The Milarepa Fund is an American non-profit organization that raises money for and promotes awareness of the Tibetan independence movement .
14-493: The Milarepa Fund was founded in May 1994, by musician Adam Yauch and activist Erin Potts. The fund was named after the 11th century Tibetan singer- yogi Milarepa , and was originally intended to distribute royalties from Yauch's Beastie Boys ' 1994 songs "Shambala" and "Bodhisattva Vow", which had sampled the chanting of Tibetan monks , to support Tibetan independence. The first action for
28-460: A founding member of the hip hop group Beastie Boys . Besides his musical work, he also directed many of the band's music videos and did much of their promotional photography, often using the pseudonym Nathanial Hörnblowér for such work. Yauch founded Oscilloscope Laboratories , an independent film production and distribution company based in New York City. As a Buddhist , he was involved in
42-545: A hip-hop trio, released their first album Licensed to Ill on Def Jam Records when Yauch was 22. He directed many of Beastie Boys' music videos, often under the pseudonym Nathanial Hörnblowér. In 2002, Yauch constructed a recording studio in New York City called Oscilloscope Laboratories . He began an independent film distributing company called Oscilloscope Pictures. He directed the 2006 Beastie Boys concert film Awesome; I Fuckin' Shot That! Beastie Boys had sold 40 million records worldwide by 2010. In April 2012,
56-671: The Milarepa Fund , a nonprofit organization devoted to Tibetan independence and organized several benefit concerts to support the cause, including the Tibetan Freedom Concert . In 1995, while attending a speech by the Dalai Lama at Harvard University , he met his wife, Tibetan American Dechen Wangdu. They married in 1998 and had a daughter the same year. In 1998, during the MTV Video Music Awards , when receiving
70-762: The Tibetan independence movement and organized the Tibetan Freedom Concert . He died in 2012 from parotid cancer , after which Beastie Boys disbanded. Born in Brooklyn , New York City, Yauch was an only child. His father Noel was an architect, and his mother Frances was a social worker. Yauch's mother was Jewish and his father Catholic, but he had a non-religious upbringing in Brooklyn Heights , Brooklyn. Yauch attended Edward R. Murrow High School in Brooklyn's Midwood neighborhood . In high school, he taught himself to play
84-529: The Video Vanguard Award , Yauch condemned America's wars in Muslim countries and prejudice against Muslims and Arabs. In July 2009, Yauch was diagnosed with a cancerous parotid gland and lymph node . He underwent surgery and radiation therapy , delaying the release of Hot Sauce Committee Pt. 1 until 2011 (when it was renamed to Hot Sauce Committee Part Two ) and canceling the trio's planned tour. He
98-618: The American artistic or literary heritage". He directed the 2008 film Gunnin' For That #1 Spot about eight high school basketball prospects at the Boost Mobile Elite 24 Hoops Classic at Rucker Park in Harlem , New York City. Yauch produced Build a Nation (2007), the comeback album from hardcore/punk band Bad Brains . When Bad Brains released Into the Future (2012), the band dedicated
112-644: The Milarepa Fund put on a two-day concert in San Francisco 's Golden Gate Park called the Tibetan Freedom Concert in 1996, which raised over $ 800,000 for Tibetan exile organizations . The success of the concert spawned a Free Tibet Tour that summer in conjunction with Students for a Free Tibet (SFT) and the International Campaign for Tibet (ICT). Other two-day concerts similar to the 1996 Tibetan Freedom Concert followed in 1997, 1998, and 1999. In 1998,
126-416: The Milarepa Fund, SFT, and ICT organized a protest for Tibetan independence on Capitol Lawn, claiming an attendance of 15,000. This Tibet -related article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Adam Yauch Adam Nathaniel Yauch ( / j aʊ k / YOWK ; August 5, 1964 – May 4, 2012), also known by the stage name MCA , was an American rapper, bassist, filmmaker and
140-423: The album to Yauch, their longtime friend and backer, who had died several months previously. In addition, Oscilloscope Laboratories also distributed Kelly Reichardt 's Wendy and Lucy (2008), Oren Moverman 's The Messenger (2009), and Lynne Ramsay 's We Need To Talk About Kevin (2011). Yauch was a practicing Buddhist . He became an important voice in the Tibetan independence movement , creating
154-418: The bass guitar and formed Beastie Boys from hardcore punk band, Young Aborigines, with John Berry , Kate Schellenbach , and Michael Diamond . They played their first show—while still a hardcore punk band in the vein of Reagan Youth —on his 17th birthday. He attended Bard College for two years before dropping out. His stage name, MCA, is an initialism for "Master of Ceremonies Adam." Beastie Boys,
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#1732858169206168-490: The fund was during the 1994 Lollapalooza tour. Because the Beastie Boys were co-headlining the tour, the Milarepa Fund set up information tents to pass out pro-Tibetan independence pamphlets throughout the tour. Some fans were receptive to the pamphlets, but others were hostile, and later blamed Yauch's interest in the Milarepa Fund for the late release of the Beastie Boys' fifth album, Hello Nasty . Expanding upon that idea,
182-569: The group was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame . Yauch was inducted in absentia due to his illness. His bandmates paid tribute to him; a letter from Yauch was read to the audience. In 2011, Yauch received the Charles Flint Kellogg Award in Arts and Letters from Bard College , the college he attended for two years. The award is "given in recognition of a significant contribution to
196-458: Was unable to appear in music videos for the album. At the time, Yauch described the cancer as "very treatable". Yauch died in Manhattan , New York, at age 47 on May 4, 2012. In his last will and testament , Yauch left instructions that his music could not be used in advertising, though the legal validity of such an instruction has been questioned. On May 3, 2013, ceremonies were held to rename
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