“Time is just the difference between knowing now and knowing nothing. Because if you know now fully, it’s past, present, and future.”
Mattie Humphries from the Community Exchange Center (1968)
Damon Locks is a Chicago-based visual artist, educator, vocalist/musician. He attended the Art Institute of Chicago where he received his BFA in fine arts. In 2025 he stepped down from being the Board President on Prison and Neighborhood Arts/Education Project which allowed him to teach art at Stateville Correctional Center for 11 years. He is a 2025 recipient of the Creative Capital Award and the Evolving Democracy Fellowship through Project&. In 2017 he became a Soros Justice Media Fellow. He received the Helen Coburn Meier and Tim Meier Achievement Award in the Arts in 2015. In 2019, he became a 3Arts Awardee. He spent 4 years as an artist in residence as a part of the Museum of Contemporary Arts’ SPACE Program, introducing civically engaged art into the curriculum at Sarah E. Goode STEM Academy High School. He teaches Improvisation in the Sound Department at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. As well as being a solo musician, Damon leads the Black Monument Ensemble, is a member of New Future City Radio, Exploding Star Orchestra and co-founded the band The Eternals.
Photo credit: zakkiyyah najeebah dumas-o'neal