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Pathways to Unknown Worlds: Sun Ra, El Saturn and Chicago's Afro-Futurist Underground, 1954-68
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.
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.
128 pages, Paperback
First published February 14, 2007
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
December 30, 2023
A fascinating read. Sun Ra lived such a fascinating life, and had such earth shattering ideas. This was a really great way of getting closer to the art and the person.
April 11, 2009
This book is mostly prints of album covers, sketches of covers, promotional flyers, poetry, sun ra business cards and more...I really get a good feeling when I look through it all...i never knew that they had their own printing press and hand printed all their own record covers. a pretty unusual arrangement to work out with RCA records! there's also brief essays/memories written by arkestra members..i like the sketches of the saturn cosmic research center drawn all over tax forms...and the business cards are absolutely wonderful. i'm thinking of trying to print one up into a poster size...for the purpose of better life vibrations..
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October 2, 2012I enjoy learning about Afro-Futurism because it seems like a cooler version of Messianic Judaism. Embodying the promise of a better future and creating it with a spacey aesthetic. This book touches on a few pieces but it was much too short and quick. The greatest benefit was reading a few pieces of Sun Ra's poems and getting tipped off to Octavia Butler and Camille Norment. The album covers featured are interesting because they have such weird shapes and text design on them but not all that memorable.
July 20, 2016
Loved the tidbits from Arkestra members and others who knew Sun Ra. Cool to see unused album art and of course I love love love love love the business ephemera from El Saturn Records. Beta music for beta people in a beta world.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews