You are here

Afrofuturist Film Screening: Space Is the Place, Dirty Computer

Sun Ra's Space Is the Place
Tue, Nov 2, 2021, 7:00 pm
Porter College Quad, UC Santa Cruz

Please join us for an outdoor film screening of Sun Ra's Space Is the Place, immediately followed by Janelle Monáe's visual album, Dirty Computer (Emotion Picture). The screening will take place in the Porter College Quad. Limited chair seating will be available. You are encouraged to bring a picnic blanket or cushion to sit on. Bundle up as the weather may change rapidly!

Afrofuturist Film Screening: Space Is the Place, Dirty Computer
November 2, 7-10:00p.m.
Porter College Quad, UC Santa Cruz

Space Is the Place is a 1974 film, directed by Joshua Smith, and centers around cult jazz musician Sun Ra. Sun Ra is being reported lost since his 1969 European tour. He lands on a new planet in outer space with his band, the Arkestra, and decides to settle Afro-Americans there. He travels back in time to 1943, when he was a pianist under the name of "Sonny Ray". There he confronts a pimp-overlord named "The Overseer" (Ray Johnson) and they agree on a card game to decide the fate of the black race.

Dirty Computer (Emotional Picture) follows Janelle Monáe's character, Jane 57821, as she attempts to break free from the constraints of a totalitarian society that forcibly makes Jane comply with its homophobic beliefs. In the film, Monáe's character is trying to assert her individuality, which makes her the enemy of a soulless regime – a common tension in dystopian sci-fi.

This event is limited to the campus community and not open to the public. Thank you for your understanding.
Students must be in compliance with COVID-19 protocols and the badge system for clearance to be on campus. Please wear your face covering at this event. Check your Health e-Messenger for your daily clearance. 

Presented by the Mary Porter Sesnon Art Gallery and the Institute of the Arts and Sciences with support from the Porter College Activities Office.

SAVE THE DATE:
Afrofuturism Then and Now
October 14, 4–5:30 p.m.
w/ India Cooke, Mandjou Kone, Emmanuel Etolo, Charles Tolliver, Nelson Harrison, and Rahman Jamaal
Moderated by Aaron Mulenga 
Online event: Register here

Just Futures: Black Quantum Futurism, Arthur Jafa, and Martine Syms 
January 19, 2022–March 19, 2022
Opening at the Mary Porter Sesnon Art Gallery
Curated by T.J. Demos in collaboration with the Institute of the Arts and Sciences (IAS). As Demos writes, the exhibition "highlights poignant creative experiments in futurity and justice….[and] considers how contemporary artists engage with time as both a site of struggle and a horizon of liberation.” (More information here).