(Capitol Fringe)
By DCist contributor Elena Goukassian
CTRL Space CMD, a four-part piece spread out across several Thursday nights in April, is a kind of 21st-century update on notions of music and philosophy that were disseminated by the late avant-garde jazz showman, Sun Ra.
Born Herman Blount, Sun Ra and the Afrofuturism he promoted seem to be all over D.C. these days. In the past few months, there have been public screenings of Sun Ra’s 1974 film, Space is the Place, and in June, the Sun Ra Arkestra is coming to town.
Local artist and musician Jamal Gray, co-curator of CTRL Space CMD, thinks this resurgence is due to the fact that the experimental jazz musician was so ahead of his time, both musically and philosophically. “Now, more than 20 years after his death, everyone is finally catching up to Sun Ra,” Gray says. He should know. His dad was a friend of Sun Ra.
Afrofuturism is a cultural aesthetic and philosophy that combines science fiction with history in an attempt to carve out a unique space for the historically alienated diaspora to finally claim control over its own destiny. It’s found in literature and visual art, but musicians have largely been the ones to bring it to the mainstream, often resulting in otherworldly harmonies and images of black people in the far reaches of outer space—think George Clinton and the P-Funk Mothership.
But before Parliament, there was Sun Ra and his Arkestra, who first created a visual and musical mash-up of ancient African cultures with the Space Age. On albums like Interstellar Low Ways (with his signature “Rocket Number Nine Take Off for the Planet Venus“) and Space is the Place, he combined his musical, aesthetic, and philosophical notions of Afrofuturism.
Gray describes CTRL Space CMD as “a culmination of projection, video glitches, performance art, and music, with Afrofuturism as the theme,” referencing both ancient Egypt and space. Gray points out that the connections are anything but arbitrary; Egyptians were some of the first people to chart out stars and constellations.
As for the futuristic aspects, Gray leaves that up to interpretation. “We’re exploring alternative destinies—like Sun Ra,” he says. “People of color aren’t represented as well in the future as seen in pop culture (like in The Jetsons), and it makes us feel invisible—one place we’ve been able to carve out is the Internet.”
Gray adds that in today’s tech-obsessed world, the essence of humanity gets lost in the mix. In CTRL Space CMD, he and his fellow performers will be “using electronics as a medium, but still feeling the human elements.” They’ll use video and high-tech audio equipment, but they’ll also invite audience participation in the most basic and traditional way—dancing.
Each of CTRL Space CMD’s four parts has a theme, and each night will feature a different set of D.C.-area musicians and performers participating in what Gray calls a “moving collage.” This Thursday, the theme is “Ritual: The Psychedelic Revival,” which Gray describes as a take on a futuristic church service that tackles subjects like idolatry and capitalism and poses questions about the role of religion in spirituality—and how it’s easy to get lost in the ritual and lose sight of what’s really important.
Next week, the theme will be “Altar: Interstellar Escape Plan,” inspired by 1970s and ’80s sci-fi and Blaxploitation movies, most notably John Sayles’s 1984 Brother from Another Planet, which Gray calls an “allegory of an interstellar slave,” about an alien who escapes slavery on his home planet and lands in Harlem.
The third night will be “Sauvage: The Untamed Planet,” in which when Gray’s band, Nag Champa, helps tell the story of interstellar explorers crash-landing on an “untamed planet”—this time inspired by the 1973 French animated film, La Planète sauvage (Fantastic Planet).
The series ends with “Meta: The Evolution of Blackness,” the only stand-alone production, in which local performance artist Ra-Nubi hosts an allegorical conversation on what it means to be black.
Gray sees CTRL Space CMD as a steppingstone to ever-bigger projects—he has a funk opera already in the works—and he hopes to maybe, one day, even become the Sun Ra of our time. “I love Sun Ra’s concepts of the continuum of time and quantum entanglement,” he says. “Sun Ra’s a great template for an artist to follow.” Gray seeks out art as a catalyst for empowerment, just like all the Afrofuturists before him.
CTRL Space CMD runs Thursdays this month at Logan Fringe Arts Space. Buy tickets ($10 in advance, $20 at the door) here.
