The Magic City: Birmingham according to Sun Ra + Intro (PG)
On May 22, 1914, Herman Poole Blount arrived on Earth in Birmingham, Alabama. He would become known many years later as Sun Ra and would become one of the most extraordinary and prolific jazz musicians of his century, as well as the barer of a visionary cosmic philosophy.
“The Magic City” known as Birmingham was an industrial city in the segregated South. It was there that Sun Ra laid the foundations of his mystical thinking and his music, seeing in his city an incredible world full of signs. He left it for Chicago at the age of 32 and did not return until late in his life. Portraying this artist as a young man as much as portraying a city, The Magic City tells the story of Sun Ra’s early years in this urban universe that was both political and magical, common and fantastic, disturbing and fascinating.
First Tuesdays in association with Paul Whieldon (DJ 525) who will introduce the film.
First Tuesdays is when we screen a music documentary in collaboration with a local business, musician or artist, keeping the bar open and the drinks flowing.