying, and the parents don't know how to communicate with the kids. Because our parents are from Africa, we are very hesitant about talking about drugs or other stuff, so the kids go outside into the community — to the world — and look for drugs to take away their pain. Being a female DJ, it was very hard for me, but now it's accepted. A lot of female DJs are coming out and doing the same thing, so I feel I have to lead the way. If something is uncomfortable, I like to come out and say, “Hey, I want the community to come together. I could do it alone, write the song, sing to the beat, and be done with it, but I want the community to be involved.

Youa: What did you run into when you first started making music?

DJ Fawzi: Being a Muslim Somali woman, they're not used to that. You should be a doctor, you should be a lawyer, you should do that. I got my Bachelors in psychology and I’m doing my Masters. But music, to me, is healing. I've been doing music since I was very little, even when I was in Africa. I felt this was something I'm passionate about. I should go full force. I decided to do something that can make a difference. My first song I wrote was about being a Somali woman. I wrote about Hawo Tako, who was a leader back in the day. My music has to have a message behind it. I want to make music to make a difference.

Youa: I saw that you played piano as a child. Did your parents put you up to that, or did you decide that you wanted to do it?

DJ Fawzi: No, it's weird because my parents didn’t want me doing music. It’s not something that I can explain. It’s not something they’re fond of. They want me to be a psychologist and leave music alone. I feel music found me. When I was very young, my mom said when I was three years of age, kids were asking for toys, and I was asking for a piano. She didn’t even know what a piano was. When I was in elementary school — it was an all girls school that was sponsored by a Japanese school. They were looking for girls who could play piano. Somehow I was drawn to it. I would sit down and play and my family didn't know anything about it. I played for a long time, and I pushed myself to do it.

Youa: What do you get from music, why do you feel it heals you?

DJ Fawzi: When I listen and when I perform, I'm at peace. My family had tried many, many times to tell me to give up music, and I did. It was very painful. That was when I decided it was something I loved to do, and I was going to do it. Somebody else might not understand it, and it's okay. I got to that point that I told myself it's okay to reach for this.

Youa: When you're writing, how do you write about things without being too preachy?

DJ Fawzi: It has to make sense. I asked myself when I wrote “Caruurteena:” “What is it that I’m trying to portray?” The whole song is about me crying, mostly to the parents, “There are kids dying. Mom, where are you? Dad, where are you? Aunties, where are you? Uncles, where are you? Our kids are dying every day. Why are we not talking to the kids?” It's gonna be very emotional for me, because whenever I get to the mic I always cry. That's what I do in the song when I perform. It's gonna come to me, I can't help it. It's a very emotional song.

Youa: In the Somali culture you don't talk about your problems?

DJ Fawzi: You talk about problems, but imagine somebody coming to you and saying, “Mom, I'm on drugs.” That’s the most shameful thing ever. Even getting pregnant, having a boyfriend — all of that is a “no, no.” The community doesn't even talk about sex. I have two kids right now, 15 and 13, and I talk to them about every single thing. They're helping with the project so they can become educated. I’m educating them about drugs. I wanna show that too. I want to do a podcast on the side, and it's going to be my kids talking to each other about things. That's gonna be uncomfortable too, but then I wanna want the community to know that we have to talk to our children. If we don't talk to our kids at home, they're going to be easily influenced.

Youa: Why do you think you are more comfortable talking to your kids about that stuff? What benefits have you seen?

DJ Fawzi: I got pregnant when I was in college. I couldn’t talk to my parents about anything, not family members. It was either my friends or whatever strangers that I could talk to. If I could have talked to my mom or my dad or to anyone of my family members, it would have been different. Every decision I made, I had to make it on my own.

I'm trying to teach my children you are not alone. Talk to me about anything. It's okay.

Youa: What do you want to see come from the Cedar Commission? Do you wanna see more or open dialogue in the Somali community?

DJ Fawzi: The outcome I want to see is I want it to continue. The Cedar is right there, and the Somali community is right in the middle.

Every Saturday, I would DJ outside with the kids for a couple of hours. The kids would come and dance and talk to me, and I would tell them, “Hey, you, you're amazing, you always play a lot of healing songs?” I want to continue that and work through music and show the community that it’s okay.

Catch Fawzis performance of Caruurteena premiering live at The Cedar on Friday, February 17th as part of the Twelfth Annual Cedar Commissions. Buy tickets here.