Dark Matter
About
Launched in 2015 by Sam Lewis and Jonathan Woods, Dark Matter began as a monthly performance series presenting music that launched from hip-hop but looked beyond it to what’s next in Black music and video. The series culminated in an annual festival called the AfroFuturist Weekend - a three-day celebration of the expansive and interdisciplinary concept of AfroFuturism. After presenting the series for several years, the curators recognized that many of the emerging artists they presented - all crossing boundaries among several genres and mediums - would benefit from more sustained engagement with Elastic. They needed multiple opportunities to present their work in our space, to use the space for workshops, rehearsals, and recording, and also the benefit of our extensive network of artist/curators, many of whom organize performance events throughout the city and beyond. In 2019, we launched the Dark Matter Residency for emerging, Chicago-based, BIPOC artists, for whom we offered those opportunities. In 2022, we expanded AfroFuturist Weekend to five days. In 2023 we revived the monthly Dark Matter Series, bringing the Residents together with mid-career and legendary artists from across Chicago and around the world.
Dark Matter Programs
Dark Matter Residency
The Dark Matter Residency supports Chicago-based, emerging artists of color whose work challenges the hegemonic hierarchies of race through performance and visual representation.
Dark Matter Series
The Dark Matter Series is a monthly series of performances and exhibitions created, curated, and performed by our Resident Artists.
Afrofuturist Weekend
Afrofuturist Weekend is a 5-day celebration of Black artists making forward-looking work that envisions radically positive futures for Black people. Deploying new technologies, drawing upon history, and subverting/inverting exploitative hierarchies, Afrofuturism puts Black people at the center of narratives about the future.
Keep up with us on Social Media!
#Darkmatter
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Our supporters
The Dark Matter Series X Residency is supported in part by the following partners:
The Joyce Foundation
Live Music Society
The Reva & David Logan Foundation
The Richard H. Driehaus Foundation