Grand Rapids-based musical artists T0LUWAN1, Lukungu and LoGo performed at the first Cave Night of the year on Wednesday, Feb. 18.
Cave Night is a biweekly event hosted and sponsored by the Student Activities Office (SAO). SAO director Jack Droppers describes it as a midweek time to “shed off the blues.”
Wednesday’s Cave Night performance, titled “Trust The Process,” was headlined by Emmanuel Odekunle and Baraka Shekanena, who perform under the names T0LUWAN1 and Lukungu, respectively. Droppers describes their genre as “Afrobeats meets hip-hop meets gospel.” Their music is primarily English, but occasionally mixes in Swahili. Odekunle and Shekanena are frequent collaborators who have co-released many singles together, beginning in 2023. At the event, they performed a setlist of original music with their band.
Odekunle, a Calvin student, gave credit to those who helped him in his career, saying, “I’m up here because of Calvin, and I’m up here because of Ada Bible Church.” He also recognized the other members of his band for their musical contributions.
Following the performance, Odekunle and Shekanena spoke with Droppers onstage about their process, inspiration and goals. When they arrange music together, Odekunle typically acts as a producer, fleshing out and refining ideas recorded by Shekanena.
For musical inspiration, Odekunle says he went on a “Christian music diet,” heavily featuring artists such as Hulvey and Elevation Worship. He says he also spent a considerable amount of time listening to his own music.
Shekanena said that his and Odekunle’s goal is to spread the word of God musically, and that their music is “downloaded from the Holy Spirit.” They say that in five years, although they may be in separate places, they plan on continuing to make music together. Odekunle added that they write about how they feel because they don’t want people to feel alone.
LoGo is a rock and roll band comprised of Calvin students and led by frontman Logan Gossiaux. They opened the event with a mix of both original music and covers of songs by Red Hot Chili Peppers, Eagles and Foo Fighters.
Last year, Cave Nights mostly consisted of open mic comedy nights, which were sparsely attended, says Droppers, but it has been revitalized this year. Wednesday’s performance brought in a much larger number of students than previous Cave Nights had.
Droppers’ mission as director of the SAO is to help students develop cultural discernment and grow in their capacity to appreciate the arts. To Droppers, we can either interpret life from a posture of scarcity, dwelling on not finding enough in the world, or from a posture of abundance, seeing all the good that life has to offer. If students at Calvin look at their time here from that posture of abundance, says Droppers, they will see that this is a unique time in their lives where they are surrounded by thousands of people their age, some of whom share their talents and interests. Droppers says that at Cave Night and other events, Calvin students will grow to appreciate the gifts God has given to their peers.
Droppers hopes that Cave Nights inspire more Calvin students to make music together. He believes that forming a live band is harder for college students today than in the past because you can have an entire band on your computer. He says he would be happy to lend out a drum set and make live music happen on campus.
The SAO has four more Cave Nights planned for the semester, with the next one being a showing of “Jurassic Park” on Mar. 4. Cave Nights take place on the Wednesdays opposite of Living Our Faith Together (LOFT) at 8 p.m. in the Hekman Library basement.
