“... Whether there's still an old-style, on-the-ground underground is a
matter for debate. There was one as long as the Afro-futurist polymath
Sun Ra (1914-93) was around. Born Herman Poole Blount in Birmingham,
Ala., he was a cosmic art citizen: jazz musician, composer, philosopher,
poet and painter. A sampling of his multifarious output will be brought
together for "Pathways to Unknown Worlds: Sun Ra, El Saturn and
Chicago's Afro-Futurist Underground, 1954-68" at the Institute of
Contemporary Art in Philadelphia.

The spring show will include his cover designs for albums like "Art
Forms for Dimensions Tomorrow" and "Other Planes of There," manuscripts
of his unpublished poetry and a film of his band, the Arkestra, warming
up for a 1968 gig.

Talk about monuments, he was one, though no museum
could begin to contain him.

Institute of Contemporary Art, University of
Pennsylvania, 118 South 36th St.,
Philadelphia, PA 19104-3289,
phone 215-898-7108,

http://www.icaphila.org,
http://www.icaphila.org/exhibitions/upcoming