Bio

Arif Smith is multidisciplinary artist, educator, and arts administrator. His polymodal artistic work centers on African-rooted cultural practices and diasporic citizenship, exploring marronage, intertextuality, and Black radical imagination. Smith was a 2017-18 Artist-in-Residence at University of Chicago’s Arts + Public Life and Center for the Study of Race, Politics, and Culture, and received the 3Arts Make-A-Wave Award in 2021. Currently, he leads Music Moves Chicago, Old Town School’s community-based initiative that provides free educational and concert programming through partnerships located in South and West Side neighborhoods. Smith is a Research Associate at the Field Museum. He is also a member of Black Monument Ensemble, Los Medicos, Iré Elese Abure, and is founder of the Frog Belly Society.