DJ Young Wavy Fox

As I return back to this work of RAGGA NYC Features (interviews) I would like to thank the countless creatives, photographers and dreamers who believe in this mission and have made this project possible. It takes a village. When I started RAGGA I set out to find queer/ ally Caribbean icons who had been there the whole time on these dance floors and gallery openings with me in hidden, plain sight. Time and time again I kept finding out who was Trinidadian but I never knew or who had Jamaican parents and just never spoke about it. These interviews are a way of archiving a community. Way of telling our own stories “for us by us”. It is a way of continuing to place our stake in the ground. We are here. We have been here. They will never erase us again.

For this beautiful interview Sebastian Avery (the talented photographer for this shoot) and I (Neon Christina founder of RAGGA NYC) went uptown to the South Bronx, NYC to meet with Dj Young Wavy Fox. RAGGA has booked and worked with Dj Young Wavy Fox for years so this interview, like a lot of these conversations in the RAGGA Feature collection, is overdue.

Thank you for the transcript/ editing help on this Christopher Walker.

Christina: Hey boo! Thank you for joining me today. So we can kick off with the basics: name, island/ heritage, background, and craft. 

DJ Wavy Fox: Heyyy! My name is Kaysy Johanna Gotay. My DJ name is DJ Young Wavy Fox.

I'm Garifuna, which from my research means “to trade in gold”, and my people are from Mali Empire, West Africa. We migrated to St Vincent in the 1600s. We settled in St. Vincent for a minute and then, you know, obviously the Europeans came in wanting to take over the land, so we had a 30 year war called the Black Caribou War or The 30 Year War. We basically fought the French and British so that we wouldn't be slaves.

Christina: The French AND the British?!

DJ Wavy Fox: Yeah. Some stories will say that the British were our allies in fighting the French. A lot of confusion, but what I know is both of y'all was playing...

Christina: In my face! LOL. And what you will not do today is…! 

DJ Wavy Fox: LOL. Thirty years is a long time to war, ya know? Long story short, nobody really won the war. A lot of people died on both sides, and the conclusion of that war was to get all the darker skin Garifuna people off sent the island. So, we dispersed into Central America. If you see dark people in Belize, Honduras, Guatemala, Nicaragua, they are more than likely Garifuna people.   

Christina: Let me tell you how much I love that you know that and that you are out here telling that motherfucking history! So often, just to pivot for a second, when I talk about this project, people are like “well, what if my parents are from Georgia or whatever? Or I don't know where I'm from? Your project is all about roots but what about if I don’t know my specific roots?” and I'm like, wait a minute… Black people are from all over this globe. We've been pushed all over the globe. We've also migrated all over the globe on our OWN accord. There is power is knowing that blackness is expansive. RAGGA NYC is just a highlight into one way in which to dive into that idea. Through history, conversations and looking into family ties which we often want to turn away from.

DJ Wavy Fox: That's how we connect, because we love culture. We love our culture specifically. We dig deep, you know? We're like little historians in a way. 

Christina: Sometimes I feel like I'm doing the most, but history can be so beautiful and inspiring. It's not all just slavery. There is beauty. There is culture. Yes food and music but also power… resistance! We've been misinformed as people for too long. You know what I mean?!

DJ Wavy Fox: Exactly

Christina: Tell me more about your craft? 

DJ Wavy Fox: I'm a DJ. I have my e-commerce site, Wavy Fox NYC. Everything 50% off right now! Lol. I'm a sister, I'm a daughter, I'm a friend (most days). Some days you need to hold down just yourself. 

Christina: I remember one time you were telling me about going to a Guatemalan village and doing a video documentary. Can you talk about that trip and what that was?

DJ Wavy Fox: I started filming a documentary in 2018. It about me going to a small village called Livingston, or La Boga in Guatemala where I’m from. I went during a time were my people reflect but also celebrate. A time where we, the Garifuna, were dispersed after the war. We first settled in Honduras and then we dispersed all throughout Central America. It’s like our Independence Day. We went to all different parts of Central America at different times and different destinations. A ton of people settled in Honduras. Some in Belize and in Guatemala. For my set of Garifuna people we celebrate ours in November. I think Belize celebrates it a few days after us in November, and Honduras celebrates theirs in April. It was so powerful be there during the holiday. During my time there I recorded Garifunan art, clothing, the variety in beautiful skin complexations and so much more. I was there and thought “my friends back in NYC need to see this!” so I started to captured footage and came up with the idea while there. To show my people.  There are so many different accounts of Garifuna people on the internet that are false. It's wrong. It's written by white people that visit once, talk to a few idiots, think that they got the story and then spread lies. Just like the Haitians, we wasn't with that slave shit! But of course the tribes of Garifuna people who will tell you the strong history of resistance Western media purposely doesn’t interview. Thing is if people knew that niggas were fighting back, you wouldn't start your whole history off as “I was a slave…”. We were something way before that. Your people were something before that. Greatness to be specific. But if you don't hear those stories, of course you're going to start your history at what you were taught in American schools.  Even my mom, she be like “Kaysay, your grandparents are still alive. Stop going to the club. Go spend a night with your grandma, ask her mad questions.” So, I try to live by that. I'm just tired of other people having the narrative of what they think our people are. I know through oral tradition, I know with research, and I know through my bloodline who I am, what I am, and we need to take control of our narratives. I applaud you Christina for doing that because you do that with Haitians, Jamaicans and with RAGGA NYC at large so well. We must do it. Like if I wasn't a bad bitch, I'd be a social studies teacher. Lol.  

Christina: Lol. Thank you! That is so powerful and beautiful. I love that you are taking your time to build that archive. The documentary is so important and should be handled with care. 

DJ Wavy Fox: Yes! Oh and I’m working to build a festival there too! We should work together in some way on that. I see all the work you're doing in the Caribbean itself with Connek JA in Jamaica and thought you might be interested. 

Christina: Yes! I’m down! Of course! My thing is: there's so many Black and Brown Caribbean people in New York. Why aren't we the major plug to organize, send resources back and pull in our global family in a real way? Not just individual family barrels. Even Miami, Toronto, and London, you know what I mean? These are hotspots for our people. There is abundance and resources in these places even by proximity. What are we doing about real change across the globe as a global family to lift up and spread love? Let's do something. 

DJ Wavy Fox: Absolutely.

Christina: How has your background affected your life and work? 
DJ Wavy Fox: Well, I'm first-generation Garifuna American. My mom and dad got here as teenagers. They didn't really finish high school or speak English so they really thugged it out. My mom was a healthcare worker, like a home attendant, and my dad to this day still works at NYU as a janitor. When you grow up on Cypress Avenue in the South Bronx, one of the poorest districts in the United States, it is hard. Like textbook, statistic hard. Jonathan Kozol wrote a book about my neighborhood. It’s a lot. I suffered a lot of trauma. I’ve seen friends stabbed and shot in the head. It’s been a lot. I thank God every day that I'm still here. I know my ancestors are protecting me, literally.

The divide amongst black and brown people also always was hard for me to witness and get through as an Afro-Latino. I’ve dealt with some much from my Spanish people. Often latinx people don’t look at me as Spanish even though I'm Afro-Latino. My whole family, their first language is Spanish. But to the Spanish, Puerto Ricans and Dominicans, when I was growing up it was “bitch you ain't Spanish”. So it's was like, damn. Where the fuck do I fit in as a Black Spanish girl? You know? Over time I got over all of that but it took time. My parents regardless of everything always told me to have pride in who I am and where I’m from. My mom always had a “stunt on a bitch” mentality. “You are Garifunan. When you walk, walk with your head up, put your back straight.”

Christina: This is also why I wanted to come back to doing this interview, feature work. RAGGA is six years old. When I first started doing it, people were like “ooh… pretty pictures, some interviews quotes and parties!” but I always questioned if people were getting into what RAGGA interviews were saying at length? The dimes RAGGA family members are dropping. Sis!… You are dropping KNOWLEDGE! 

DJ Wavy Fox: lol thank you

Christina: Ok. What is a dream project or move that you are in the process of doing or that you want to do? The documentary is one of them already in the works that you talked about but else?

DJ Wavy Fox: I really want to do is have my own museum installation. I want to do it where each room will represent a part of the African diaspora. We would have Haiti, Jamaica, Guatemala, Garifuna, a Brazil room and so much more. I’d have a mix playing of all the different sounds of these countries and you would hear how the drum connects us. It would touch all the senses with food, art, smell. That's what I am manifesting. 

Christina: I love that! Spread the knowledge. Spread the culture. Blackness is and has been expansive. We BEEN outside! It means a lot that you are so about this work. We come from some bad motherfuckers. It can't just stop at Rihanna and patties. We love Rihanna, but there's so much more.

DJ Wavy Fox: And we are not the minority. We are the majority. Literally around the world, there are more brown people than ever. You must be mindful of false narratives.

Christina: And it reverbs. It vibrates throughout generations. 

DJ Wavy Fox: Even with our spirituality. They’ve made it so we're afraid of your own African spirituality, and that is our greatest power in this Western world. You need your ancestors. You’re going to need niggas on the other side saving your ass.

Christina: Girl, people think Voodoo is “chicken bones and needles in dolls” Like wtf!? Voodoo freed black people and sparked the Haitian Revolution! This is why artists like you are inspirational, because if your audience isn’t going to do the research themselves, you’re going weave it into your art. Same with me. 

DJ Wavy Fox: Exactly. I used to do mixes where I would cut quotes into the mix. I know people want to dance, but you're going to learn something today! Lol. People loved it. 

Christina: Do you have an intern?

DJ Wavy Fox: Nothing. It's just me. 

Christina: How in the hell?... 

DJ Wavy Fox: I know. I think I got ADHD. lol

Christina: How do you schedule all the things? Basically, you're running four businesses, yea? 

DJ Wavy Fox: Well the average millionaire has seven streams of income, so how dare I think I could have one or two and think I'm okay. No. You need help with your credit? Go to CreditWaveNYC. You need some lingerie and some swimwear, go to WavyFoxNYC. You need a DJ, hire me. You've got that coin; I am at your call. That's what we doing.

Christina: Iconic 

DJ Wavy Fox: I fuck with you heavy Christina. I love everything you stand for and everything that you do.

Christina: Sis that means a lot because, I've been stanning on you for some time. It couldn't just be on the internet anymore or in passing at the club. I’m glad we finally got to talk.  

Photography by: Sebastian Avery