R&B/Soul singer-songwriter and producer Daniel Caesar, accompanied by poet and singer Mustafa the Poet and singer and musician Tamino, performed a free pop-up concert and answered questions from fans in Fort Dupont Park on Oct. 15.
Caesar, whose name is Ashton Dumar Norwill Simmonds, announced the event mere hours before the performance on his Instagram account, posting coordinates to the pop-up location and the caption, “DC, I’ll be here at 4:30 with my guitar. Let’s see what happens.”
Fans showed up to the surprise event by the hundreds, sharing grins and tears while listening to the performers, equipped with only simple microphones and acoustic guitars.
Caesar and Mustafa the Poet, or Mustafa Ahmed, explained that they are driving across the country, stopping en route to record songs and perform shows, which Caesar explained was “more important to [him] and it makes [him] like [his] job more.”
“Music is an innately collaborative act,” Caesar said, before explaining how his experience of growing up in predominantly white Toronto suburbs opened his eyes to the power of different types of music.
Caesar also said that he feels pressure to abide by the wants of his fans as a performer.
“You’re trained to give other people what they want and to not do what you feel like doing… I’m doing this here because it’s what I really want to do,” Caesar said.
Ahmed discussed love and boundaries in his work, explaining that love is supposed to be a mutual, freeing notion. He added that many have deeply ingrained expectations of others, but such expectations can sometimes hinder that love.
“The reality is with [love] comes an expectation for that feeling to be stimulated or fulfilled in some form,” Ahmed explained. “I think it requires us to push the boundaries of what we imagine is a free love.”
Caesar fan Papa Kojo Danquah, an American University freshman in the School of Public Affairs, explains that they found Caesar’s music in 2020 and were hooked after one song.
“It was worth it,” Danquah said. “It was serene, it was calm… It looked like it was straight out of a movie.”
After concluding the Q&A, Caesar closed his performance with a slow, acoustic version of one of his top charting songs, “Get You,” with a quiet audience singalong.
This article was edited by Jesscia Ackerman, Marina Zaczkiewicz and Abigail Turner. Copy editing done by Luna Jinks, Ariana Kavoossi and Emma Brown.
