Cultural Music Program for Somali American Youth

Since we began our project, Nimcaan Hilaac visited Moorhead for a weekend trip in March to provide in-person instruction in Somali songwriting techniques and composition to youth as planned. The workshop was a huge success: 29 youth attended! After his trip, AADA scheduled Zoom sessions every few weeks so that youth could connect with Nimcaan remotely, share drafts of their songs, and seek his feedback. So far, these Zoom sessions have also had impressive youth support: an average of 1 to 25 youth attend each time. Nimcaan also invited youth to attend the Somali American Cultural Show in Minneapolis that he performed at in June. Youth also performed their own music at North Dakota State University in a summer festival on Somali Independence Day.; At our interim report submitted in August, we shared having successfully served over 25 youth with culturally-attuned music lessons from Somali musician Nimcan Hilaac, first through an in-person workshop in Moorhead and then through a series of Zoom classes held in the following months. Nimcaan also invited youth to attend the Somali American Cultural Show in Minneapolis that he performed at in June. Youth also performed their own music at North Dakota State University in a summer festival on Somali Independence Day.

Since AADA's interim report, participating youth have only continued to flourish from our songwriting partnership with Nimcaan Hilaac. Zoom sessions continued on a regular basis and were supplemented by an unexpected chance to practice live with Nimcaan when he hosted a Somali's Got Talent show in Minneapolis and personally invited program youth to audition! AADA drove youth to the event, and afterwards they reported it was a fantastic way to practice their music for Nimcaan again and be immersed in a positive celebration of Somali talent and culture. We chose to not do our proposed year-end festival, but instead put on four small mini-festivals for youth to perform at by popular request. 26 youth attended the events, which occurred at our AADA's main office space in Moorhead and happened through September, and put on a show of their talents and musical creations to the applause and cheers of families and peers.

As anticipated, 100% of participating youth reported learning 1 new songwriting technique by the end of the workshop, over 80% reported feeling more connected to the Somali culture as a result of the project, over 75% reported making deeper relationships with parents and/or family elders as a result of cultural education brought by this project, and 100% actively encouraged friends and family members to attend one of our festival finales.