Place of Birth — Oversized Drop-Shoulder T-Shirt

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TEE-ART-RB-SUN-01-M-BK T-Shirt

Piece

Place of Birth Oversized Drop-Shoulder T-Shirt

$ 2,345.00

Description

On 20 October 1952 Herman Blount legally changed his name in Cook County and from then on declared he had been born on Saturn. The print is a form with that entry in its box.

A Author

Sun Ra

B Subject

Afrofuturism

C Aesthetic

Diagram · Typographic

Exploration

Herman Blount changed his name legally in a Cook County court in October 1952. From then on he maintained in every interview, for forty years and without a single crack, that he had not been born in Alabama but on Saturn.

It is easy to treat that as eccentricity. It worked differently. A Black man born in the segregated South had an origin assigned to him, with a history written by others and a place there is no leaving. Changing the planet of birth is the only way out of a box that admits no argument.

Around that he built an orchestra that lived together, rehearsed daily and played in costumes they made themselves, for decades, with their own label and records he pressed.

He recorded more than a hundred albums and many were sold by hand, on the way out.

He did not ask to be believed. He asked to be allowed to declare it, which is another thing and comes cheaper.

Details