We were lucky to catch up with Azmera Hammouri-Davis recently and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Azmera thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Can you talk to us about a project that’s meant a lot to you?
Thank you for having me. There are so many young people who have experienced trauma in their life. I am no different. But so many people out there feel like they are alone in battling with their mental health.
My album, Young Spirit Old Soul, examines my own process of healing my inner child, recovering my true self amidst the blows of pain and the instability that came with a tumultuous childhood. (https://azmeramusic.bandcamp.
This album is special to me because I released it after I’d done everything that society deemed acceptable. I graduated with my Masters from a top institution like Harvard, I secured a professional job, I’d accomplished these external things, but that didn’t necessarily satisfy my soul. I wanted something more. I wanted to be challenged. I decided to make this project not because I had to, but because I wanted to, to make the little me inside happy. And it’s something I am so proud to have done, because years ago I never would have thought I could, and quite frankly lacked the confidence in myself at the time. My hope is that the album would provide an urgent message of hope for any youth experiencing self-esteem issues today
When I teach youth today, whether they are system-involved, or the first in their family to attend college, I try my best to be real/speak from lived experience. Despite humble beginnings, education and creative outlets like Capoeira, poetry, songwriting and music-making have kept me sane. Music is healing, and both the music, movement and meaning within the songs in Capoeira continued to be sources of reprieve, wisdom, and guidance.
The album touches on themes YSOS captures the duality of a Young Spirit living with an Old Soul. It takes listeners on a journey through my imagination as an older sister, daughter, veteran residential advisor, observer, thinker, & prayer-warrior. The album explores the ins-and-outs of healing with soul-soothing melodic riffs, joy and humor as weapons amidst the throws of economic instability, substance abuse, and violence.
Like vinyl, it has two sides.
The first 5 songs depict Young Spirit (side A), and experiments with irony as I play with samples of light-hearted, club bounce and trap beats to rap about unconventional topics like navigating the ivory tower of as a first-generation college student, undoing the patriarchy, self-determining, wealth building mantras, and owning your creative visions of justice.
The last 5 songs are Old Soul (side B), and they depict more heavy-hitting themes with a serious, nostalgic tone, drawing inspiration from “soul-trap”, “chipmunk-soul” and 90’s boom bap that reflect the challenges of managing mental health, childhood trauma, breaking generational cycles, and calling on ancestral wisdom for guidance needed to light the path forward.
Each song is inspired by writing from black women thinkers, listed in the respective descriptions.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
Healing and justice is at the center of every song I make, every podcast I create, every article I write, every program I design and workshop I collaborate on and/or teach. I feel incredibly honored to do this work.
I’m originally from a small town called Kea’au on the Big Island of Hawaii and I was raised between there and Pompano Beach, Florida. I’m a daughter, sister, lover, aunty, believer. I’m from a very tight knit family and believe that strengthening youth, families and communities is at the heart of real societal change.
My work meets leaders and learners at a variety of stages in their healing journey, and helps them expand their sense of peace, possibility and play in their personal and professional lives.
This looks like conflict resolution consulting for organizations, mediation for individuals and families, facilitating healing sessions or group circles and individual creative strategy, strategic advising, spiritual life coaching and recently started to make very accessible birth chart readings to help folks increase their awareness of self and others.
I focus on finding ways to answer the question: How can we create containers for radical joy and learning to help leaders enhance positive team cultures & create healthy home and workplace environments?
I speak to diverse audiences on topics about:
1. The Hard Truth About Conflict Resolution
2. Redefining Confidence: 5 Spiritual Practice Imposter Syndrome
3. The Life-Changing Power of Courageous Conversations
I founded Break The Boxes (breaktheboxes.org) in 2016 and have found deep joy in teaching, facilitating healing circles for people experiencing grief, leading workshops focused on The Capoethic Method (TM) across the U.S., Brazil and Palestine/Israel to support system-impacted youth through healing-centered pedagogy. During the pandemic we shifted to hybrid programming and I am proud to say that on an independent, listener supported budget, we have published over 20 podcast episodes that are available on all streaming platforms with listeners in 14 countries and counting.
Creatively, I make music, perform, and offer spoken word poetry workshops.
Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?
My mission is to restore hearts, heal minds, and re-ignite souls toward that which breathes the deepest joy and most fulfilling light inside of them.
As I heal myself, I come that much closer to helping heal the world. To me, that’s how we can bring about justice, peace. It first starts with radical self-acceptance and love. To then be able to have the courage to see self inside of the “other”, and love them, too.
What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?
The most rewarding aspect about being an artist is finding my own voice, my own truth, and stepping into the courage it takes to walk-in my power and authenticity. We all have something special to contribute to this world. Being an artist and/or creative person allows me to center that purpose behind everything that I do, and that is a true gift. Knowing that you can never go wrong as long as you are true to yourself, creates the possibility of living into a world in which I am in a genuine loving relationship with myself, the ones I love, and any who I may cross paths with.
Creativity is the language I speak with my ancestors. It’s a weapon against cynicism, defeat, and all that tries to drive division, fear and separation.
I am blessed to create. I create because I am blessed.
Contact Info:
- Website: linktr.ee/azmerarhymes
- Instagram: @azmerarhymes
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/azmera.davis
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/azmerahammouridavis/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/azmerarhymes
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCz5VMi2AlQbL2qDP2Wg8esQ
- Other: podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/70lCY9s8ekQMB484hxKcbV