'Anybody can rap': Monday Rap Night connecting Calgary youth at Arts Commons

An Indigenous-led rap night is helping bring Calgary teens from diverse backgrounds together.

It's 5 p.m. on a Monday night and the room begins to fill with young people. The pizza arrives and the conversation starts.

While they all come from different backgrounds, they're part of a community thanks to Monday Rap Night.

Dwight Good Eagle Farahat is the founder of the Tribe Artist Society and for the last two years has been hosting Monday Rap Night at Arts Commons. He says the society is an Indigenous-led agency.

"We have a meal, then we have a circle where we do a smudge, it's a native way of praying," said Good Eagle Farahat.

"Then we usually have a workshop that might be on how to write an invoice, or how to write a song or microphone control, like anything on arts and then we have a cypher, which is just a sharing of songs or thoughts that you just make up on the spot."

Good Eagle Farahat says his main goal for doing this is not to make everybody into a great rapper but rather to create a community and make sure they have somebody to call when they're in need.

"There's not a lot of sober places for people to do hip hop," he said.

"So we wanted to create that because there's a gap, especially as native people and it's not just native people who come here, everybody comes here, so we're a sober place where hip hop lives that's for everybody."

The nights are typically well attended by more than a few dozen people and Good Eagle Farahat says that's because the music genre helps participants form connections because it is based on four things: peace, love, unity and having fun.

"Literally, rap changed my life," he said. "As a youth, I struggled a lot and it played a big part in changing myself and how I saw myself and it also got me in the helping field as a social worker."

Jahdayl Spence is the program coordinator with Arts Commons and says the partnership is made possible by funding from the Nickle Family Foundation.

"This is very important for us because this program offers a space for community to be built," said Spence.

"It's a place where people can come and express themselves, share like or common values and it's a safe place that's accessible because we are located downtown and can be accessed through transit, car, or walking."

Maverick Dumali connected with Good Eagle Farahat seven years ago when he was a timid teen writing poetry.

"I just asked Dwight, ‘What do you think about these poems?’ he's like, ‘dude, spit it out in the mic,’ and I said ‘Okay, I'll try,’" said 21-year-old Dumali. "At first I was obviously shy, I was like a kid, I didn't know what to say but then at some point, I just started improvising, saying anything, no one was expecting anything like a community to come out of it but here I am, I was 14 when it started, now I'm 21 and still hanging out with them."

Isaiah Peacemaker, 28, comes to rap night to get behind the mic and share his talents with the group. He was introduced to rap at six years old by his cousins with ‘Today Was a Good Day' by Ice Cube, and he was hooked.

"That just blew my mind, it spoke to me as a kid and as I got older I just got more infused in it," he said.

"It took me a while to mature and realize that I don't want to chase people or things anymore, so I'm going to do things that make me happy, so coming out and doing something that makes me uncomfortable is something that's going to help elevate me personally, and I think it does a lot for the young guys here too."

Peacemaker feels comfortable with the group because he says everyone lives diverse lives with many different experiences to share.

"What rap is for me, it helps me express the way I feel because most of my life I grew up in low-income areas," he said.

"I'm First Nations, I'm Blackfoot, so grew up Siksika and a lot of times I relate to the music, I relate to hip hop music (more than) any other genre."

Harry Casey, 25, is from New Zealand. He arrived in Calgary in March 2023 and hooked up with rap night a few months ago. He's not a regular but enjoys the company.

"It's not like an awkward community group," he said. "We do the smudge and everything and being from New Zealand I'm fairly familiar because our Indigenous people do similar practices, so when I came here I was like home."

Casey says some days he'll be feeling down but when he joins the gathering it turns his mood around and leaves him more connected and grounded.

"I am a professional musician outside of this as well with a band," he said. "So as well as viewing it as a community space, I view it as a space to sharpen my techniques and my practice."

Good Eagle Farahat says rap night is inclusive and for people of all abilities.

"Anybody can rap, anybody can freestyle, if you can talk, you can freestyle," he said. "There's even a guy who comes here named Professor X, he can't talk and he still raps so he types it out (on a computer) and then we'll rap it for him."

Learn more about Monday Rap Night on the Tribe Artist Society’s website.