Join us for a night of dance music, with the return of Acideman on the decks! We’ll also hear from Lady D, Diz, Tyrel Williams, and Fortune. Music goes LATE, so get ready to dance.

Filthe Analects, Dark Matter Residency Series, and Elastic Arts Present: A Listening Party for  "Dont Panic", the highly anticipated album by AQ & Uncle El. 

A Chicago-filled night featuring a Gerrit Hatcher/Erez Dessel duo and the ever-energetic Larvavision

Shake Shook Shaken is a dream of what a safe space could allow. A vision of a place for everybody to gather, look at each other, play and create in a non judgmental, trauma-informed way. It’s an invitation, a journey within and out, a surprise. Each workshop is unique. This month we’ll have Ava Brennan and Julie leading on the topic of RE-ORGAN-EYES.

Aine Nakamura will present her work Breath in this World. The work is for spoken words, sung voice and body movement. "As I see the moon in the night's darkness, which receives the light from the sun, the earth changing the light's shape with the earth’s shadow, I think about light and darkness, lines and shapes, wounds and love, and humans’ eyes."

An evening of experimental voice and performance at IMS! Aine Nakamura, visiting from the Bay Area, leads a deeply-embodied international collaboration with sound artists Jenny Graf (Copenhagen) and Bonnie Han Jones (Chicago). Janna Lee and Corey Lyons open with their dark, vast noise duo Obsequies.

Please join us for the opening reception of Sweet Blood, the newest visual gallery exhibition from our curator Harlem West. In this body of work, materials found in quotidian rituals used for culturally Black queer aesthetic expression, act as vehicles for exaltation and re-imagining. Through the lens of the expansive Black ordinary, to have “sweet blood” is to be desired: thus being labeled as such plausibly justifies the violence endured. I have found that the ostensible ‘sweetness’ cultivated from existing while Black, derives from an insatiable desire to fly: or otherwise refusal to be earthbound. This devotion to flight and astral- traveling  has always attracted an evil eye and parasitic systems of blood-sucking.

Pleiades turned 5 this October!  For this special anniversary show on October 17, we’re excited to welcome back two artists who were part of Pleiades from the very beginning. Carol Genetti returns, having performed on the very first Pleiades, and Nadja Bruton, who played a solo set on the second-ever Pleiades, returns with a new group.  Jam session to follow!  Come celebrate five years of Pleiades with us and the artists who helped set the series in motion!

This workshop provides an accessible starting point for participants curious about building interactive technology with movement. Participants can use this as a starting point to explore their own interests and boundaries around technology in their practice.

We’re back for the second CLEAT Series event of the month, and we’re excited to welcome back legendary composer Carl Stone to the system. We’ll hear from series curator Stephan Moore, and a trio from Nicole Alonso.

Percussionist Jon Mueller visits forming a trio with Wisoconsin pianist Matt Blair and Chicago bassist Ro Lundberg.

Nathan Hanson and Steve Hirsh create spontaneously composed music that starts from an impulse informed by jazz.

Join us for a night of music celebrating the soft release of Skeletons in the Cloud, the latest recording project from Chicago drummer/percussionist/composer Tommy Carroll

We welcome the Deleuze New Music Collective back to Elastic Arts for a free afternoon of new compositions.

ELASTRO AV FESTIVAL 2026!

At our first CLEAT Series show of the month, we’re happy to welcome Chicago ex-pat John Niekrasz to present new multichannel work on the system for percussion and electronics. We’ll also welcome back Baltimore artist / organizer Tom Boram aka Borax to Elastic for his first go on the 16 speakers. Ishmael Ali returns with his Archipelago project with new music.

AfroFuturist Weekend concludes with an offsite collaboration with Elastic Arts’ AfriClassical Futures series, at Bronzeville’s Blanc Gallery. Detroit’s “White Flowers” is a string ensemble exploring the teachings of Dr. Yusuf Lateef; multiinstrumentalist BSA Gold begins the afternoon

Afrofuturist Weekend 2026 comes home to Elastic Arts’ Logan Square space (3429 W. Diversey Unit 208). Mike Monford’s J Dilla Tribute; Rap panel led by Dark Matter Resident Aquil “AQ” Charlton; a film preview feat. J Bambii; immersive performance by Amari Amai.

Dark Matter Resident Xavi Burgos presents a staged reading of “Black Warrior Angel” (Part One) offsite in Humboldt Park

AfroFuturist Dance Party ft. Duane Powell, CTRL Zora, Harlem West, Nova Zaii and nxtlvl. Offsite in Bronzeville

AfroFuturist Weekend: Opening panel & performances from Dark Matter Residents

The closing concert of the AMPLIFY! Festival of Asian American Music!

TROMPE is an improvising music trio from the east coast featuring Taylor Ho Bynum (cornet), Jeff Song (cello, pictured) and Daniel Lin (cello). For this concert they will be joined by special guests (and Chicago music heroes) Michael Zerang (drums, percussion) and Jeb Bishop (trombone).

Percussionist Tyler Tadlock joins us from Jackson, Mississippi in an ad-hoc group with Jeb Bishop and Christopher RIggs.

Our September Pleiades Series welcomes bassoonist and noise-maker Gabi Vanek in from Iowa City, IA. Their sonic interests center on the aesthetic and tonal crossover between contemporary classical music and harsh noise.

Ritual Rhythms Chicago presents an evening of ritual journeys through transformation and transcendence, exploring death and rebirth through music, storytelling, and dance. Featuring Secrets of the Beehive, Mehtab Kirtan’s Death Songs, and dancers Kitty Khaos, Noori, and Stacy.

Join us for the closing of current visual gallery exhibition “quiet as it’s kept” curated by Harlem West. Today will be a final opportunity to see the work, but also experience a film screening of of Suzanne, Suzanne by Camille Billops. Please join us! The event is free and open to the public.

Film: 1:15pm
Artist Talk: 2:30pm

Join us for a multi-genre Printers Row offsite event featuring performances from Casts, Norman W. Long, and Akjai, and readings from local small press authors, including Kathleen Rooney, Téa Jones Yelvington, and Robert Kloss (Always Crashing), Aug Stone, Scott Laudati, and Benjamin Niespodziany (Maudlin House), and Jessica Anne, Emily Capers, and Timothy Moore (Long Day Press).

Join us for our final outreach event of the summer at South Merrill Community Garden! We’ll have Naydja Bruton’s Rhythm Ninjas, udochukwu anidobu, and Amari Amai. More info on their performances TBA!

September’s CLEAT Series features three sets from Chicago artists, with a duo from Steve Reidell & Tim Kinsella, solo set from Alexander Panos, and the duo Squonk.