Visions of Afro-Futurism from the 1970s
Friday, 15 November 2024
7:00pm CST
The Art Institute of Chicago
This event will be held as part of the Society’s Many Musics of America event series.
Damon Locks has conducted research in the archives of Sun Ra and other legendary African American musicians to recreate and sample the performance styles, costumes, and sounds of music from the 1970s. In this talk, Locks will explain the work process that has inspired these re-creations. He will explore how Afro-futurism reflected Black liberation movements, and explain the relevance of those movements today. The lyrics of these songs often describe fantastic journeys into outer space or transformative experiences and are accompanied by music that seems to lift the audience into a transcendent state through repetition, chord changes that suggest “rising,” and futuristic sound effects. This music was gratifying because it took people out of the everyday at a time when they were frustrated by ongoing struggles for civil rights and fair treatment. In the talk that begins this program, Damon Locks discusses his creative practice and use of music from the past. Afterwards, a performance by members of the Black Monument Ensemble will demonstrate the re-created music.
Tickets: $15 per person.
Conference attendees may purchase tickets via the AMS Annual Meeting registration form. If you have already registered for the annual meeting, you may purchase your ticket via the special events add-on form. Tickets are available to the general public through Ticketspice.
Performers
Damon Locks is a Chicago-based visual artist, educator, vocalist/musician. Since 2014 he has been working with the Prison and Neighborhood Arts Project at Stateville Correctional Center teaching art. He spent 4 years as an artist in residence as a part of the Museum of Contemporary Arts’ SPACE Program, introducing civically engaged art into the curriculum at Sarah E. Goode STEM Academy High School. He currently teaches Improvisation in the Sound Department at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Damon leads the Black Monument Ensemble, is a member of New Future City Radio, Exploding Star Orchestra, and co-founded the band The Eternals.
Originally conceived as a medium for Chicago-based multimedia artist/educator Damon Locks’s sample-based sound collage work, Black Monument Ensemble (BME) has evolved from a solo mission into a vibrant collective of artists, musicians, singers, and dancers making work with common goals of joy, compassion, and intention. Galvanized by Locks’s conceptualizing, poeticizing, and guiding vision, the contributors represent the richness and diversity of Black artistic excellence in Chicago. Together they weave unique perspectives and experiences to uplifting, anthemic, and highly animated musical performance. Two albums and a pandemic later, Black Monument is on the brink of recording their third album. BME is a multi-generational collective whose members range from 13- 55 years old.
