Thursday, March 09, 2023

Sun Ra, Octavia E. Butler, and Afrofuturism on the History of Africana Philosophy

"The Space Race: Afrofuturism", the latest episode in the "History of Africana Philosophy" podcast series by Peter Adamson and Chike Jeffers (a subseries of Adamson's podcast on "The History of Philosophy without Any Gaps"), offers the wonderful surprise of a discussion of the philosophy of jazz musician Sun Ra (1914-1993), as well as a lengthy discussion of the ideas of science-fiction novelist Octavia E. Butler (1947-2006), especially her 1979 novel "Kindred". I saw two mesmerizing concerts by Sun Ra and his Arkestra in the 1980s, one in Oakland and one in Philadelphia, and I taught two short stories by Butler, "Near of Kin" and "Speech Sounds", just last semester in Basel. (Andrew Shields, #111words, 9 March 2023)

 


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