The Mosaic Rooms are pleased to host this night of music, poetry and screenings with Shiine Akhyaar, the leader of Somali hip hop group Waayaha Cusub and special guests. Waayaha Cusub met in Kenya after the members and their families had to flee Somalia in 1990s. They are led by rapper Shiine Akhyaar Ali. Their lyrics, aimed to persuade youth away from extremism, have seen the band face multiple death threats, injury and shooting.  In 2013 however they returned to their hometown and headlined the first music festival in Mogadishu for 25 years, bringing music and a message of peace back to this once musically vibrant city.

The event will also showcase a test screening of the feature film, Live from Mogadishu, which will be followed by a bi-lingual Somali & English Q&A with Shiine Akhyaar and film director Daniel J Gerstle.

The Somali Sunrise tour is produced by Waayaha Cusub and the US-based organization Humanitarian Bazaar. The events come as the finale of their global tour which began on August 5^th, 2012, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, climaxed with the Mogadishu Music Festival March 27-April 3, 2013, now culminating in the UK in spring 2014. The Tour’s ultimate goal is to persuade Somali youth through hip hop, Afrobeat, R&B, lyrics and culture to turn away from violence, peacefully resist extremism and look towards reconciliation and peace.

FREE, rsvp@mosaicrooms.org