Earth and the Alter is a sonic exploration of migrations, principles of freedom, and liberation on the 156th Juneteenth Anniversary through music, dance, food, and fellowship traditions.

Featuring avery r. young & de deacon board, Time Brickey, Angel Bat Dawid, DJ Hieroglyphic Being, Rhythm Testament with Carlos Pride and Dr. Gunn. Additional symphonic performances feature the Chicago Sinfonietta orchestra members Karla Galva and Edith Yokley, Project Inclusion Fellows Najette Abouelhadi, Fahad Awan and Seth Pae, and Conductor Kedrick Armstrong, special guests Joshua Mhoon and students of Chicago Musical Pathways Initiative. Video works by AJ McClennon and Arif Smith. Curated by Ben LaMar Gay and Sadie Woods.

This event is sponsored in part by Arts + Public Life, Chicago Sinfonietta, DuSable Museum, The Floating Museum, International Anthem, Public Media Institute, UChicago Arts, and the Center for the Study of Race, Politics and Culture.

PERFORMANCE PROGRAM (In Order of Appearance)

Rhythm Testament presents Carlos Pride & Dr. Albert Gunn

Meditations

Tone Baths and Mediations of the One. Carlos Pride & Dr. Albert Gunn guide the listeners through cycles

of sound with Kalimba and Mbira harmonies corresponding with color, light, and the body.

Time Brickey and Edith Yokley [Chicago Sinfonietta]

Something Spiritual and Electric

A trio of tap dancers make music and try to honor their ancestors. Featuring Izaiah Harris, Jalen Saint

Phifer and Time Brickey with special guests Edith Yokley and Ben LaMar Gay.

Chicago Sinfonietta Residents Orchestrate Project

Juneteenth: An Independence Day Celebration 

Chicago Sinfonietta’s Residents Orchestrate Project highlights the work of the Chicago Sinfonietta orchestra

members and Project Inclusion Fellows and Alumni, with program design curated by Program Manager

Sadie Woods. Juneteenth: An Independence Day Celebration Artistic Director Seth Pae, and Conductor

Kedrick Armstrong lead orchestral performances of Black composers, including Jessie Montgomery,

Florence Price, Daniel Bernard Roumain, William Grant-Still, George Walker, and others. Featuring

Najette Abouelhadi (cello), Fahad Awan (violin), Karla Galva (violin), Seth Pae (viola), Edith Yokley

(violin), and special guests of Chicago’s musical community including Joshua Mhoon (keys) and students

of Chicago Musical Pathways Initiative.

avery r. young & de deacon board

Translator.03 [Rebel] 

April 4, 1968. King is assassinated. The people uprise. Cleanse the impurity of tyranny with fire. Urban

erasure begins.(avery r. young conducts de deacon board through the soul-jazz experimentation of

eryday new mercy(s).

Angel Bat Dawid & Hieroglyphic Being (Soul Jazz Records / Mathematics Recordings) THE

PROTO-SAHARAN FUSION EXPERIENCE 

Sonic explorers Angel Bat Dawid and Hieroglyphic Being provide The Proto-Saharan Fusion Experience

to listeners, movers, and participants of the Here and Beyond.

ARTIST BIOS

Hailing from Boston, Najette Abouelhadi began studying cello at the age of four with Nancy Hair. She earned her Graduate Performance Diploma and Bachelor of Music from the Peabody Conservatory under the tutelage of Alan Stepansky. Seminars and masterclasses include Takacs and Bretano quartets, as well as Frans Helmerson, Colin Carr, Astrid Schween, and Hans-Jorgen Jensen. Najette has studied with the principals of the Chicago and Boston symphonies as well as the LA Philharmonic, cellists John Sharp, Blaise Dejardin, and Robert deMaine respectively. She currently resides in Chicago, Illinois.

Conductor Kedrick Armstrong uses joy and curiosity for all music in driving his pursuit to foster understanding and fellowship within diverse communities. He graduated from Wheaton College with a Bachelor of Music degree in Music History and Literature and has been mentored by conductors Mei-Ann Chen, Cliff Colnot, John Nelson, Dan Sommerville, and John Trotter. Kedrick is an alum of Chicago Sinfonietta’s Project Inclusion Freeman Conducting Fellow program and also was the Assistant Conductor during the orchestra’s 2018-2019 season. Kedrick is the Director of Music and Worship Experience at First Presbyterian Church of Wheaton and was named to the Board of Directors of the International Society for Black Musicians.

Violinist Fahad Awan has a multifaceted career as an orchestral player and chamber musician. He performs regularly with the Civic Orchestra of Chicago as well as the Chicago Sinfonietta. Fahad traveled to Kenya as part of a cultural exchange grant through the Chicago Sinfonietta and MacArthur Foundation. He is a graduate of the Cleveland Institute of Music and Indiana University where he was a student of David Updegraff, Stephen Rose, and Alex Kerr. 

Time Brickey is a multidisciplinary performing artist from Chicago, IL. He’s a tap dancer, actor, musician, singer, and puppeteer. He does accents and voices, he stilt-walks… and he’ll do it on the spot. He’s hit stages all over, and people really seem to like him. He built his professional tap career training and performing with M.A.D.D. Rhythms and the Chicago Human Rhythm Project. Time has performed in Dance for Life Chicago, the Stomping Grounds Festival, JUBA!, and as a soloist at the Billy Strayhorn Centennial, where he was described by Chicago Tribune as "a literal loose cannon." He has been featured tap dancing on 91.1 Vocalo with DJ Ayana Contreras for Reclaimed Soul in The Parks, and in the premiere of Jared Grimes' Jeff Award winning 42nd st. revival. He's grateful to have shared many stages and rehearsal rooms with his own heroes, and some of Chicago's greatest performers. On a given day you can catch him devising and improvising theatrical works, mentoring kids, and composing tap choreography. He also operates a studio workshop where he makes and sells portable tap boards.

Launched in 2019, the Chicago Musical Pathways Initiative (CMPI) prepares gifted and motivated young musicians from underrepresented backgrounds to attend top music schools. Now in its second full year, the Initiative supports nearly 100 participants in grades 6-12 from across the Chicagoland area, and is co-led by the Merit School of Music, Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestras, the Negaunee Music Institute at the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Chicago High School for the Arts, Chicago Sinfonietta, DePaul University School of Music, Hyde Park Suzuki Institute, Musical Arts Institute and the Ravinia Festival.

Chicago Sinfonietta’s Residents Orchestrate Project (ROP) is a collection of satellite residencies throughout Chicago under the direction of Program Manager Sadie Woods. ROP neighborhood residencies are designed to eliminate socioeconomic and geographic barriers while providing interactive programming and services. 

ROP utilizes CS personnel alongside southside and westside community partners to create unique opportunities for engagement and support. Free to the public, ROP focuses on investing cultural capital into the production of existing local culture through co-curating initiatives.

Angel Bat Dawid is a Black American Composer, Improviser, Clarinetist, Pianist, Vocalist, Educator and DJ. Her critically acclaimed album The Oracle, released by Chicago label International Anthem recorded using only her cell phone in various locations, has been featured in Pitchfork, Rolling Stone, The Guardian and many other publications. Angel composed and premiered Requiem for Jazz at the Hyde Park Jazz Festival, and Peace: A Suite for Skylanding commissioned by the Art Institute of Chicago for Yoko Ono’s outdoor Skylanding Installation. She also tours internationally with her septet ThaBrothahood performing album LIVE that made NPR’s best of 2020 list. Angel leads the all-woman trio Sistazz of the Nitty Gritty with bassist Brooklynn Skye Scott and Pianist Anaiet. As half of the duo group DAOUI, Angel and sound artist Oui Ennui produced, mixed and self-released the album Message from the DAOUI, which was featured at Tusk Festival 2020. As an educator, Angel teaches her Great Black Music course at Cook County Juvenile Temporary Detention Center through Old Town School of Folk Music, and is currently a clarinetist in Damon Locks’ Black Monument Ensemble and hosts a monthly host on NTS Radio music show.

Karla Galva, violin, was born and raised in Chicago, IL. Daughter of a Dominican father and East-Indian Trinidadian mother, she studied at the DePaul University Community Music Division, Carnegie Mellon University, and the University of Maryland. Karla's diverse portfolio of performances include soloing with the Annapolis Symphony and Southwest Symphony, collaborations with artists as far ranging as Emanuel Ax and Harry Connick Jr., performing with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, serving as Principal Second Violin of Orchestra, various runs as violinist and violist on Broadway in Chicago and currently as a full member of the orchestra's first violin section. Karla is also active as a teacher and educator in the Chicago area, having been on the faculty of the Merit School of Music, Suzuki-Orff School of Chicago, and The People’s Music School and serves as a mentor or pre-college musicians at Chicago Musical Pathways Initiatives.  She currently teaches violin and viola at Lake Forest High School and her own private studio.

Hieroglyphic Being (SOUL JAZZ RECORDS / MATHEMATICS RECORDINGS) is an explorative musician from Chicago who experiments with the electronic sounds of Deep House, Industrial and Avant Garde-Improv Jazz Sound Sculptures. His work has been covered by major publications such as The Wire, New York Times, Resident Advisor and Vogue. Beyond his own worldwide sonic projections, Jamal Moss aka Hieroglyphic Being has collaborated with the likes of Marshall Allen, Animal Collective, Hamid Drake, Janelle Monae, Mark Sanders and Reggie Watts. He’s a recipient of Bandcamp’s Lifetime Achievement Award 2019. 

Joshua Mhoon is an award winning pianist whose talent has taken him worldwide to play the piano for audiences nationally and abroad throughout Asia and Europe. Mhoon has performed with the National Youth Orchestra, New World Symphony, Chicago Philharmonic Orchestra, Anthony McGill of the New York Philharmonic, YoYo Ma, Lang Lang, and has opened for the Jacksons, Ramsey Lewis and Nick Cannon. Mhoon’s musical influences include artists such as Chopin, Debussy, Rachmaninoff, Liszt and Beethoven and local Chicago artists such as Kanye West, Chance The Rapper and Vic Mensa. Currently Mhoon is a Lang Lang Young Scholar, a scholarship recipient of The Art of the Piano foundation in Cincinnati and a performer for The Summer Youth Program at The Aspen Music Festival and School. Mhoon will start at The Juilliard School in New York this fall and he is a member of MENSA International.

Seth Pae, originally from Cleveland Ohio, has been playing the viola since age 9. He got his start in a public school music program. His first primary teacher was Lembi Veskimets of the Cleveland Orchestra. He studied with Louise Zeitlin and earned his bachelor's degree at Baldwin Wallace University. He completed both a Master's Degree and an Artist Diploma at DePaul University studying with Wei-Ting Quo of the Chicago Symphony, and legendary Chicago violist, Rami Solomonow. Seth was a member of the Civic Orchestra of Chicago from 2015-2018, and has performed with the Grant Park Symphony Orchestra, and the Lyric Opera Orchestra. He is in his second year performing with the Chicago Sinfonietta as their Project Inclusion Fellow.

Seth is a champion of playing new music. He frequently works with Chicago based composers and premiers new works. It is his mission to perform music by women and people of color as often as possible.

Rhythm Testament with Carlos Pride and Dr. Albert Gunn are a duo composed of master percussionists who focus on meditation and sonic healing through the performance of handmade instruments, including the West African Mbira and Kalimba. Collectively, the duo has performed with the likes of: Frankie Knuckles, Screaming Jay Hawkins, N’Dea Davenport, Me’Shell Ndegeocello, George Clinton, King Sunny Ade, Talib Kweli and the Sound Therapy Research Ensemble. Their latest record, Meditations, was produced to showcase the need for personal inner healing. The music transforms the listener into the tranquil world of nature’s elements infused with the ancient and sacred frequencies of the Kalimba and Mbia.

Edith Yokley is a violinist from Chicago. She is a member of the Chicago Sinfonietta and Soulful Symphony in Baltimore. She has performed with such artists as CeeLo Green, J.Lo, Common, Barry White, Mos Def, Nancy Wilson, Andrea Bocelli, Sheila E., Smokey Robinson, Aretha Franklin, Donnie McClurkin, Richard Smallwood, Shirley Caesar, Dennis DeYoung of Styx, and Diana Ross and the Supremes. She has appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show, The Today Show, and Late Night With Conan O'Brien as well as The Voice.

Interdisciplinary artist and educator avery r. young is a 3Arts Awardee, Cave Canem fellow and a co-director of The Floating Museum. His poetry and prose has been featured in anthologies such as; featured in BreakBeat Poets, Teaching Black,, Poetry Magazine and alongiside images in photographer Cecil McDonald Jr’s, In The Company of Black. As artist-in-residence at the University of Chicago, young created a series of assemblage and sculpture along with his first recording, booker t. soltreyne: a race rekkid. His theater credits include co-writing and co-producing the soundtrack for Lise Haller Baggeson’s Hatorgrade Retrograde: The Musical and writing the libretto for The Chicago Lyric Opera’s Twilight: Gods.  His performance and visual work has been exhibited and/or presented at The Art Institute, The Museum of Contemporary Art, The National Jazz Museum and other institutions. An award winning teaching artist, young co-mentors the Rebirth Poetry Ensemble. He is the featured vocalist on Nicole Mitchell’s Mandorla Awakening and has tours planned with his band de deacon board. Young’s latest full length recording tubman. is the soundtrack to his first collection of visual and traditional poetry, neckbone: visual verses.

CURATOR BIOS

Ben LaMar Gay is a composer/cornetist who moves components of sound, color, and space through folkloric filters to produce brilliant electro-acoustic collages. The unification of various styles is always in service of the narrative and never solely a display of technique. The Chicago native’s true technique is giving life to an idea while exploring and expanding on the term “Americana”. Active in the vibrant experimental music scene of Chicago, including a three-year residency in Brazil, allows him to collaborate with some influential figures in the world of music. The list includes George Lewis, Itibere Zwarg, Theaster Gates, Nicole Mitchell, Jeff Parker, Theo Parrish, Mike Reed, Joshua Abrams, Celso Fonseca, Tomeka Reid, Bixiga 70 and the Association of the Advancement of Creative Musicians, to name a few.

Chicago born and bred, Sadie Woods is an award-winning post-disciplinary artist, curator and deejay who has showcased her myriad of creative practices from academia to nightclubs, boutiques to museums. She is the Co-Founder and Artistic Director of The Petty Biennial, Co-Founder and Creative Director of Selenite Arts Advisory and a 2020 recipient of the City of Chicago’s Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events Esteemed Artist Award. Woods is currently Faculty at the School of the Art Institute, and Residents Orchestrate Project Manager at the Chicago Sinfonietta. She has exhibited her work and performed nationally and internationally. Publications include Harald Szeemann Méthodologie Individuelle published by JRP Ringier with Le Magasin—Centre National d’Art Contemporain de Grenoble, in collaboration with the Department of Curating Contemporary Art at the Royal College of Art, London.

This event is open to all invitees regardless of vaccination status and, because of ongoing health risks to the unvaccinated, those who are unvaccinated are expected to adopt the risk mitigation measures advised by public health officials (masking and social distancing, etc.). Participants will not know the vaccination status of others, including venue staff, and should follow appropriate risk mitigation measures.