Bios

MOLINA SOLEIL

Molina Soleil is an emcee, poet, playwright and performance artist who combines his artistic abilities with his enthusiasm for activism and social justice education.  Molina offers a fresh academic voice with street credibility, insisting on being not only intellectually challenging but accessible. He works regularly with a broad range of young people, from elementary students to recent college graduates. He works to transcend race, gender and social class boundaries through both his academic and artistic work.

Molina’s work as an educator and activist reflects his complex upbringing and difficult life choices. Molina is a product of a Mexican immigrant father and a Chicana mother with roots in the San Luis Valley. He is a law school graduate from a blue-collar background. He chose to forego a career in law to follow his passions and do social justice work his way.

Mr. Molina began teaching college classes at the age of 24 and has designed courses on Chicano and Hip-Hop history and media justice issues. He also teaches high school classes through academic outreach programs. Molina is an outspoken advocate on a variety of issues he holds close to his heart.

Artistically, Molina follows in the tradition of Hip-Hop artists and activists who utilize music and entertainment to explore cultural, social, and political themes. His music pushes creative limits with poetic flows and provocative punch lines. Molina is a versatile lyricist who remains raw and uncompromising in his analysis of the times, but he also knows how to lighten the mood and bring smiles to people’s faces.

Molina has been touring the United States since March 2008, speaking to young people and performing in nightclubs and cafes, academic institutions, and schools and community centers. Molina joined forces with Aju early in 2009 and has been making music and touring with her since.

AJU

Aju is a multilingual vocalist, poet, dancer and visual artist who draws inspiration from her multicultural upbringing, channeling her passions to empower youth through the arts.

Daughter of a Japanese father and Norwegian-Irish American mother, Aju landed in the San Luis Valley Colorado highlands from Kawasaki, Japan, at age 11. By discovering her love of dance, Aju was able to ground tumultuous waves of cross-cultural identity crisis that she had faced as a youth. Her fascination for creative expression (language, semantics, cultural, visual and performing arts) led her to pursue cultural and linguistic studies in Brittany (France) and the Basque Country (Spain), and travel through Mexico and South America as a young adult.

Aju fuses her love of working with youth and the performing arts as a dancer, a singer, an active community member and an events coordinator. She has danced, choreographed, performed and taught with dance ensembles such as Mandala, Take the Lead, and The Dance Gallery Project. She has produced and coordinated events such as Peaces of the Uni-Verse: International Music and Dance Festival, The Real History of the Americas and a cultural symposium titled A Call to Reflection, Unity and Action: Our Responsibility to Mother Earth, advocating multicultural, environmental and social justice awareness. Recently Aju performed as a musician in an Off-Broadway production of The Vagina Monologues in New York City.

Much of Aju’s work draws from her perceptionist philosophy of life and love of all things that relate to the essence of fusion (fusion of styles, ideas, identities, and languages). Above all, she is an advocate for truth, self expression, respect for the earth and all living things. As a vocalist, Aju uses her rich and powerful voice to harness divine feminine energies, fuse multicultural identities through verse, and from time to time channel sacred language.

Since joining forces with Molina Soleil in early 2009, Aju has been traveling throughout the US, speaking and performing to a broad audience base and working intently with K-12 and college students. Currently Aju is working on a Soulaju accessory and clothing line – an ecological, fair trade and local-minded business – due to debut in summer 2010.