Damon Locks and the Black Monument Ensemble
Damon Locks has been a connective thread throughout Chicago’s creative landscape for the past thirty years: A musician with roots in the city’s post-punk scene as well as a celebrated visual artist and educator, his work vibrates with urgency and reflects the city’s community spirit. Locks cut his teeth performing with bands like Trenchmouth and The Eternals, stretching the boundaries of genre while redefining what it means to make political art and music. In the past decade, Locks turned his focus toward collaboration and collective storytelling; this work would eventually culminate in the creation of the Black Monument Ensemble, an intergenerational group of artists who use sound, movement and visual projection to celebrate Black history and envision Black futures.
Originally conceived as a sample-based sound collage project by Locks, the Black Monument Ensemble has expanded into a collective of artists, musicians, singers and dancers, ages roughly twelve to fifty-five. Their performances reflect our current moment and feel equally timeless and immediate. Locks describes their recent piece, “Broadcast (True),” as “a protest chant… an opening to express anger, frustration, but also our voice in a chorus of voices in hopes to galvanize community power as a resource to push back on oppression.”
Chicago itself has long been a constant collaborator in Locks’ story. From the raw experimentation of his early post-punk days to the influence of collectives like the Black artist collective AfriCOBRA and the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM), “whose legacies reverberate throughout the city like cultural El trains,” he says.
Locks draws from the city’s deep lineage of artists who marry creativity with social action. Figures such as Dr. Margaret Burroughs, Ida B. Wells and Lorraine Hansberry loom large in his imagination, their legacies serving as “blueprints to follow years later.” Equally transformative has been his work with the Prison + Neighborhood Arts/Education Project, which he credits with shaping his art and deepening his commitment to justice and community care.
At a time when so many in the city and around the world are struggling, Locks continues to see art as a vital connector: “During the pandemic, the world turned to the arts for comfort and to help process the world around them—and I still see that happening. Art inspires us, mind, body and soul,” he says. “If you want to reach all of those places… make something, and make it good.”
Damon Locks’ Black Monument Ensemble performs at Harris Theater, 205 East Randolph, on October 24, 6pm. Tickets are $20 plus fees, available at harristheaterchicago.org.
