Malik Adunni, Co-Author of Malik's Magic African Alphabet Hat: Leading with Kindness

In honor of our Season 3 Finale and Black History Month, we are fortunate to sit down with Malik Adunni, Co-author of Malik's Magic African Alphabet Hat.  Malik and I discuss the importance of leading with and embodying kindness even in the face of adversity, our love of pineapples, and the value of traveling!  We also discuss his journey of writing this book with his mother, which is an homage to his father who encouraged him to travel the world.

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Bio: Malik Adunni is a global connector, music maven, and co-founder of Gold Credentials, a platform that creates, collaborates with, and activates artists to work with brands to engage their fans. He has worked in music for over twenty years as a tour manager and event producer globally. He has helped produce three large-scale shows at Coachella and also worked at the Summit Series based in Utah. He is a proud alumnus of Los Angeles County High School for the Arts (LACHSA) and the University of California―Los Angeles, class of 1998. 

Malik serves on the Board of Directors of Beneath the Waves, a nonprofit research institute that focuses on ocean and shark conservation and has established numerous innovative art and marketing partnerships in the music and events space, including producing and launching the world’s first NFT (non-fungible token) for ocean conservation efforts. He is on the UCLA Entertainment Industry Cabinet and is a Brand Ambassador for both Puppies Make Me Happy and Thanks You Made My Day. He is on the Board of Directors of The One Heart Movement, a global movement that brings people together through a shared vision of unifying our national and global community to help us better overcome our challenges and support those in need. Both Malik and The One Heart Movement are committed to being a driving force for good that transforms lives through wellness and mental health. In all that Malik does, he aims to spread happiness and positivity through his involvement. 

Malik has lived in London, England; Cape Town, South Africa; Sydney, Australia; and even Japan, where he taught English as a Jet Programme teacher in Kishiwada, Osaka. He considers himself a Global Ambassador, having traveled to forty-four different countries. He is thankful to have been able to create a book with his mother in honor of his father and for how traveling has helped him create a universal family around the world. 
#RebirthTheWorld 

Oni Adunni is a retired associate college professor whose perseverance enabled her to obtain a master’s degree at age sixty-seven and to complete thirteen Los Angeles marathons after the age of fifty. She enjoys craft projects, cultural events, imparting wisdom, and travel. When Oni’s husband Abdullar passed away, her son Malik―who was encouraged to travel by his dad―wanted to honor him by writing a children’s travel book. Oni’s gift of rhyme that comes into her brain like torrents of rain made her say yes; therefore, this collaborative book is dedicated to Abdullar, who knew travel is magic. 

While Oni is a New Yorker through and through, she now lives in Los Angeles. She has four children, four grandchildren, seventeen great-grandchildren, and one great-great-grandchild.

Follow him and pineapple, Sir Henry!

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This episode would not be possible without the generosity of our sponsor, Duck Duck Books, an Asian American mama-owned publisher equipping parents with sustainable products that inspire a diverse worldview, cultivate emotional intelligence, and introduce language learning for their little ones. Learn more at duckduckbooks.com