Dark Matter Residency

The Dark Matter Residency supports emerging artists whose work challenges the hegemonic hierarchies of race through performance and visual representation. The Residency provides artists with a flexible, functional space for the development and presentation of new work, a robust professional network, professional development, mentorship, and financial support.

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The Residency serves Chicago-based, performing artists from a diverse range of performing arts disciplines including (but not limited to) music, performance art, dance, drama, poetry, film, multimedia, and puppetry.

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Residents perform in Dark Matter Series events, in Community Outreach events, in AfroFuturist Weekend, as well as other Elastic programs throughout the year.

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The Dark Matter Residency is supported by a generous grant from the Joyce Foundation, with additional support from the Reva and David Logan Foundation and the Richard H. Driehaus Foundation

MEET THE 2026- 2027 DARK MATTER RESIDENTS

Xavi Burgos is an artist, writer-poet, educator, and organizer, because their communities are fighting for liberation. They’ve edited the literary, culture, and politics magazines La Respuesta and Que Ondee Sola and exhibited multimedia installations at Instituto Sactar in Brazil.
They developed sexual health campaigns and branding for Broadway Youth Center and co-developed Afrorriqueños, a four-day conference for Afro-Boricua and Black arts, solidarity, and healing at Segundo Ruiz Belvis Cultural Center.
They’ve organized for housing and self-determination as a co-founder of ¡Humboldt Park NO SE VENDE/ NOT FOR SALE! campaign with the Puerto Rican Cultural Center. Xavi currently interviews future-makers for the art media project, Ricans on my mind. Collaborate with them: xaviburgos.com

Amari Amai (he/they) is a Black nonbinary storyteller and worldbuilder born and raised in Chicago. Amari’s work is rooted in oral tradition and archival resurrection on and off the page, using poetry, folklore, soundscapes, and performance to bend time towards a pre-colonial past and decolonized future.
Their work has received support and fellowships from Tin House, Chicago Public Libraries, Sundress Academy for the Arts, Hyde Park Art Center, The Watering Hole, Vermont Studio Center, and Celebration Theater of Los Angeles. Amari is the founder of Crossroads Writers Collective, a communal writing group for Black queer folks based in Chicago. As a 2025 Pushcart Prize and 2026 Best of the Net nominee, they are currently working on their own collection of original folklore and poetry, with accompanying live performances.

AQ, most known for rap, also began collecting vinyl, practicing turntablism, DJing, and making beats in the late 90's. He dove into noise via an interest in the vintage electronics that made early hip-hop and house music, often incorporating loops, scratches, grooves, and occasional raps into performances.
Hear more on Bandcamp at aq-il or on YouTube at mraquil.

udochukwu anidobu (she/they) is an Igbo-American artist, landscape architect and DJ born and based in Chicago whose work physically and sonically challenges our understanding of African and diasporic landscapes, traditions, and ecologies through an exploration of traditional crafts, music and lived experiences.
Her work is a deeply layered fantasy rooted in a nuanced understanding of landscapes, ecological and environmental systems, and their impacts on the birth and development of culture, traditions, and our built environment.

Nova Zaii is a drummer, music producer, educator, and sonic experience designer from Chicago. Zaii (like "sigh" with a "z") invented and patented a touchless musical instrument called the Nova Portals. He performs genre defying, futuristic live sets, making music out of thin air with the Nova Portals while knocking satisfying rhythms on drums to his original music.

Do you have QuestioNS about the Residency?

For questions or more information about the residency or application process, which reopens in early 2027, view our 2025 info session with potential applicants, the Dark Matter Residency Committee, and Dark Matter Resident Alumni!

Please email dmresidency@elasticarts.org with questions.