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Sun Ra Quotations Throughout
The author is grateful to the Sun Ra Estate LLC and Irwin Chusid for extending nonexclusive permission to quote from the many works Sun Ra created during his lifetime. All works are copyright © Enterplanetary Koncepts/Sun Ra LLC.
Epigraph
Quotation from Amiri Baraka on Sun Ra, permission by Chris Calhoun Agency, © Amiri Baraka.
Chapter 3: Bronzeville
Gwendolyn Brooks, “kitchenette building,” in Selected Poems (New York: Harper and Row, 1963), 3. Reprinted by consent of Brooks Permissions.
Chapter 8: Immeasurable Equation
Sun Ra, “The Neglected Plane of Wisdom,” in The Immeasurable Equation, 250–251. Courtesy of Hartmut Geerken, Waitawhile.
Sun Ra, “Astro Black,” in The Immeasurable Equation, 74. The poem is sung on Sun Ra, Astro Black, Impulse! AS-9255, 1973, quadraphonic LP. Courtesy of Hartmut Geerken, Waitawhile.
PHOTOS
The author is grateful to John Corbett and Terri Kapsalis for assistance with obtaining rights to reprint images held in the Alton Abraham Collection of Sun Ra, Special Collections Research Center, the University of Chicago Library.
Sonny Blount, early 1950s (above), and Sun Ra, late 1980s (below). Courtesy of the University of Chicago Library’s Special Collections Research Center.
Sun Ra and the Arkestra performing in Chicago, late 1950s. Courtesy of the University of Chicago Library’s Special Collections Research Center.
Claude Dangerfield, unused design for record jacket. Courtesy of the University of Chicago Library’s Special Collections Research Center.
Thmei Research cover stock and Saturn Research letterhead. Courtesy of the University of Chicago Library’s Special Collections Research Center.
Sun Ra broadsheet, mid-1950s. Courtesy of the University of Chicago Library’s Special Collections Research Center.
Tickets to performances of Sun Ra and his Arkestra sponsored by the Atonites and the Campaign Committee for the Mayor of Bronzeville. Courtesy of the University of Chicago Library’s Special Collections Research Center.
Promotional flyer for Sun Ra and his Arkestra. Courtesy of the University of Chicago Library’s Special Collections Research Center.
Record jackets for Super-Sonic Jazz (the “void” cover) and Jazz in Silhouette. Courtesy of the University of Chicago Library’s Special Collections Research Center.
Saturn Records catalog of singles and a “Handy Katalog,” mid- to late-1960s. Courtesy of the University of Chicago Library’s Special Collections Research Center.
The cover to Sun Ra, The Immeasurable Equation. Courtesy of the University of Chicago Library’s Special Collections Research Center.
A page from a Sun Ra notebook, mid-1960s. Courtesy of the University of Chicago’s Special Collections Research Center.
Sun Ra, mid-1960s. Courtesy of the University of Chicago’s Special Collections Research Center.
Sun Ra and Arkestra (and friends) parading in New York, 1966. Courtesy of the University of Chicago’s Special Collections Research Center.
Record jacket, Interstellar Low Ways, 1969; first released as Rocket Number Nine Take Off for the Planet Venus, 1966. Courtesy of the University of Chicago’s Special Collections Research Center.
Promotional poster, Carnegie Hall performance, 1968. Courtesy of the University of Chicago’s Special Collections Research Center.
Promotional poster for the film Space Is the Place. Design by Curtis Schreier, © North American Star System.
Members of the Sun Ra Arkestra, early 1970s. Courtesy of the University of Chicago’s Special Collections Research Center.
Sun Ra in Birmingham, Alabama, at the first City Stages weekend, 1989. Courtesy of Rowland Scherman.
Program for a Sun Ra Health Benefit Concert. Courtesy of the University of Chicago’s Special Collections Research Center.