On Feb. 22, Oakland based artist Adimu Madyun, otherwise known as WolfHawkJaguar performed at Skyline College in the campus theater.
This event was part of the series of events organized by Skyline College psychology professor Dr. Tony Jackson, as part of his preparation for this year’s Black History Month, which involved planning the various events and successfully managing to book two Bay Area artists to perform on campus.
“We started back in June 2012, securing all the spaces and the artists–that kind of stuff. I worked on the planning preparation in the fall and it all come through in time for two of our artists but not in time for another artist,” said Dr. Jackson, referring to the fact that there was meant to be one more concert with another Bay Area artist, but due to scheduling conflicts, they were not able to perform on campus as part of Black History Month.
The first artist to perform at Skyline College as part of the month-long celebration of Black History Month was Feb. 7 and the second was by Bay Area artist WolfHawkJaguar and proved popular with the small crowd present at the theater to enjoy the show.
However, the performances were not only by WolfHawkJaguar; present also were friends that he’d met along his journey such as Olu 8, who he’d met in South African, shot footage of the concert and sung by his side during the show. Word Slanger, also a vocalist, performed onstage alongside them.
On instruments was ‘A Band of Hunters’ Kele Nitoto, who played the congas, and Chris Paxton, who played the drums.
The concert was successful, as the performance’s sound flooded the theater with their mix of African spiritual, hip-hop, reggae, rhythm and blues music.
“The type of music we do is ‘hunter poetry’ and when I say hunter, I’m talking about the hunt we all go on in life to get to the level of achievement we want to be at,” said WolfHawkJaguar. “Everyone is hunting for something: they’re hunting for love…they’re hunting for wealth or knowledge of self…so our music is the poetry that accompanies the hunt that everyone goes on…That’s our whole purpose of our music is to put the poetry to the music to help people advance to higher levels of achievement in life.”
And help the audiences it did, as was evident at the end of the show with WolfHawkJaguar talking to the crowd at the end of the show, up at the main lobby of the theater.
“It was definitely a blessing being here today, coming to share our message of peace, prosperity and positive progress universal vibes with people here at Skyline College,” said WolfHawkJaguar after the show. “Anything that we can do that… gets them inside of themselves is a beautiful thing, so it was a wonderful performance. And it’s always a beautiful opportunity to come out here to Skyline.”
WolfHawkJaguar isn’t only a musician, he’s also an actor and filmmaker, with experience in both gained over the years since he began his music career in 1995. While in South African, where he met Olu 8, and others, with whom he would create the group “Hair Do” and were able to enjoy “a good five year run” said WolfHawkJaguar, before returning to the states.
Currently Adimu Madyun most recent manifestation as WolfHawkJaguar, as part of his solo career, released his first album ‘Hunter Poetry’ last year in July. The album was released as the soundtrack to a film of the same name that he is starring in, illustrating his musical journey of discovery of the African Spiritual Tradition of Orisa and the impact that it had on him as an artist.
WolfHawkJaguar album ‘Hunter Poetry’ is available on iTunes for $10 or at http://www.393films.com/online-store.php for $12.
“We needed more numbers (today) and I would like to see way more students’ attend these concerts but the students who were here today was good” professor Jackson said, in an interview at the end of the event, referring to the fact that only a small group of students showed by for the event.
“Even though we weren’t big huge megastars the music still took us every place we wanted to go” WolfHawkJaguar said.
Black History Month or better known to everyone as February and was created in 1976, when the federal government expanded “Black History Week” to the full month of February.
President Ford in response, wrote this on the subject “The last quarter-century has finally witnessed significant strides in the full integration of black people into every area of national life… we can seize the opportunity to honor the too-often neglected accomplishments of black Americans in every area of endeavor throughout our history.”
Skyline College Black History Month celebration opened with an event at the Pacelli Event Center, Daly City, before returning to campus for the rest of the month, with various events taking place overall campus ranging from building two, six, the Multicultural Center and the Skyline Theater.
A highlight of a few of the events, there was the ‘Emerging Heath Issues for African-American’, ‘Issues Facing American Veterans’, and the recent music performance at the Skyline Theater by the Oakland based WolfHawk Jaguar.
The last two events in celebration of Black History Month will be Feb.28 in the Career Center, Room 1219B, about emerging careers and upcoming tends, and deciding the winners of the essay contest, which was held as part of the celebrations of Black History Month.