Bio
John Niekrasz is an American artist working in sound, language, performance, and movement.
Originally from Chicago, John received his MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and is a lifelong student of music. John studied improvisation with Milford Graves, percussion and dance in Havana, and classical Hindustani tabla with Pandit Lacchu Maharaj. The English pronunciation of John’s last name rhymes with Free Jazz.
Niekrasz is committed to improvisation both in performance and as a compositional approach. He bridges the musico-poetic divide through text-based composition and syllabic musical notation. His work grapples with ideas around poverty and ornament, rigor and effortlessness, justice and militancy. Liberatory texts are at the heart of his work.
John composes for and performs in ensembles Methods Body, Orchestra Becomes Radicalized, Ixnay, LTD Time, and others. He also creates sound for film and theater. John’s recordings appear on labels Ecstatic Peace, New Amsterdam, ESP-disk’, Beacon Sound, Tender Loving Empire, and others. He has composed original scores for choreographers including Shannon Stewart, Anya Cloud, Claire Barrera, Allie Hankins, and Ginger Krebs, and he dances for choreographer Emma Lutz-Higgins.
Niekrasz is the Autumn 2024 Artist-in-Residence at Lewis and Clark College’s EAR Forest. He has created work as a fellow at the Atlantic Center for the Arts, ACRE Arts Residency, Résidence Point Dom, Lazuli Residency, and the 2024 Oregon Artists’ Biennial. For six months, he performed and curated for Paris’ Cité International des Arts. He founded the CMG’s Outset Music Series, works in ACRE’s recording studio, and has served as artistic director of the Creative Music Guild. He taught drum set at Revival Drum Shop for three years. John has collaborated and performed with artists including Rhys Chatham, Joanna Newsom, Y La Bamba, Marilyn Crispell, Akron/Family, Mika Singh, Mary Halvorson, Glenn Kotche, Holland Andrews, Marcus Fischer, Luke Wyland, Ed Rodriguez, Tim Kinsella, Tomeka Reid, Nicole Mitchell, Nate Wooley, and many others.
John Niekrasz publishes poetry, fiction, and essays. He edits and ghostwrites professionally. He is currently finishing his third novel.
@Johnniekrasz