Afrofuturism – Sun Ra (from Saturn)

Afrofuturism is a literary as well as cultural aesthetic approach which combines several elements from, for example, science-fiction, fantasy or alternate history focusing on people with African roots. The term was coined 1993 by Mark Dery, and its aim is to process and reexamine historical events of the past which affected African American people and might also still affect them nowadays. Therefore, it addresses topics concerning the African diaspora with a perspective characterized by science-fiction elements. Although most Afrofuturism forms of art are expressed through literature or visible or visible media, there are also artists who realize a musical Afrofuturism approach.

One of these artists is Herman Poole Blount better known as Sun Ra. Sun Ra is an US-American composer of mainly jazz music and part of the experimental avantgarde approach. Besides being composer and musician, he was a poet and philosopher as well. Sun Ra was seen quite critical in the world of jazz music since he had his very own style and polarizing ideas. Besides his musical compositions, he also published very bizarre preaches and philosophical approaches. He was also leader of a band called “Arkestra” which combines the terms ark and orchestra. An important aspect of Sun Ra’s work was his interest in the cosmos which is why he implemented it into his music and created cosmic jazz for which he became famous.

Another remarkable aspect of Sun Ra was his special clothing style which was mainly coined by Egyptian clothing style. Even is his clothing style was quite conspicuous, there was one thing about Sun Ra that was even more remarkable: He claimed being from Saturn. According to him, he had been in touch with aliens who teleported him to Saturn and told him information about the future. This encounter had also been his reason to start composing his very special music. During his career, he distanced himself from racism but without explicitly talking about it. His main focus had always been his music.