Interviewed by Mona Magno, a Teaching Artist and Program Lead of FEMpowered.

 

Mona:

I am here with a wonderful young woman, Edwina Maben. Edwina is a 20 year old from Philadelphia who is now currently studying Recording Art and Computer Science at the University of Colorado Denver. She has been a part of Youth on Record for about a year and is a part of FEMpowered, our girls program and the Fellowship, our intensive and comprehensive 10-month program for our advanced students pursuing creative careers after high school.

I have had the privilege to witness Edwina come into this space and explore her own art as well as teach other students. Not only is she an amazing artist but she has a great spirit in how she approaches art. She is one of our more advanced students yet she always finds the fun and curiosity in our lessons and workshops, which I really admire.

Edwina, how long have you been with Youth on Record?

Edwina:

So I found out about FEMpowered around April of 2018 and have been coming ever since.

Mona:

It's been a great time getting to know you this past year, since you've been coming to Youth on Record you've accomplished some pretty amazing things. What has been your biggest accomplishment this past year?

Edwina:

I really wanted to set a goal for 2018 to actually release music. It's always been very distant in the sense that I will write in my song book and I can play my songs on guitar but the idea of releasing music felt like a very different level from where I was at and I wanted to fill in that gap and let myself experience that.

Mona:

What is this album called and where can we listen to it?

Edwina:

It's called Contagious and it's on iTunes, Spotify and most streaming platforms. [listen to Contagious below or here]

Mona:

How has Youth on Record supported you in your art this past year?

Edwina:

First of all, when I first found out about FEMpowered, I think just being reminded of how much community impacts art. I go to school for music; I'm a Recording Art Major and Computer Science Minor at CU Denver and it's just classes. You build community in your classes for sure but to have something that's just collecting people not for a grade or not to impress other people or show off in a sense but just like “This is what I'm doing right now and this is me sharing it with people” and being brave enough to do that. I think at first it showed me the importance of community and how much I do really love community in music and how I wanna chase that throughout whatever I do. And secondly, letting me practice performing at events that Youth on Record is a part of and just letting me express myself or giving me that extra step to try… It’s been really fun.

 

Sometimes songwriting can feel really complicated but that moment it felt really simple and a good reminder to myself - "How much more can happen if you just take a step back and remind yourself of what you wanna write about and why you are doing it."

Mona:

Last Fall I had a young woman coming to me in FEMpowered and request a mentor for a school project about songwriting. I immediately thought of you and you happened to take it on, can you tell me about your experience working with this young woman?

Edwina:

Yeah, I worked with a girl named Nada. She had a project where she basically needed to come up with a song that expressed some of her experiences in the past year. It was really cool because the ideas she brought to me, a lot of them compared to the ideas in the first song I ever wrote. And this was her first song so I was like, “Whoa.” She talked alot about feeling like not fitting in or not knowing what to do in certain situations. I feel both of us connected in that and we both felt comfortable with each other to express those things in order to write the song. Just watching her being able to come up with her lyrics or if she didn't really know what to do we would just talk it out. Sometimes songwriting can feel really complicated but that moment it felt really simple and a good reminder to myself - "How much more can happen if you just take a step back and remind yourself of what you wanna write about and why you are doing it."

Mona:

What has been a highlight of your time here at Youth on Record?

Edwina:

I really had fun at the block party last May. I think that was probably the day where I was really in awe of how much community can take part, people come out from the neighborhood and listen to music. It's kind of cliche to say but the power of music being able to bring people together is always underrated in a sense… I feel like I have a lot of mental pictures from that day.

 

Find out more about the Block Party, FEMpowered, and the Fellowship!