Dark Matter
2024 Residency bios
Amyna Love
A chi-town hidden jewel, Amyna Love is a classically trained, independent artist with a range of musical influences such as Paramore, Lianne la Havas and Ella Fitzgerald. Her alternative sound is a fusion of punk and soul sprinkled with the African influences of her upbringing. Love has opened for artists such as Goapele and Maimouna Youssef (Mumu Fresh).
Leah Lara
Leah Lara is black nonbinary puppeteer and 3-D illustrator from Dallas Tx. They received their BFA from Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) where they majored in Illustration. Their work often investigates the black femme experience while drawing on dark and whimsical fairy tale archetypes and themes.Utilizing fairytales as a way to reexamine social structures, behaviors, social hierarchies, and biases. They love working with their hands, and stick to the commitment of writing, designing, and performing one original puppet show a year. They have performed at Bread and Puppet, Boston Showplace Puppet Theater, Brown University, Co Prosperity, and Color Club.
Nikki patin
Featured in The Guardian, Chicago Tribune, the Chicago Reader, on WBEZ, WTTW, FoxSoul, and on international television and radio, multidisciplinary artist Nikki Patin has been writing since she was 7. In 2014, Patin addressed the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland on behalf of Black women and girl survivors of sexual violence. Nikki Patin holds a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Nonfiction from the University of Southern Maine and is the Program Director for the Resident Association of Greater Englewood. Patin’s memoir, Working on Me, was recently released on Vine Leaves Press.
zahra baker
Louisiana born creative, Zahra Glenda Baker has been a Chicago based vocalist, storyteller and teaching artist for the past 35 years.
Zahra has explored vocal improvisation, spirituals and deep trance healing meditations. communal song styles, overtones, throat singing, yodeling and other mysteries inside the voice to interpret the range of the human experience.
With a combined curiosity of sound and a burning desire to place physical, emotional, and spiritual liberation at the center, Zahra continues to pursue a personal and collective journey toward well-being. She has collaborated with musicians, dancers, visual artists, poets, storytellers, teachers, and wellness practitioners and is a member of AACM (Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians) and the National Association of Black Storytellers.
sun lynn hunter
sun Lynn Hunter is a captivating multimedia artist and researcher based out of Baltimore & Chicago. Through endurance-based performances, sound art, interactive installations & public workshops, sun delves into the profound realms of empathy & vulnerability. Threading the nuances of grief, joy, isolation & love within the Black experience. Her embodied performance art becomes a powerful act of resistance, using the body as a vessel to challenge the colonial gaze.
Channeling both known & lost ancestral knowledge through Afrofuturist pursuits, her multidimensional approach engages audiences in conversations that test awareness & empathetic capabilities. sun's work synthesizes historical & contemporary moments, weaving together narratives of strength through familial recordings, her personal voice, curated objects & current/cultural events.
With a BFA in Photography from MICA & MFA in Performance from SAIC, sun has left an indelible mark, holding residencies with ACRE, DCASE Chicago, Recto Verso Studios in Quebec City, Ohio University, & the Lemon Tree House in Centona, Italy. Currently a member of the Suspended Culture art collective she constantly engages in collaboration.