John Niekrasz (he/they) is a Chicago-raised, Portland-based artist working in sound, language, performance, and movement. He received his MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, studied classical percussion in India, music and dance in Havana, and improvisation with Milford Graves in New York. John’s sound work bridges the musico-poetic divide through text-based composition and syllabic musical notation, inspired by ideas around poverty and ornament, rigor and effortlessness, justice and militancy. He pioneered and continues to develop the use of Sensory Percussion technology for 16-channel sound systems. John publishes his writing, makes music for dance, theater, and film, performs solo and with ensembles Methods Body, LTD Time, Ixnay, and Orchestra Becomes Radicalized, and currently dances for Emma Lutz-Higgins. His work has been commissioned by Cite des Arts Paris, The Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Issue Project Room NYC, Portland Jazz Festival, Lewis and Clark College, and PICA’s Time Based Art Festival. 

See more about John’s work at www.johnneicrasz.com