Open Mike Eagle
Meet the 2026 Artist as Instigator
Open Mike Eagle’s Brick Body Kids Still Daydream on display in the REC Room at the National Public Housing Museum, with a photo by Marc PoKempner in the background.
Open Mike Eagle
Open Mike Eagle spent the 2010s finding comedy in rap music and American nightmares. On albums like Brick Body Kids Still Daydream and Dark Comedy, he delivered hilarious socio-political insights via half-sung verses laid atop progressive production. Acclaim from publications like Pitchfork, Rolling Stone, and NPR coincided with headlining solo tours and top-billing at events like Adult Swim Festival. Between studio sessions, Eagle co-founded The New Negroes, a standup-meets-music variety show that explores perceptions of blackness. He and co-founder Baron Vaughn brought the show to Upright Citizens Brigade, Comedy Central, and venues around the U.S. Since founding his record label Auto Reverse Records, though, Eagle has scaled back the jokes. He’s finally unpacking his traumas and acknowledging their impact.
About the project
Open Mike Eagle’s sixth studio album Brick Body Kids Still Daydream (2017) is a concept album about Robert Taylor Homes, a former public housing project in Chicago.
The Robert Taylor Homes was the largest public housing project in the United States when it was built, consisting of 28 16-story buildings that stretched for two miles along State Street. It contained nearly 4,300 apartments and was home to around 27,000 people at its peak. At once one of the world’s most famous and infamous housing projects, the Robert Taylor Homes was demolished along with most of the city’s high-rise public housing complexes as part of Chicago’s Plan for Transformation at the turn of the millennium, forcibly dislocating residents and dispersing communities. Among the displaced were close relatives and friends of Open Mike Eagle, along with generations of musical and cultural legacies.
The Sound of a Brick Body Complex
As the National Public Housing Museum’s seventh Artist as Instigator, Open Mike Eagle will capture and preserve the stories of musicians and artists that were raised in housing systems that have been erased.
Through this exploration of the lives and music of artists that lived in public housing communities that no longer exist, Open Mike Eagle will develop The Sound of a Brick Body Complex (working title), an immersive audio-visual experience, conduct one on one interviews, and facilitate intimate performances to honor and celebrate the unheralded generations of families that lived, loved, laughed and died in these spaces.
Open Mike EagleTens of thousands displaced without so much as a plaque left behind
Residency launch
Interview and Performance with Open Mike Eagle
Thursday, December 4, 2025
6–7:30 pm | Doors open at 5:30 pm
National Public Housing Museum
Meet National Public Housing Museum’s seventh Artist as Instigator, Open Mike Eagle, who will share plans for his 2026 residency and give an intimate performance.
FREE. Light bites and refreshments included. Space is limited, but the event will also be livestreamed. Registration opens November 13.
Support
Generous support for the 2026 Artist as Instigator residency at the National Public Housing Museum is provided by the Mellon Foundation, the Joyce Foundation, and the Illinois Arts Council.
