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[lasmaracuyas]

Sun Ra’s Full Lecture & Reading List From His 1971 UC Berkeley Course, “The Black Man in the Cosmos”

[pinsandpouts]

A pioneer of “Afrofuturism,” bandleader Sun Ra emerged from a traditional swing scene in Alabama, touring the country in his teens as a member of his high school biology teacher’s big band. While attending Alabama Agricultural and Mechanical University, he had a out-of-body experience during which he was transported into outer space. As biographer John Szwed records him saying, “my whole body changed into something else. I landed on a planet that I identified as Saturn.” While there, aliens with “little antenna on each ear. A little antenna on each eye” instructed him to drop out of college and speak through his music. And that’s just what he did, changing his name from Herman Blount and never looking back.

Whether you believe that story, whether Sun Ra believes it, or whether his entire persona is a theatrical put-on should make no difference. Because Sun Ra would be a visionary either way. Combining Afrocentric science fiction, esoteric and occult philosophy, Egyptology, and, with his “Arkestra,” his own brand of free jazz-futurism that has no equal on earth, the man is truly sui generis. In 1971, he served as artist-in-residence at UC Berkeley and offered a spring semester lecture, African-American Studies 198, also known as “Sun Ra 171,” “The Black Man in the Universe,” or “The Black man in the Cosmos.” The course featured readings from—to name just a few—theosophist Madame Blavatsky, French philosopher Constantin Francois de Chasseboeuf, black American writer and poet Henry Dumas, and “God,” whom the cosmic jazz theorist reportedly listed as the author of The Source Book of Man’s Life and Death (otherwise known as the King James Bible).

Now we have the rare opportunity to hear a full lecture from that class at the top of the post. Listen to Sun Ra spin his intricate, bizarrely otherworldly theories, drawn from his personal philosophy, peculiar etymologies, and idiosyncratic readings of religious texts. Hearing him speak is a little like hearing him play, so be prepared for a lot of free association and jarring, unexpected juxtapositions. Szwed describes a “typical lecture” below:

Sun Ra wrote biblical quotes on the board and then ‘permutated’ them—rewrote and transformed their letters and syntax into new equations of meaning, while members of the Arkestra passed through the room, preventing anyone from taping the class. His lecture subjects included Neoplatonic doctrines; the application of ancient history and religious texts to racial problems; pollution and war; and a radical reinterpretation of the Bible in light of Egyptology.

Luckily for us, some sly student captured one of those lectures on tape. For more of Professor Ra’s spaced out presentation, see the Helsinki interview above, also from 1971. And if you decide you need your own education in “Sun Ra 171,” see the full reading list from his Berkeley course below, courtesy of the blog New Day.

The Egyptian Book of the Dead

Radix

Alexander Hislop: Two Babylons

The Theosophical works of Madame Blavatsky

The Book of Oahspe

Henry Dumas: Ark of Bones

Henry Dumas: Poetry for My People eds. Hale Charfield & Eugene Redmond, Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press 1971

Black Fire: An Anthology of Afro-American Writing, eds. Leroi Jones & Larry Neal, New York: William Morrow 1968

David Livingston: Missionary Travels

Theodore P. Ford: God Wills the Negro

Rutledge: God’s Children

Stylus, vol. 13, no. 1 (Spring 1971), Temple University

John S. Wilson: Jazz. Where It Came From, Where It’s At, United States Information Agency

Yosef A. A. Ben-Jochannan: Black Man of the Nile and His Family, Alkibu Ian Books 1972

Constantin Francois de Chasseboeuf, Comte de Volney: The Ruins, or, Meditation on the Revolutions of Empires, and the Law of Nature, London: Pioneer Press 1921

The Source Book of Man’s Life and Death (Ra’s description; =The King James Bible)

Pjotr Demianovitch Ouspensky: A New Model of the Universe. Principles of the Psychological Method in Its Application to Problems of Science, Religion and Art, New York: Knopf 1956

Frederick Bodmer: The Loom of Language. An Approach to the Mastery of Many Languages, ed. Lancelot Hogben, New York: Norton & Co. 1944

Blackie’s Etymology

[wetheurban]

MUSIC: M.I.A. - Gold

We’ve got new music from M.I.A., as this week the songstress has released her partnered project with The Partysquad titled “Gold.”

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[pinsandpouts]

Yep

[what-id-wear]

What I’d Wear : The Outfit Database

(source : Stockholm Streetstyle )

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Look at this coat, look at that colour

I love a camel coloured coat. The colour goes with everything and, for the  most part, adds a touch of class.

When I first moved to Australia I did not bring a coat or a jacket. I took for granted that Australia would always be sunny and warm and coats and jackets were trivial things that could be left behind to my old North American life.

Wrong.

Luckily a new friend of mine lent me a coat. It was a beautiful, camel-coloured, long, wool coat and it was love at first sight.

The camel coat is one of the staples of any woman's wardrobe. It is worth the investment as it is a goddamned classic. Hell, you can even hand it down to your kids. It's gotta be wool and it's better to be long and somewhat oversized.

I think I have just talked myself into buying a new coat. Sigh.

[pinsandpouts]

Watch this music video.

While it has been awhile that I have taken time to sit down and listen to The Roots, every time I do, I wonder why I don't spend more time with them.

In my opinion, this video is wonderful. It's cute and dark and weird and engrossing.

[pinsandpouts]

Look at these turbans.

So I was kind of in love with turbans a couple of years back, but only really wore one out once. It was simple and black and relatively boring as far as turbans go, but I felt like a stand out wearing it. People noticed.

I'm not sure if it's the fact that I have a newborn baby and hence like zero time to do anything with my hair than the tried and tested (the tired and busted) top knot, but I think I am going to revisit the turban. Particularly the one shown in the last photo. I think paired with a denim shirt or jacket, a simple (or outrageous if you should feel the urge) turban/ headscarf could be the little pick me up that one so desperately needs in times of basicdom.

[honeycombmoon]

[pinsandpouts]

Teddy Girl series by Ken Russell, 1955

Look at this girl. I mean seriously. I want this look now.

I mean yeah, it would help if you were a teenage waif with a banging quiffette (a girly quiff?), but I can honestly picture this as being a very contemporary photo outside of London Fashion Week.

Love the loafers, rolled skinnies, simple white T, military blazer and feminine scarf. it's delicate and tough and French and British and I am typing this while wearing sweatpants in bed.

Sigh.