HOMEROOM

Comfort Music + is back every Monday in June at Comfort Station!

The Comfort Music + series has run since 2018, pairing music with dance, video, spoken word, installation art, and more. This unlikely curatorial presentation allows artistic communities to commingle in the hopes of future collaboration and connection. This year’s series is curated by musician and interdisciplinary artist Scott Rubin, with collaborations spanning music, visual art, performance, and technology.

The first performance is Monday, June 1:

Sarah Clausen, saxophone
+ Amanda Maraist, dance

Kim Nucci, media art
+ Ryn Hardiman, electronic signal manipulation

Doors 7 PM / Show 7:30 PM
Comfort Station, 2579 N Milwaukee Ave, Chicago
Suggested donation at the door

See you there!

This program is partially supported by a grant from the Illinois Arts Council.

A recap of Julian Otis' "Ritual" at Experimental Station for Homeroom's Blank Box series! Thank you to everyone who attended and to all the performers involved.

Performers:
Julian Otis
Naydja Bruton
Paige Brown
Gabriel Lochard
Scott Rubin
Kezia Waters
Kopano

Meet your final Blank Box ritual guide, Kezia Waters! They are joining Homeroom Chicago on May 15 at Experimental Station to perform in Julian Otis' new multimedia work, "Ritual."

Friday, May 15, 2026
8pm doors, 8:30pm performance
$20 suggested donation
Experimental Station

About Kezia Waters:
Kezia Waters is a director, actor, and multidisciplinary artist. Their work, often influenced by their background in theatre, emphasizes storytelling and experimental dialogue. They create ritual performances using found objects, elaborate costuming, and music.

Waters considers time travel as both a subject of their work and a process their work is informed by. Sounds, movements, and visuals are repeated, overlapped, reduced, and elongated in correspondence with Waters’ feelings. They consider their practice through lenses of spiritual surrealism, traditional folklore, and religious traditions. Having grown up in the Black Pentecostal Church, Waters investigates what it is to be holy/whole and exist within Black and/or q***r functionality. Their drag persona, Dorsey Swan, channels Black female preachers they knew growing up.

Waters has performed at spaces like Almanac Gallery, Elastic Arts, and Montreal’s Dazibao Gallery. They are a recipient of the 3arts 2025 Make a Wave Award and 2023 Yates Performance DCASE Artist in Residence/grant. Waters is currently working on new music, including a solo EP.

Paige Brown is joining Homeroom Chicago for Blank Box: Ritual! She will act as a ritual guide in Julian Otis' new work, "Ritual," a new multimedia performance premiering at Experimental Station on May 15.

Friday, May 15, 2026
8pm doors, 8:30pm performance
$20 suggested donation
Experimental Station

About Paige Brown:
Paige Brown is a vocalist, pianist, and composer. Brown’s music is informed by classical piano, collaboration, soul, Afrofuturism, gospel choir, folk, and an understanding of her voice as a channel. Her approach is also inspired by playful, grounding practices such as taking care of plants and trying new recipes.

Brown is the Dark Matter Residency coordinator at Elastic Arts and program associate at Bustling Spaces. Brown has helped provide support and resources to emerging artists across Chicago. A former dual-language teacher, she is committed to education, economic empowerment, and social action. Brown considers housing insecurity, mental health, and the criminalization of Black people and immigrants in her work, as well as the power of community in the face of these issues.

Brown has performed throughout Chicago, in spaces such as Elastic Arts, Hyde Park Art Center, Anna and Frederick Douglass Park, and recently took her first step into VR with ARTGAL.

Photo by

Meet your ritual guide, Naydja Bruton! Naydja Bruton will be performing in Julian Otis' "Ritual," the newest iteration of Blank Box, on May 15 at Experimental Station.

Friday, May 15, 2026
8pm doors, 8:30pm performance
$20 suggested donation
Experimental Station

About Naydja Bruton:
Naydja Bruton is a drummer, composer, and teacher exploring how music leads to greater healing and empathy. They see music as a way to bring people together and create positive, vulnerable spaces.

Originally from Sparta, Illinois, Bruton has been pulled towards Chicago since they were little. After joining band in high school, Bruton found community through music, eventually making their way into the Chicago music scene. Having experienced firsthand how music can facilitate compassion, confidence, and intimate bonds, Bruton hopes to pass that experience on to others in their practice. They hope audiences will leave their performances joyful, and, as an educator, they aim to teach others how to create interpersonal connections through music and learning.

Bruton, along with their ensemble, The Rhythm Ninjas, has performed improvisations and compositions across venues in Chicago. They recently performed at Transition East, Elastic Arts, and Tangible Books, as well as recorded their first record.

Homeroom Chicago is excited to present the newest iteration of BlankBox on May 15 at Experimental Station!

"Ritual" is a multimedia performance by multidisciplinary artist, creative vocalist, and composer Julian Otis, in collaboration with Naydja Bruton, Paige Brown, Gabriel Lochard, Scott Rubin, olula negre, and Kezia Waters.

If you're reading this, you are a part of Ritual. Meditate on the Elements of Life. Earth. Water. Fire. Mineral. We take you on a Journey of Remembering through the lens of Black Inspirational Music as we explore our somatic map of care, singing through the healing elements while creating the conditions to grow new life. Walk away changed and Ready to Grow.

Friday, May 15, 2026
8pm doors, 8:30pm performance
$20 suggested donation
Experimental Station, 6100 S Blackstone Ave, Chicago, IL 60637

See you there Chicago!