Pathways to Unknown Worlds: Sun Ra, El Saturn and Chicago's Afro-Futurist Underground, 1954-68 - Softcover

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9780945323105: Pathways to Unknown Worlds: Sun Ra, El Saturn and Chicago's Afro-Futurist Underground, 1954-68

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0945323107 ISBN 13: 9780945323105

Publisher: WhiteWalls, 2007

Philosopher, Afro-futurist, and jazz legend Sun Ra (1914–93) constructed much of his complicated public persona during his sojourn in Chicago in the mid-1950s. Working with a still-shadowy underground fraternal organization, Ra amassed a library of books on the occult, Egyptology, race studies, Theosophy, and religion—all in service of drawing elliptical connections between these disparate bodies of knowledge. This work became the foundation of the personal mythology Ra employed in the 1960s when he began fronting his Myth-Science Arkestra and started drawing attention from more mainstream jazz fans.
Pathways to Unknown Worlds presents a kaleidoscopic range of materials from those years, including original record cover designs and production materials, paper ephemera, and photographs. These materials—most previously unseen—dramatically flesh out the story of Sun Ra’s mystical journey of discovery and his lofty goals for the dissemination of his new knowledge; they are certain to fascinate and delight Ra’s legion of fans.

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About the Author:

John Corbett is a widely recognized jazz scholar and a former artistic director of the Berlin Jazz Festival. He teaches at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.Anthony Elms is the editor of WhiteWalls and the assistant director of Gallery 400, and he has taught at the University of Illinois at Chicago, and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.Terri Kapsalis is a Chicago-based writer and performer and a founding member of Theater Oobleck. She teaches at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Review:

"[This collection] is engaging and absorbing, and rewards the curiosity of those interested in the man, his group, and his additions to and influence on the culture. Considering the importance of the man and the revolutionary, highly ahead-of-his-time nature of his ideas, those not already aware of Sun Ra's story have good reason to use this book to begin learning about him. . . . A gentle introduction to, and celebration of, the life, philosophy, and creativity of Sun Ra and El Saturn." (Preston Park Cooper African American Review)

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