Rabble Without A Cause, February 26: Damon Locks and the Black Monument Ensemble

The last show of Black History Month for 2025 - featuring the sound collage of Damon Locks, including selections from his new release, “List of Demands”

Damon Locks is a Chicago-based visual artist, educator, vocalist/musician. He teaches Improvisation in the Sound Department at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He is the leader of the Black Monument Ensemble. He is also a a member of New Future City Radio and Exploding Star Orchestra. We will hear selections from all of these ensembles, plus his new release, “List of Demands”.

“List of Demands” grew out of a sound work presented by Damon Locks at Chicago's Museum of Contemporary Photography inside an exhibition called Beautiful Diaspora / You Are Not the Lesser Part. He also contributed visual work, some of which can be seen in the album art. The pieces were guided by prompts from the exhibition’s curator, Asha Iman Veal, who aimed to “encourage deep thinking about parallel experiences and relationships between global artists of color and diverse Black artists.” A video of the exhibit, including Locks’ contribution, is available here.

The title of the album is influenced by Locks’ work in Stateville Correctional Center with the Prison + Neighborhood Arts/Education Project. In 2023, Locks taught a class where the incarcerated artists in the group developed a document that stated their desires. The class spent a summer session creating what would become the Artist Constitution, a document in which their beliefs, aspirations, and demands could be compiled, which would in turn be distributed outside the prison walls. A poster of that document is included in the vinyl edition of “List of Demands”. Locks said:

“List of Demands” is not just my list. The list is in conveyance, in response, and in honor of all of those great Black speakers that turned a phrase to generate movement and change. It owes as much to Rammellzee, Fred Moten and Sun Ra’s oratory excellence as it does to Kwame Ture/Stokely Carmichael, and Angela Davis, to Michael Smith and Linton Kwesi Johnson (across the pond), to Ruby Dee’s spoken recordings, and to others too numerous to mention.

For a flavour of Damon Locks’ live performances with Black Monument Ensemble, check out this video.

You can listen live on Wednesday, February 26, at 11 p.m. at 93.1 on the FM dial in the National Capital Region or through online streaming at CKCUFM.com. The show is also available for on demand streaming.