We’re very excited to welcome back Dark Matter Resident’s JUSTY and olula for a special program of music titled FORWARD featuring an excellent band. JUSTY’s music weaves from gorgeous piano ballads to uplifting house music compositions. Tonight they’ll have a band ft. Torstein Johansen, Paige Brown, Muso, Alejandro Salazar, and Sean McKenzie. Songs and spoken word / poetry will weave in and out of the program, fully enveloping the audience in the experience.

Artist Bios

JUSTY is Justin Marcoviche-Garnett: Trinidadian-American Singer, Songwriter, Musician, Producer, and Director. The Chicago-based artist debuted in 2014 with his self-titled EP. After releasing the dance single, Blue Dreaming, in January 2019 followed by his reggae-inspired album RESET, the artist has shown true versatility and range. Justy has been involved in numerous performances and collaborations over the years, including several featured songs. In 2022, Justy was nominated for Best Pop Artist by the Chicago Reader, awarded his first Artist Residency with Dark Matter, announced his upcoming studio album, and performed its lead single Hands which was released on December 16 with the album to follow sometime in 2023.

A child of Cleveland, OH, and a descendant on of enslaved Africans in the Caribbean and the American South, experimental sound artist and activist, olula negre, is a cellist, improviser, composer, and visual artist whose work is rooted in their Black American and Latinx heritage, Afrofuturism, and queerness. With a deep commitment to social justice, olula creates and interprets works that embody principles of radical honesty, self-love, and equity. They are enthusiastic about collaborating across genres and mediums and have played alongside dancers, visual artists, actors, and singer-songwriters, including regular collaborations with their brother, writer Bernard E. P. Harris.

Although a vocalist, pianist, composer and poet herself, Paige Brown lovingly refers to herself as “arts-adjacent.” While she more frequently positions herself contently in the audience of arts performances and exhibitions, she is navigating a journey of developing the inner mechanisms and communal connections to deepen and externalize her own artistic practice more fully. She currently finds joy/peace by communing with plants and other beings, experimenting with simple recipes in the kitchen, and catalyzing/witnessing the growth of artists, students, and others, and finds challenge in her quest to improve at the art of taking things slow.

Sean McKenzie is an Australian music producer who’s spent over a decade working in music as a manager, producer and musician. Sean started his music career as a Jazz Saxophone major studying at the Queensland Conservatorium of Music. During his university years he formed 10-piece funk/soul band His Merry Men where he began touring and managing the group alongside other local Australian talent. Sean moved to Spain in 2014 where he eventually started his production career working with independent artists such as Dakil, Emina Sonnad and Not My Circus. Sean currently resides in the great city of Chicago after brief stints playing in Vietnam and Australia.

Torstein Johansen is a bassist, improviser and composer based in Chicago, IL. He is an active performer in free improvisation and contemporary music and is continually seeking to find innovative ways to make music through experimentation and collaborations across genres.

Muso is a storyteller who’s goal is to create immersive worlds that center characters birthed from different aspects of my human experience. She focuses mainly on womanhood, sex, power and culture, ultimately as part of an identity which seeks to deconstruct and challenge hegemonic principles.

$15 – Tickets Available at the Door

Official Website

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Tags: Chicago, Dark Matter Residency w/ JUSTY + olula ‘FORWARD’, Elastic Arts, Justin Marcoviche-Garnett, Logan Square, Muso, Olula Negre, Paige Brown, Sean McKenzie, Torstein Johansen