Prime Time: "Question Everything"

About the Artists

ANGEL BAT DAWID

Angel Bat Dawid is a clarinetist, pianist, vocalist, and composer working in Chicago's jazz and improvised music scene. Dawid composed and premiered her opera, Song of Solomon: A Cosmic Space Opera, at Co-Prosperity Sphere in 2018. Dawid also curates a series of multidisciplinary concerts at Elastic Arts called Mothership9 in which she builds a sonic mythological spaceship to the cosmos. Dawid's recorded debut on Chicago record label International Anthem, The Oracle, was produced and performed entirely by Dawid alone. The album was recorded using only Dawid's cell phone in various locations, from London to Cape Town, but primarily from her residence in the attic of the historic Radcliffe Hunter mansion in Bronzeville, Chicago.

BRENDAN FERNANDES

Brendan Fernandes (b. 1979, Nairobi, Kenya) lives and works in New York and Chicago. His work has been exhibited and performed at venues such as the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; The Museum of Modern Art, New York; the J. Paul Getty Museum; Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal; National Gallery of Canada; the Brooklyn Museum; The Studio Museum in Harlem; MASS MoCA, Massachusetts; The Andy Warhol Museum; Deutsche Guggenheim Berlin; Bergen Kunsthall; Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam; SculptureCenter, New York; Manif d’art¬–The Québec City Biennial; and the Guangzhou Triennial. Fernandes is currently represented by Monique Meloche Gallery in Chicago and recently presented solo projects with the High Line, New York (summer 2018) and the DePaul Art Museum (fall 2018). He is currently an artist-in-residence and faculty member at Northwestern University in the Department of Art Theory and Practice.

ABIGAIL GLAUM-LATHBURY

Abigail Glaum-Lathbury is a Chicago-based artist and designer. For nearly a decade, she produced a women’s ready-to-wear collection that showed during New York Market week and sold nationally and internationally. Her recent work takes the form of a counter-practice within the emergent field of critical fashion. In 2014 she cofounded the Rational Dress Society, a collective that raises questions around identity and consumption through a radical approach to inclusive sizing. Her most recent project, the Genuine Unauthorized Clothing Clone Institute (Project G.U.C.C.I.) investigates how copyright and trademark law is being leveraged by luxury conglomerates to form what can only be described as a modern sumptuary code. Using the fundamentally relational aspects of fashion as a critical platform, her work explores the discursive potential found in clothing and dressing, arguing for a rethinking and transformation of the fashion system.

GLIDE8ORZ

Calvin Small is credited with originating “JB” style roller skating in 1971 on Chicago's South Side with a small crew of friends known as the Glide8orz. Inspired by and named after the intricate footwork of James Brown's dance moves and the funk and soul that gave birth to contemporary house music, JB skating is now nationally recognized as a style that is uniquely Chicagoan. After five decades, Small continues to perform with his crew the Glide8orz throughout the city. Small and his crew were recently featured in the HBO feature-length documentary, United Skates, which highlights skating as an underground subculture that incubated some of the world's greatest musical talent. They have performed on the Las Vegas strip and were nominated for a Chicago / Midwest Emmy Award.

THE ILLUSTRIOUS BLACKS

Once upon a time, in a galaxy not far away, there lived two kings. Each was the ruler of his own deliciously glorious planet. The first king, Manchildblack, was well known throughout the cosmos for his ethereal vocals, celestial sonics and earthy musical messages. The other king, Monstah Black, was a star in the solar system known for his gravity defying performances, gender bending fashions, and spacey disposition.

One magical night, an inexplicable ultra magnetic pull forced the two planets to collide. A technicolored explosion occurred, turning night into day, with a feast of aural and visual delights. It was then that the universe was changed forever. Manchildblack and Monstah Black united and became The Illustrious Blacks.

Inspired by artists like Prince, David Bowie, Grace Jones, Boy George, and George Clinton, The Illustrious Blacks have arrived with a mission to fuse futuristic funk, hypnotic house and cosmic pop into pulsating positivity for the planet. The real life married couple are not only copilots on their artistic voyage, but are united in their fantastical journey through life.

LIA KOHL

Lia Kohl is a cellist and multidisciplinary artist based in Chicago. She creates and performs embodied music and multimedia performance that incorporates sound, video, movement, theater, and sculptural objects. She is a curator and ensemble member with the acclaimed performance ensemble Mocrep, with whom she has toured nationally and internationally. She has presented work and performed at the Art Institute of Chicago, the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, and held residencies at Mana Contemporary Chicago, High Concept Labs, Defibrillator Gallery, Mills College, and Stanford University. As an improviser she performs regularly around Chicago and with her clarinet, percussion, and cello trio, ZRL. She plays with Chicago bands Whitney, OHMME, and Circuit des Yeux. She tours regularly with Manual Cinema.

MELISSA MUSSEAU

Melissa Musseau is a Chicago-based makeup and visual artist. Various mediums, including makeup, inform her creative process including film and illustration. Since relocating to Chicago seven years ago, Melissa has conceptualized creative looks that focus on the relationship between the art of makeup and hair. In her career, Melissa has played a significant part in a number of national and global award-winning photo shoots. Most recently, her work helped inspire the mural The Love I Vibrate, painted by Andy Bellomo, Sandra Antongiorgi, and Sam Kirk, on the Howard Brown Health Center in Boystown.

DUANE POWELL

DJ and curator Duane Powell entered into the world of street promotions in 1985, pounding the pavement and promoting events for prominent DJs within Chicago’s burgeoning house music scene. By 1990, Powell led street promotions and served as marketing manager and consultant for many clubs and DJs, including the historic Powerhouse. As a promoter, he launched the Soundrotation brand in 1999, further cultivating the underground soul scene in Chicago.

As a DJ, he has spun at and has held residencies at many of Chicago’s most popular music venues and hot spots including the House Of Blues, Virgin Hotels Chicago, Ace Hotel Chicago, Boleo at Kimpton Gray Hotel, The Promontory, Stony Island Arts Bank, and Reggie’s Chicago.

SHEILA RASHID

Sheila Rashid is a bespoke designer from Chicago who creates pieces that confront and curtail gender identity. Rashid’s unisex brand takes a new approach to creativity, simplicity, and persistency with the goal of designing with a unique perspective and an acute attentiveness to detail. Each of her pieces are made-to-order and reflect her own sense of style, combining both tomboy and feminine qualities.

SIR & MADAME

Founded in 2007, Sir & Madame is a men’s and women’s clothing brand and luxury lifestyle boutique, based in Chicago. The brand is the lovechild of the creative husband and wife team Brian and Autumn Merritt. The couple saw a void in the boutique market for cohesive men’s and women’s casual wear with an elevated twist. Their passion and creativity produced an eclectic combination of casual and elegant pieces that encompass urban living no matter where you are.

SOUTH SHORE DRILL TEAM

South Shore Drill Team was founded in 1980 by Arthur Robertson, a former Chicago Public School teacher. The group grew from a handful of neighborhood teens to serving 250 youth ages 8–21. Last year, team members performed at 85 events in seven states. Their electrifying precision-drilling and wide repertoire makes them a fan favorite at parades and stage shows. The group’s mission goes far beyond entertainment. The team offers education support, employment training, and court diversion for at-risk youth. Since 2012, team members have achieved 100% high school graduation and nearly all go on to college or technical school. Proud alumni include teachers, law enforcement officers, fire fighters, lawyers, business managers, and medical professionals, all giving back to their community. In 2020, South Shore Drill Team will celebrate its 40th Anniversary of offering a high-quality arts program for young people from Chicago’s South Side.

TRAP HOUSE CHICAGO

TRAP House Chicago is a restorative justice-based streetwear brand and boutique founded by Mashaun Ali Hendricks. THC’s merchandise is inspired by the possibility of a crime and violence free South and West sides of Chicago. TRAP House Chicago’s physical spaces—known as Concept Stores—house the brand’s merchandise and provide space for community engagement through workshops, dialogues, and events. TRAP House Chicago’s current Concept Store is located at 79th and Cottage Grove in the Chatham Community.

As a restorative justice practitioner and artist, Hendricks’s conceptual art practice is the combination of RJ, streetwear, and culture. His work takes the form of text-based screen print, design, streetwear apparel, wheatpaste and installation.

YOMÍ

Yomí is an electric harpist from Chicago. She was classically trained through her childhood and teenage years, starting with the harp at eight years old. Currently, Yomí writes and produces her own music, tours the US, and performs at various venues in Chicago.