Douglas R. Ewart (b.1946)

The polymathic Douglas R. Ewart has been honored for his work as a composer, improvising multi-instrumentalist, conceptual artist, philosopher, writer, sculptor, mask and instrument designer, visual artist, tailor, cultural community builder and more. As an educator, Ewart bridges his kaleidoscopic activities with a vision that opposes today’s divided world by culture-fusing works that aim to restore the wholeness of communities and their members and to emphasize the reality of the world’s interdependence. From Kingston, Jamaica, Ewart immigrated to Chicago in 1963. There he studied with the master musicians of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians— an organization at which he later served as chairman at different intervals from 1979- 1987 and into the millennium. He also studied music at Harold Washington College, VanderCook College of Music, and electronic music at Governors State University.

Ewart is the founder of Arawak Records, is the leader of ensembles such as the Nyahbingi Drum Choir, Quasar, the Clarinet Choir, and Douglas R. Ewart & Inventions. He is a designer and creator of instruments and kinetic sonic sculptures that have been exhibited in venues such as Houston’s Contemporary Arts Museum and the Museum of Science and Industry Chicago. “Crepuscule,” his vast conceptual work is collectively actualized by scores of musicians, dancers, visual artists, poets, capoeiristas, puppeteers, martial artists, activists and the honoring of elders and more.

Ewart’s honors include the 2019 Jamaica Musgrave Silver Medal presented by the Institute of Jamaica (IOJ) for outstanding contribution to art and education, 2022 McKnight Distinguished Award as a Multi-Dimensional Artist, 2022 McKnight Fellowships for Community-Engaged Artist, 2022 South Korean Gugak International Workshop Fellow, U.S. Japan Creative Arts Fellowship, a Bush Artists Fellowship, and an Outstanding Artist Award granted by a former Chicago Mayor, Harold Washington. Ewart is a Professor Emeritus at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago IL. Ewart was included in The Freedom Principle: Experiments in Art and Music, 1965 to Now at the MCA Chicago in 2015. His work was recently shown in the exhibition File Under Freedom at the Bergen Kunsthalle, Bergen, Norway (February - March, 2022) and he was recently shown in EXPO Chicago (April 2022) with the Museum of Science and Industry, Chicago, IL.

Ted Joans b. 1928-2003

Poet, visual artist, trumpet player, traveler - Ted Joans’s work and life are  summarized by his motto: "Jazz is my religion, Surrealism is my point of view”. His  concept of poemlife recognizes a creative continuity through all lived experience  and interpretation. Works of art are crystallized traces of the poemlife.  Born to parents working on riverboats on the Ohio and Mississippi, raised in Ft  Wayne and Louisville, he studied painting at Indiana U and changed his  spelling to Joans for love, before lighting out for New York in 1951. Co-inventing the Beat Generation he blew his poems in coffeehouses: The Gaslight, the Bizarre, Café  Wha?, the Seven Arts. His books fused poetry and collage, pleasure, knowledge and Black  Power: Funky Beat Jazz Poems, All of Ted Joans and No More, The Hipsters. When  Charlie Parker died Ted Joans covered the city in Bird Lives! In self imposed exile  from the US he traveled to Timbuktu and throughout Africa, exploring Europe as  well. His friendships with André Breton and Langston Hughes whom he called his  spiritual fathers were deep and lasting. His Jazz Drawings on wood were exhibited at the Jazz Gallery in NY. He collaborated on books with poets  Jayne Cortez Le Merveilleux Coup de Foudre, and Joyce Mansour, Flying Piranha.  He relocated during the mid 90s to Seattle and Vancouver, collaborating on books  Wow and Our Thang with his partner Laura Corsiglia. His visual practice includes paintings, collages, drawings, assemblages  and the surrealist exquisite corpse drawing, including the 132-person Long Distance,  presented by David Hammons in Lisbon in 2019 and shown in the exhibition Surrealism Beyond Borders at the Met, New York, October 11, 2021 - January 30,  2022.

Oliver Lake b. 1942

Saxophonist and composer Oliver Lake’s artistic vision remains  daring, unique and uncompromising. From his role as founder of  The Black Artist Group in 1968, he has immersed himself in the  creation of art in all disciplines. As a longstanding and preeminent  saxophonist in the progressive jazz scene, Oliver has thrived during  his long and storied career. He continues to work with several  brilliant and creative minds, such as his Organ Quartet and Big  Band groups, the World Saxophone Quartet, OGJB, Tarbaby and  notable collaborators such as Flux String Quartet, Myra Melford,  Roscoe Mitchell, Vijay Iyer, Geri Allen, Meshell Ndegeocello and  many others. Oliver has curated and participated in the City Of  Asylum’s Jazz Poetry concerts for more than fifteen years. Lake has  been a recipient of the prestigious Guggenheim Fellowship, has  received commissions from the Library of Congress, and in 2006,  was honored to receive the Mellon Jazz Living Legacy Award at the  Kennedy Center. His work was shown at the Montclair Art Museum  in 2004 and 2008. Most notably, Oliver was selected to receive  the prestigious 2014 Doris Duke Artist Award and the 2022 Vision's Festival Lifetime Achievement Award. 

Wadada Leo Smith (b.1941)

Composer, trumpeter and author Wadada Leo Smith was born in Leland, MS. He moved to Chicago where he joined the legendary AACM collective. Smith defines his music as “Creative Music,” and it is centered in the idea of spiritual harmony and the unification of social and cultural issues of his world. Among his major recordings are Ten Freedom Summers, America’s National Parks and String Quartets Nos. 1-12. A finalist for the 2013 Pulitzer Prize in Music for Ten Freedom Summers, Smith has received numerous other awards and honors including a 2016 Doris Duke Artist Award, a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Hammer Museum’s 2016 Mohn Award for Career Achievement, the UCLA Medal, the 2022 Vision Festival’s Lifetime Achievement Award, a 2021 United States Artists’ USA Fel-low and a 2022 Mellon Arts & Practitioner Fellow at the Yale Center for the Study of Race, Indignity and Transnational Migration. Smith has earned the #1 spot in DownBeat Magazine’s International Critics Poll as Composer of the Year, Jazz Artist and Trumpeter of the Year, and the Jazz Journalists Association has honored Smith as their Musician of the Year. His Ankhrasmation symbolic language art-scores have been exhibited at The Renaissance Society at the University of Chicago, the Hammer Museum and the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts. Smith's work was also included in The Freedom Principle: Experiments in Art and Music, 1965 to Now at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago in 2015.