The Duke University Center for International Studies, in concert with the Franklin Humanities Institute and the Durham Art Guild are pleased to announce the opening of “Pathways to Unknown Worlds: Sun Ra, El Saturn and Chicago’s Afro-Futurist Underground 1954 – 1968,” An exhibition celebrating the life of jazz musician, pianist, bandleader, mystic, philosopher and Afro-Futurist Sun Ra.
The exhibition, which opens Friday, August 21 and runs through Sunday, October 18, showcases diverse, provocative and rarely seen materials from Sun Ra’s life, at the Durham Art Guild, 120 Morris Street in downtown Durham.
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- (left to right: Ricky Murray, John Gilmore, Ronnie Boykins, Sun Ra, Phil Cohran, Jon Hardy, Marshall Allen) Collection of the Chicago Jazz Archive, Special Collections Research Center and University of Chicago Library. Photo by Charles Shabacon.
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- Collection of the Chicago Jazz Archive, Special Collections Research Center and University of Chicago Library. Photo by Charles Shabacon.
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- Collection of the Chicago Jazz Archive, Special Collections Research Center and University of Chicago Library. Photo by Charles Shabacon.
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- Collection of the Chicago Jazz Archive, Special Collections Research Center and University of Chicago Library. Photo by Charles Shabacon.
The exhibition will include record album cover art created by Sun Ra, paperwork from the record labels that he ran, costumes and photographs of his musical ensemble, The Arkestra. The exhibition is co-sponsored by Duke University’s Office of the Vice Provost for the Arts, Downtown Durham, Inc., the Bull Durham Blues Festival and the Raleigh Little Theater.
In addition to the exhibition, Duke Performances will present the Sun Ra Arkestra and the Mingus Big Band in concert at Page Auditorium at 7 pm on Saturday, September 26.
On Friday, September 25, at 2pm, DUCIS and the Franklin Humanities Institute will host an interview with Marshall Allen, director of the Sun Ra Arkestra, followed by a panel discussion with the curators of Pathways to Unknown Worlds: Sun Ra, El Saturn and Chicago’s Afro-Futurist Underground 1954 – 1968, which will begin at 4pm in room 240 of the John Hope Franklin Center.
