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A pure solar world : Sun Ra and the birth of Afrofuturism / Paul Youngquist

Author
Youngquist, Paul
Published
Austin : University of Texas Press, 2016.
Copyright Date
©2016
Edition
First edition.
Physical Description
1 online resource (viii, 346 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates) : illustrations
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Series
Contents
Prelude to infinity -- Intro: Wonder Inn -- Alien -- Marienville -- Bronzeville -- Thmei -- Egypt -- Washington Park -- Arkestra -- Immeasurable equation -- El Saturn -- Isotope teleportation -- Cry of jazz -- Sputnik -- Rocketry -- Tomorrowland -- Interplanetary exotica -- Space music -- Myth science -- Black man in the cosmos -- Space is the place -- Tokens of infinity -- Continuation -- Outro: Extensions out.
Summary
Sun Ra said he came from Saturn. Known on earth for his inventive music and extravagant stage shows, he pioneered free-form improvisation in an ensemble setting with the devoted band he called the "Arkestra." Sun Ra took jazz from the inner city to outer space, infusing traditional swing with far-out harmonies, rhythms, and sounds. Described as the father of Afrofuturism, Sun Ra created "space music" as a means of building a better future for American blacks here on earth. This is a spirited introduction to the life and work of this legendary but underappreciated musician, composer, and poet. Paul Youngquist explores and assesses Sun Ra's wide-ranging creative output-music, public preaching, graphic design, film and stage performance, and poetry-and connects his diverse undertakings to the culture and politics of his times, including the space race, the rise of technocracy, the civil rights movement, and even space-age bachelor-pad music. By thoroughly examining the astro-black mythology that Sun Ra espoused, Youngquist masterfully demonstrates that he offered both a holistic response to a planet desperately in need of new visions and vibrations and a new kind of political activism that used popular culture to advance social change. In a nation obsessed with space and confused about race, Sun Ra aimed not just at assimilation for the socially disfranchised but even more at a wholesale transformation of American society and a more creative, egalitarian world.
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ISBN
9781477311172 (electronic bk.)
1477311173 (electronic bk.)
9781477311189 (electronic bk.)
1477311181 (electronic bk.)
9780292726369 (hardcover ; alkaline paper)
0292726368 (hardcover ; alkaline paper)
Bibliography Note
Includes bibliographical references (pages 311-321), discography (pages 323-331) and index.
View MARC record | catkey: 43141110