Scorpio Celebration

Norman W. Long & Sharkey Zalek w/ special guests Whitewolf Sonic Princess + Sharon Udoh. There will be cake.

$15 Tickets here.

Norman W. Long’s multi-disciplinary practice involves walking, listening, teaching, improvising, performing, recording, and composing to create environments and situations in which he and the audience are engaged in dialogues about memory, place, ecology, race, culture, value, silence, and the invisible. Norman’s practice has been influenced by the emerging practices and thinking of 1970s artists, musicians, critics, and designers regarding landscape and sound- specifically Rosalind Krauss’ article “Sculpture in the Expanded Field” and the development of the acoustic ecology by R. Murray Schafer. The sounds found in his work have their inspirational roots in the Black music of house and techno, ‘free jazz,’ Great Black Music, Herbie Hancock’s Mwandishi, Pauline Oliveros, King Tubby, Dub, and the sounds of artists outside and in-between genres. Long’s improvisational and compositional strategies are inspired by Samuel R. Delany’s palimpsest text  “Plague Journal '' chapter of Dhalgren (Science Fiction) and Atlantis: Three tales (Fiction) and Mark Bradford’s survey at the Museum of Contemporary Art: Chicago in 2011 featuring Bradford’s process of collecting and collaging, scraping and pasting materials sourced from his community in Los Angeles. 

Holding a Master’s Degree in "New Genres" from the San Francisco Art Institute and a Master’s of Landscape Architecture degree from Cornell University (2008), Norman relocated to Chicago in 2008. His artistic endeavors have been showcased at diverse venues, including Experimental Sound Studio, Kavi Gupta Gallery, Renaissance Society, Yale University, Harold Washington College, Chicago Artists Coalition Gallery, Links Hall, Elastic Arts, Constellation, and the Arts Club as part of the 2015 Chicago Humanities Festival.

Norman Long received the 3Arts Award in 2011, the 3Arts Djerassi Artists Residency Fellowship in 2014, and the BOLT Artist in Residence at the Chicago Artists Coalition in 2014-2015. He was also honored with the 3Arts Fellowship at AS220's Artist in Residence program in Providence, RI, in 2017, the 3Arts Fellowship at the Camargo Foundation in Cassis, France in 2024 and the ThreeWalls RaD Lab Fellowship for 2017-2018. His role as Guest Composer at EMS Elektronmusikstudion in Stockholm, Sweden, was made feasible, in part, by the City of Chicago's DCASE grant. Norman is in residence at the Hyde Park Art Center.

In 2023, Norman's multi-channel sound installations were exhibited at the Glass Curtain Gallery and the Ford Environmental Community Center in Chicago, IL, with generous support from Columbia College Chicago and ThreeWalls Gallery. Additionally, he has released two albums, "Calumet in Dub" (on Blorpus Editions) and "Re-membering Re-Presencing" (on Rural Situationism). 

Music: https://normanwlong.bandcamp.com/

Sharon Udoh is a Nigerian-American pianist, composer, arranger, curator, and vocalist based in Chicago. Their performances have been described as a warm bowl of soup, a tornado, a jalapeño pepper, a Jackson Pollock painting, a bulldozer, dangerous yet kind, and magnetic. Her collaborators have included clipping., Tune-Yards, Jamila Woods, Ben Lamar Gay, Angel Bat Dawid, Chris Corsano, and in this configuration, Sara Zalek and Norman W. Long.

Website: sharonudoh.com

whitewolfsonicprincess special trio performance at Compound Yellow.

Our music has been described by our fans as 21st Century Druid Music, Celtic Blues, Neo–Psychedelic Folk-Rock, & Pagan Grooves.

Whatever you want to call it, for the last decade this collaborative ensemble has been gaining fans by making story-songs, prayers to the natural world, songs that reflect the interconnectedness of all things, and the dance of light and shadow in the Universe.

The band emerged from the margins of the Chicago theater scene via our art-project, Black Forest Theater Company.

Website: https://whitewolfsonicprincess.com

Our latest album on Bandcamp: https://whitewolfsonicprincess.bandcamp.com/album/love-without-fear

Sara Zalek (aka Sharkey) is a transdisciplinary artist, dancer, producer, curator, and maker of curious objects. Rooted in physical investigations of trauma, resilience, and transformation, their work is intimate, raw, poetic, often filled with a childlike curiousity. They make performances, learning situations, workshops, and sensing environments to encourage thoughtful interpersonal connections.

Through Butoh Curious Chi, Zalek connects national and international teaching artists with Chicago art makers across genres in the independent and fringe arenas (including dance, butoh, physical theater, experimental and improvisational music). They create opportunities for positive communication and arts integration using workshops, performances, and conversations about personal and collective body.

Music: https://soundcloud.com/sara-zalek, with Norman W. Long: https://reservematinee.bandcamp.com/album/steelworkers-drone