Journey With Me to Sun Ra’s “Space is The Place”

“My whole body changed into something else. I landed on a planet that I identified as Saturn.” - Sun Ra

The Museum of African Diaspora (MOAD) and The Contemporary Jewish Museum recently held a 40^th anniversary screening of jazz theorist and philosopher Sun Ra’s 1974 science-fiction cosmo-drama Space is The Place. In this complex, quasi-abstract, weird, militant Blaxploitation, visionary, Afrofuturistic, and hood-conscious film, Sun Ra takes viewers on a journey from space to Earth in hope of reclaiming Black minds using interstellar techniques, imagery, and Black Power consciousness colliding with the fashion sense of Shaft and Superfly.

The opening introduces us to a Black man dressed in head-to-toe Parliament-Funkadelic Egyptian regalia: Sun Ra. Coming from a bluish planet inhabited by Black people, he makes his entrance on Earth a spaceship evocative of a rubber raft with two blood-shot red eyeballs plastered on it. Sun Ra’s purpose for coming to Earth is to recruit more potential Black occupants, and spread a few philosophical lessons. His purpose becomes clear with his initial question: “Are you ready to alter your destiny?”

Sun Ra meets many challenges trip to Earth, ranging from a deferential reporter, to some teenagers who question his own existence: “How do we know you’re for real?” and dismiss him as “some old hippie” from Telegraph Ave.

Challenged in reclaiming the African and Black consciousness of his future inhabitants, Ra faces his greatest foe in his quest of freedom and liberation in the power structure that takes the form of “The Overseer” and his minion Jimmy Fey. The Overseer is a diabolical pimp and incarnation of evil in the Black community, in many ways a metaphor for the overseers from the U.S. slave trade, and Jimmy is reminiscent of present day Blacks trying to make it in the entertainment industry at any cost. As a ploy, The Overseer poses himself to be a community leader and a man of charity, while in fact being the tool of a dominant elite, hierarchal organization. In addition, to facing The Overseer, Ra must also combat White government agents (presumably from the FBI) who are attempting to eliminate him. From both racial angles, Black and White, Ra must fight to the death for the fate of the Black race.

The film’s strengths included Ra’s genius musical skills. With a complex, at times disjointed, storyline (i.e. cosmic card games, 1940s jazz club vignettes, and proselytizing at an inner city youth center), Space is The Place features Ra’s 12-member band, the Arkestra. Clearly heard and on occasion seen in the film, the band melds heavy, kinetic percussions, an electrifying synthesizer, flamboyant horn, and a brass section that elevate jazz to a new dimension. For some, the music may not be enough to stay engaged with the plot. Much like how Sun Ra was difficult to understand and grasp, Space is The Place incorporates that confusion with a small opening of clarity. The film is a brilliant statement that informs audiences about 1970s race.

Space Is The Place is fundamental viewing, particularly for those interested in jazz or African/African American-diasporic cinema. Despite poor distribution and few theater screenings, the 1950s and 1960s futuristic acid jazz soundtrack made the film an underground classic.

Although this is Ra’s only film (honestly, he only needed one to preach his philosophy) he also made strides in the academic arena. Prior to the film, in the Spring 1971 semester, Sun Ra served as an artist-in-residence here at UC Berkeley. He taught a course in the African American Studies department, “The Black Man in the Universe,” or “The Black Man in the Cosmos.” While in the Bay (particularly Oakland), Sun Ra caught the attention of film and television producer Jim Newman. Listening to Sun Ra's lectures makes it obvious that the course and the Arkestra band influenced the film. Ra’s teaching style consisted of lecture for the first part of the class, then treating the students to keyboard solos or perhaps Arkestra performances for the second half: the epitome of an informative and engaging class. Watching and listening to him push the envelope is truly a cosmic experience.

More than just a dark, super-sonic bootleg 85-minute film, Space is the Place is a filmic vision laced with Ra’s musical talent, which sought to expand the consciousness of African Americans in Oakland’s hoods. Combining elements and references from the King James Bible, Afrocentrism, science-fiction, occult philosophy, Egyptology, and his own “Arkestra” band, Sun Ra created futuristic free jazz while telling a story of empowerment and survival. Space is The Place is a timely film that incorporates amiable silliness while examining race relations blended with radical paranoia, all in the context of the Black Panther movement and the post-Vietnam era. Space is The Place is an enjoyable, imaginative film with a dramatically unique plot.

*As posted in The Berkeley Graduate

Hollywood's Whitewashed Diversity*

With the award season fully underway, eyebrow have been going up over the lack of diversity in the recent Academy Awards nominations announcement. Immediately after the January 15 announcements, social media, Twitter in particular, went into a major uproar. The hash tag #OscarsSoWhite went viral after the Academy revealed that all 20 male and female contenders in the acting categories are white.

The Academy’s first black woman president, Cheryl Boone Isaacs, reported to New York magazine blog Vulture “that the organization does not have a diversity problem ‘at all.’” However, many fans, actors, and the like would have to disagree with this sentiment, considering the predominantly white list of artist nominations. This year’s Academy Awards is the whitest Oscars since 1998. Many people have expressed their frustrations as more disappointment than surprise, (i.e. CNN LA correspondent David Daniel “#OscarNoms No female directors, screenwriters, or cinematograhers. No actors of color. #diversity”) because this is neither the first, nor the second time that this has happened. In the last 30 years, the acting categories have been completely devoid of non-white nominees a total of five time (1989, 1992, 1996, 1998, and 2015). Though we supposedly live in a “post-racial” society, it seems the Academy has not received that memo.

This white-washing of the Oscars is quite significant, considering that one of the films snubbed, Selma only received two nominations: “Best Picture” and “Best Song” for Glory (John Legend and Common), without an actor or director nomination. Despite high marks from critics and having the best review for “Best Picture” (receiving a score of 99) of all the nominations, British actor David Oyelowo missed out on a nod for Best Actor for his powerful and chilling performance of Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Academy failed recognize the visionary young black Ava DuVernay in the “Best Director” category. Had DuVernay been nominated, she would have made history as the first ever black female to be nominated in that category. Films like Selma remind audiences how relevant and worthy of a discussion the film’s poignant subject matter is. Particularly in light of the unrest over the killings of Michael Brown and Eric Garner in Ferguson and New York, respectively, and even locally, echoing heavily on the American conscience, there’s a need for a film such as Selma to remind the country of what has happened and continues to happen…and how we still need change.

A year ago, it appeared as though the Academy had made some strides in diversity. 12 Years of Slave won “Best Picture” along with the ground-breaking win from Lupita Nyong’o in the Best Supporting Actress category. Additionally, Alfonso Cuaron was the first Hispanic man to win Best Director, while Chiwetel Ejiofor won “Best Actor” and Captain Phillips star Barkhad Abdi won “Best Supporting Actor”. Those seemed to be the major talking points, but this year, the nods made a drastic turn.

In response to this lack of diversity, many fans and actors took to Twitter to voice their support for fellow actors:

“So #OscarNoms hmm. Shout out to my brother #DavidOyelowo you’ve been robbed but you’re not defined by this and your talent can’t be taken.” ~ @NoelClarke

#OscarsSoWhite that even The Lego Movie didn't get nominated for Best Animated Film because Morgan Freeman voiced a character. ~ @ShaunKing

The significance of these awards has always been a controversial interest. Now some may argue that the Golden Globes was full of diversity, which is true; however, much of that diversity came from the television genre. Others have given up hope, realizing that waiting for the Academy to recognize diversity and talent may be an infinitely long wait. Since the Academy’s birth, African Americans have had a complex, abstruse relationship with the Academy Awards. Whether they are nominated for roles such as boxers, sharecroppers, drug addicts, abused or scorned women, welfare mothers, maids, psychics, drug dealers, prisoners, or simply not nominated at all, there is hardly an amicable relationship.

Although it is hard to ignore the righteous anger, one can’t help but ask: do actors, actresses, and directors really need the Academy’s approval of their acting talents and gifts?

*As seen also in The Berkeley Graduate