Juneteenth Celebration – A Double Feature SPACE IS THE PLACE & SUN RA: DO THE IMPOSSIBLE

SPACE IS THE PLACE, 1974, Janus Films, 84 min. Dir. John Coney. Avant-jazz mystic Sun Ra brought his pioneering Afrofuturist vision to the screen with this surreal and truly otherworldly film version of his concept album. It’s a wild, kaleidoscopic whirl of science fiction, sharp social commentary, pseudo-blaxploitation stylistics, and thrilling concert performance, in which the pharaonic Ra and his Arkestra lead an intergalactic movement to resettle the Black race on their utopian space colony. Shot on location in Oakland in the early 1970s – in one of the film’s most iconic moments, Sun Ra opens an Outer Space Employment Agency to recruit Black youth to join him on the new planet – SPACE IS THE PLACE is a truly unique record of the music, visionary style and philosophy of one of the greatest jazz artists ever. “[Sun Ra’s] mythic science loomed quite largely throughout all of his musical masterpieces. He denounced earth as his home, opting instead for an affiliation with Saturn and an embracement of the mythology of ancient Egypt. For Sun Ra, music was not about getting rich or dying while trying, but instead it was a tone science in which the artist is supposed to find the right tone and key that resonates with his spirit so that his music can in turn be spiritually uplifting to the people. … From the outset you know that it is music that powers Sun Ra’s spaceship, so the spaceship becomes a metaphor for the black mind, in fact, the black soul.” – Lynne d Johnson, Popmatters.

New Documentary! SUN RA: DO THE IMPOSSIBLE, 2025, Firelight Media, 84 min. Poet, philosopher, Egyptologist, bandleader. Jazz visionary Sun Ra was all of these – and more. With his ever-evolving band, the Sun Ra Arkestra, he produced more than 200 albums, stretching the boundaries of free-form jazz while weaving ancient Egypt, interstellar metaphors, and scientific musings into a singular musical and spiritual vision of Afrofuturism that continues to reverberate across generations. Director Christine Turner takes us on an illuminating journey through the life of this multi-faceted artist, gracefully balancing recollections from the Arkestra’s still-devout band members and dancers with insightful interviews from music scholars, and unforgettable film and performance footage of Sun Ra himself. The result is a portrait – informative, inspiring, and mind-bending – of a man whose audacious vision, otherworldly imagination, and uncompromising artistry helped shape not only the sound of jazz, but the cultural landscape of the 20th century and beyond.

About Sun Ra Herman Poole Blount was born on May 22, 1914, in Birmingham, Alabama, and departed this earth on May 30, 1993, as Sun Ra. Along the way he became a conscientious objector, legally changed his name to Le Sony’r Ra, forged a vision of a Black Space Age future, created a big band that toured the world and continues to this day, wrote over 1000 jazz compositions, issued more than 200 self-produced records, pioneered the use of electronic keyboards, and published volumes of broadsheets and poetry. Sun Ra reached back in time to ancient Egypt to claim civilization as Black and fused it with the dawn of the Space Age to assert Blackness as the very nature of the “omniverse.” Compelling and strange, he claimed to have been “teleported” to Saturn, where he was told that the world would descend into chaos and that he must speak through music. Though his “Earth departure day” may have occurred more than three decades ago, his influence continues to grow with each successive generation. Our good friends at Streetlight Records will be selling vinyl before the Sun Ra double feature at The 418 Project, so come by early to grab some great records and be sure to visit their amazing store!! (https://streetlightrecords.com/)

$10 in advance, $15 at the door.

Doors open at 7:00 PM, film at 7:30 PM at The 418 Project, 155 South River Street, downtown Santa Cruz at the Dragons Gate.