The Journal of American Studies of Turkey had a call for papers for a special theme issue on African American Studies. I sent them a proposal for an article on Sun Ra’s Space is the Place. The description of the proposal follows.
“You don’t exist in this society”: Sun Ra’s Space is the Place
I’m not real, I’m just like you. You don’t exist in this society. If you did you your people wouldn’t be seeking equal rights. You’re not real, if you were you’d have some status among the nations of the world. So we are both myths. I do not come to you as a reality, I come to you as the myth because that is what black people are: myths. I came from a dream that the black man dreamed long ago. I’m actually a presence sent to you by your ancestors. I’m going to be here until I pick out some of you to take back with me. (Sun Ra, Space is the Place)
The above quotation is spoken by Sun Ra in response to a challenge by some young black people, who ask if he is “for real” or not. Sun Ra was the stage name and persona of Herman Poole Blount, a jazz musician who created a rich tapestry by drawing from free jazz, Egyptian mythology, B-movie science fiction and much more. Ra thus made a vivid personal mythology in order to articulate his concept of blackness in 60s and 70s USA. Although primarily a musician, Ra made this one film called Space is the Place which tells of Sun Ra who attempts to save Earth, but in the end concludes that it cannot be saved and so destroys it while bringing the proper blacks to another planet. This bizarre yet also straightforward story is a perfect example of afrofuturism, a black subcultural movement which uses science fiction (among other things) as means of exploring black experience and finding strategies for resistance against oppression.
In this article, I will investigate how Sun Ra narrates black identity through the use of science fiction. In presenting the black experience on Earth as inherently alien, Ra insists that there are fundamental differences between blacks and whites which cannot be easily overcome, but also shows how some blacks can be led astray and serve the white man too much. It is only by employing the ancient myths of their ancestors that the black man will ever be truly free. I will show how this black identity is narratively constructed, and how science fiction serves as a way for Ra to resist and subvert the white dominant society in which, as the earlier quote shows, the black man does not exist. Ra’s ambition is to create a cultural space for blacks, and in the film this space is located on a different planet.
