A Pure Solar World : Sun Ra and the Birth of Afrofuturism

Youngquist, Paul

ISBN 10: 0292726368 / ISBN 13: 9780292726369

Verlag: University of Texas Press, 2016

Former library copy. Pages intact with minimal writing/highlighting. The binding may be loose and creased. Dust jackets/supplements are not included. Includes library markings. Stock photo provided. Product includes identifying sticker. Better World Books: Buy Books. Do Good. Bestandsnummer des Verkäufers 15545821-6

Inhaltsangabe:

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.

A Pure Solar World: Sun Ra and the Birth of Afrofuturism offers 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.

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor: Paul Youngquist is professor emeritus at the University of Colorado Boulder. He writes on music, popular literature, and Caribbean history. He is the author of Cyberfiction: After the Future, among other titles.

Bibliografische Details

Titel: A Pure Solar World : Sun Ra and the Birth of...
Verlag: University of Texas Press
Erscheinungsdatum: 2016
Einband: Hardcover
Zustand: Good