Comfort Station presents a Juneteenth program: Black Queer Futures

Featuring ORISUN & Austin Gardner

7:45 PM: ORISUN

ORISUN are star-crossed musicians based in Chicago. These two punky queer partners used quarantine as an opportunity to develop their lo-fi musings to culminate in an EP, THIS IS ORISUN. ORISUN exhibits clear indie rock sensibility, their jazz and soul roots present within Kai’s driving bass lines and potent drum patterns. Asha’s vocals are spread densely across lush chord progressions. The pair seeks to reclaim guitar-based music genres for black musicians, as well as claim new space for musicians of trans identity.

8:45 PM: Austin Gardner presents his video “Worldbuild With Me”, followed by a disco dance set

“One of my favorite qualities of Afrofuturism is the blend of Black imaginations for the future and tech-based mediums. Worldbuild With Me is an afrofuturistic audio and video collage that exemplifies this while also touching on Black liberation, Black joy, and our current environmental crisis.

Disco is a historically Black and queer music genre that sits at the intersection of Black diasporic music production and advancement in technology. Given our material conditions, Black people have always been both culturally and politically innovative. Art is necessary to the heart of any revolution.”