PLEASE JOIN US FOR THE elastic arts 7th annual benefit!
May 10, 2025 @ 7pm

The organization needs community support to remain a sustainable space for creative music, art, and performance. This event will highlight many of the things that make Elastic Arts what it is, but most importantly we will celebrate togetherness.

If you’d like to chat, click on the YouTube logo on the video to head over to the Elastic Arts YouTube Page.

Schedule

7:00pm - Doors
7:30pm - Welcome to the Elastic Benefit from Executive Director Adam Zanolini
7:40pm - Silent Auction Announce - Place your Bids!
7:45pm - Haruhi Kobayashi + Paige Alice Naylor CLEAT Performance
8:30pm - Board President Aaron Rodgers Speaks
8:40pm - The Ooze
9:15pm - Elastic Arts Founder Sam Lewis
9:30pm - Elastic Achievement Award Ceremony w/ Tatsu Aoki
9:45pm - MIYUMI Project
10:45pm - End of Silent Auction Announcement (Ends at 11pm)
11:00pm - END

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2025 Elastic Arts Achievement Award

It is our honor to award our friend Tatsu Aoki with the 2025 Elastic Arts Achievement Award!

Each year we present the Elastic Achievement Award to an individual who embodies the qualities that the organization stands for – artistic excellence, innovation, the defiance of boundaries, contributions to the broader creative community – and whose achievements represent the best of what we hope to make possible by creating space to present creative, adventurous music, art and performance.

Tatsu Aoki is a multi-instrumentalist trained in traditional Japanese music, educator and experimental filmmaker. In his career as Chicago's Jazz and creative improvisor, he is mostly known as a long-standing bassist for Fred Anderson and he has also worked with George Freeman, and Von Freeman in the 90s. He’s been an integral part of our arts community for 20+ years, performing on all of our stages and fostering a strong relationship between his organization Asian Improv aRts Midwest and Elastic Arts. Not only will we honor him in person here at the benefit, Tatsu will be bringing along his long-running MIYUMI Project for a performance! This ever-evolving outfit is a cross-cultural musical adventure and one of the first Asian-American/African-American collaborative music projects to come out of the Midwest in the late 90s. This project highlights the traditions of Japanese taiko drums and the varied legacy of jazz music. The lineup often changes, but tonight will include Tatsu on (bass/shamisen), Mwata Bowden (clarinet, sax, didgeridoo, etc.), Edward Wilkerson Jr. (sax, clarinet, didgeridoo, etc.), Jamie Kempkers (cello), Coco Elysses (congas), Kioto Aoki (drum), and Mai Sugimoto (saxophone).

SILENT AUCTION

Head to this link to bid! Browse items below! art, records, experiences, food, drinks, highest bid wins!

Big thank you to record store/ label donors: Amalgam, Audiographic, Curio, Drag City, Hausu Mountain, Intakt Records, International Anthem, Nessa, Notice Recordings, Numero Group, Orange Milk Records, Pleasure of the Text, Pyroclastic Records, Relative Pitch Records, Relay Recordings, Triptick Tapes, and More!

Big thank you to our silent auction donors: Lisa Slodki Design, Gudrun Wendler, Blick Art Materials, Cristal Sabbagh, Douglas R. Ewart, Allen Moore, Lewis Achenbach, Sunshine Lombre, Helen Lee, Jordan Martins, Jeffrey Sanderson, Juliann Wang, Sonnenzimmer, MCA , Bang Bang Pie, Bim Bom Studios, Wolfbait & B-girls, Sleeping Village, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Field Museum, First Ascent Climbing & Fitness, King Spa & Sauna, LookingGlass Theatre Company, Music Box Theater, Old Town School of Folk Music Tickets, A Night at the Lamberson House Designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, Cellar Door Provisions, Chicago Architecture Center, and More!!

Performers

MIYUMI Project

The lineup often changes, but tonight will include Tatsu on (bass/shamisen), Mwata Bowden (clarinet, sax, didgeridoo, etc.), Edward Wilkerson Jr. (sax, clarinet, didgeridoo, etc.), Jamie Kempkers (cello), Coco Elysses (congas), Kioto Aoki (drum), and Mai Sugimoto (saxophone).

The Ooze

Our J e l l o dance series will present a segment from our new series curator Mya McClellan called The Ooze. This ecstatic program brings together some of Chicago's most vibrant dancers to share their unique solo work and then dive into a collective improvisation led by Mya.

Haruhi Kobayashi + Paige Alice Naylor

Tatsu Aoki Film Screening Room

Many Chicago music fans who know and love Tatsu's bass playing are unaware of his prolific career as a filmmaker. Tatsu first began making films in regular 8 gage in early childhood. He studied experimental filmmaking at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and is currently an adjunct Associate Professor at the Film, Video and New Media Department teaching film production and history courses. He has made a vast number of experimental short films and as much as his musical activities, Aoki's films are shown internationally. We will have a special screening room set-up at the event where benefit attendees can dig into some of Tatsu's experimental film work!