Elastic Arts

Mike Monford ensemble tribute to J. Dilla at Elastic Arts! Saturday Oct. 3rd! RSVP today!

AFW 2026: Mike Monford (Detroit) J Dilla Tribute; Hip Hop Panel & Film Come for a hip hop panel curated by AQ Charlton at 5. Stay for Mike Monford's live original tribute to legendary producer J Dilla (9 PM)

TONIGHT!

We’ll see you this evening when we welcome TROMPE, an improvising music trio from the east coast featuring Taylor Ho Bynum (cornet), Jeff Song (cello) and Daniel Lin (cello). For this concert they will be joined by special guests Michael Zerang (drums, percussion) and Jeb Bishop (trombone).

Percussionist Tyler Tadlock first joins us from Jackson, Mississippi in an ad-hoc group with Jeb Bishop and Christopher Riggs to open the night.

8:30pm:
Tyler Tadlock - drums set, percussion
Jeb Bishop - trombone
Christopher Riggs - guitar

9:30pm: TROMPE
Taylor Ho Bynum - cornet
Jeff Song - cello
Daniel Lin - cello

W/ Michael Zerang - drums, percussion
Jeb Bishop - trombone

Join us Saturday evening for the closing concert of the AMPLIFY! Festival of Asian American Music: Sound and Scholarship, opening with ghOstMiSt’s Ayam who you say Ayam. ghOstMiSt is a Balinese experimental duo consisting of Putu Tangkas Adi Hiranmayena and Dewa Ayu Eka Putri who enact performative inquiries of Balinese-ness and question spiritual and cosmological epistemologies of performance.

To close the concert, Juan Flores, gordon fung, Peixuan Ouyang, Kyle Price, and Sharkey Zalek will present the state of (un)becoming. This improvisatory collaboration between sound, butoh, movement, and expanded cinema presents a real-time metamorphosis of undulating materials. Through an unconventional combination of diverse multimedia idioms, the quintet co-composes a dreamy and meditative state that arises and dissipates simultaneously and spontaneously, guiding audiences into an introspective journey.

The concert will also feature performances of two major works in the contemporary Western classical music tradition. Naomi Niskala and An-Lin Bardin will perform Michi Wiancko’s HOME (2024) for piano, cello and electronics, and Koeun Grace Lee performing Texu Kim’s piano work Co.Ko. – un poco Loco (2017).

Join us for the final night of AfroFuturist Weekend XI at Blanc Gallery in Bronzeville ft. White Flowers + BSA Gold! RSVP today!

AFRICLASSICAL FUTURES PRESENTS: WHITE FLOWERS (DETROIT), BSA GOLD @ BLANC Elastic Arts/Africlassical Presents: "White Flowers" (Detroit), BSA Gold at Blanc Gallery to close out Afrofuturist Weekend 2026

On Sunday October 4 AfroFuturist Weekend 11 concludes  at Blanc Gallery in Bronzeville with a collaborative presentation featuring Elastic Arts’ critically acclaimed AfriClassical Futures series.
The program will host Detroit-based Autophysiopsychic Millennium’s “White Flowers,” a string ensemble work that emerged from the organization’s theatrical production “Something Else in the Garden.” That performance was inspired by Dr. Yusef Lateef’s novella, “Night in the Garden of Love,” connecting the festival’s exploration of “The Cipher” to Lateef’s expansive legacy as a musician, composer, educator, and visionary thinker.

Producer, flutist & multi-instrumentalist BSA Gold will begin the afternoon at 4pm with a small ensemble performance. They will be exploring sound, spirituality, and self-understanding through electronics and acoustic instruments. Inspired by Pharoah Sanders, Sun Ra, Alice Coltrane, Ras G and countless other pioneers in music, she experiments with synths/electronics, and acoustic instruments, exploring the possibilities for composition as a producer and songwriter.

All attendees are encouraged to spend time experiencing the Blanc Gallery’s exhibits, which intersect with AfroFuturist Weekend’s mission to envision radically positive and liberated futures for Black people, especially the Radical Oscar Brown Jr. centennial exhibit.

RSVP in bio. Offsite at Bronzeville’s Blanc Gallery [outdoors, weather permitting]; 4445 S King Drive Chicago, IL

We’ll see you this Thursday evening when we welcome TROMPE, an improvising music trio from the east coast featuring Taylor Ho Bynum (cornet), Jeff Song (cello) and Daniel Lin (cello). For this concert they will be joined by special guests Michael Zerang (drums, percussion) and Jeb Bishop (trombone).

Percussionist Tyler Tadlock first joins us from Jackson, Mississippi in an ad-hoc group with Jeb Bishop and Christopher Riggs to open the night.

8:30pm:
Tyler Tadlock - drums set, percussion
Jeb Bishop - trombone
Christopher Riggs - guitar

9:30pm: TROMPE
Taylor Ho Bynum - cornet
Jeff Song - cello
Daniel Lin - cello

W/ Michael Zerang - drums, percussion
Jeb Bishop - trombone

TONIGHT!

Our September Pleiades Series welcomes bassoonist and noise-maker Gabi Vanek in from Iowa City, IA this upcoming evening. Their sonic interests center on the aesthetic and tonal crossover between contemporary classical music and harsh noise. First Gabi will screen a short film titled Flagellent Songs featuring the final recordings of their band Death Bag. This was a duo with Iowa City legend musician/organizer Chris Wiersma who passed in 2024. Gabi will then perform in trio formation alongside Tina LeFauve and iph. 

This will be followed by the Pleiades free improv jam which is a space for open, unstructured musical exploration. Everything is completely free improvised, meaning no pre-written music - just spontaneous, creative expression. It’s a chance to interact with new people and collaborate in an open and supportive environment.  During the session, we break into small groups, and each group plays for around 10 minutes, offering a unique opportunity to listen, experiment, and respond to each other’s ideas in real-time. No experience with improvisation is required - just bring your instrument, your voice, or your curiosity!

The session is open to all femme, nonbinary, and trans artists. To sign up, you can email  [email protected] or register at the door.

The show is free for all jammers! See you tonight at 8pm!

Early warning! Mark the cal! We’re so excited to once again host the Elastro A/V Festival, an event featuring audio and video installations and performances. This year we’ll consolidate into a single evening, so mark the calendar!

FRIEND LESS is a new project by Jon Mueller. It’s two recent EPs, Energy Rippers and Logic of Relics (with Bundy K. Brown and James Plotkin) aim to provoke the heart, mind and body through an unorthodox approach to rhythmic patterns. In performance, the pieces from Energy Rippers lean on a system of AIR (Acoustic Improvised Rhythm) using drums and voice to achieve a similar effect. Tonight Jon will perform alongside video work from video artists Kaveh Soofi.

Elastro AV Ensemble is a first time meeting of artists curated by the Elastro team. Tonight we’ll have Ayanna Woods, Norman Long, Ro Lundberg, Rin Peisert, and Camille Casemier on video. Who is the Witness? is a psychedelic sound unit with Jenny Pulse, Whitney Johnson, Tim Kinsella, and Eli Schmitt. Join us October 10th! Tickets on sale now, link in bio!

TONIGHT!

Join us for a very special Improvised Music Series!

First up we welcome Texas based vibraphonist Stefan González visiting Chicago in preparation to move here this fall. In an attempt to further immerse themself in the vibrant improvised and free jazz community, they are playing in a first time trio with dear friends, Chicago mainstays, and respected world class improvisers, Lily Glick Finnegan (drums) and Andrew Scott Young (bass).

Closing the night will be two Chicago legends Michael Zerang and Tim Kinsella, performing for the second time ever as a duo and the first time with their new band name, Typhoon Matisse. Music at 8:30pm

8:30 pm: González/Finnegan/Young Trio

9:30 pm: Typhoon Matisse

Our September Pleiades Series welcomes bassoonist and noise-maker Gabi Vanek in from Iowa City, IA this upcoming Sunday 9/20. Their sonic interests center on the aesthetic and tonal crossover between contemporary classical music and harsh noise. First Gabi will screen a short film titled Flagellent Songs featuring the final recordings of their band Death Bag. This was a duo with Iowa City legend musician/organizer Chris Wiersma who passed in 2024. Gabi will then perform in trio formation alongside Tina LeFauve and iph. 

This will be followed by the Pleiades free improv jam which is a space for open, unstructured musical exploration. Everything is completely free improvised, meaning no pre-written music - just spontaneous, creative expression. It’s a chance to interact with new people and collaborate in an open and supportive environment.  During the session, we break into small groups, and each group plays for around 10 minutes, offering a unique opportunity to listen, experiment, and respond to each other’s ideas in real-time. No experience with improvisation is required - just bring your instrument, your voice, or your curiosity!

The session is open to all femme, nonbinary, and trans artists. To sign up, you can email [email protected] or register at the door.

The show is free for all jammers!