Black Monument Ensemble

Black Monument Ensemble, aka Damon Locks' Black Monument Ensemble, is a musical collective plus dance troupe combination founded by multi-faceted multimedia artist Damon Locks. Their work is fairly eclectic: electronic music, mixed with free jazz and Afrobeat, not to mention spoken word, whether in the form of poetry or conversation snippets. They tap into African and Caribbean beats, funk, and other forms of rich, layered, polyrhythmic streams that connect to the African continent by lineage. The ensemble houses some well-known names from Chicago's avant-garde/jazz scene, including clarinetist Angel Bat Dawid and drummer Dana Hall, with visiting spots for Ben LaMar Gay and other major names that also tend to travel in an orbit, so to speak.