Upcoming Programs and Events

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All events are held at ICA and are free of charge, unless otherwise noted.

ICA will be closed
sat jul 4 @ saturday

We will be open on Friday, July 3rd and Sunday, July 5th. So, come on by!

Whenever Wednesday: Lecture: John Szwed
wed jul 8 @ 7pm



Hear a lecture by John Szwed, the biographic expert on all things Ra. He is an anthropologist, musicologist and historian who teaches at Columbia University and is the author of Space is the Place: The Lives and Times of Sun Ra (Da Capo Press, 1998).

ICA acknowledges the Christian R. and Mary F. Lindback Foundation, Dolfinger-McMahon Foundation and the Philadelphia Eagles for support of education programs related to this exhibition. ICA also wishes to thank WPRB, Princeton, NJ for in-kind promotional support.


Event: Philadelphia Record Fair 2009
sat jul 11 @ 9am-5pm



A day of vinyl nirvana! ICA hosts the annual benefit for Vox Populi, Philadelphia’s acclaimed artist-run collective and gallery. Flip through bins. Find your treasure.

$10 from 9-11am, free from 11am-5pm

ICA wishes to thank WPRB, Princeton, NJ for in-kind promotional support.


Whenever Wednesday: Tavares Strachan and Robert Hobbs
wed jul 15 @ 6:30pm



Art historian Dr. Robert Hobbs, the Rhoda Thalhimer Endowed Chair at Virginia Commonwealth University and visiting professor at Yale University, whose work joins social history with literary criticism, aesthetics, and feminist and postcolonial theory, talks with Project Space artist Tavares Strachan about the most recent stage of his Orthostatic Tolerance project allowing us a glimpse into the future through the rubric of scientific exploration.

Whenever Wednesday: Outdoor Double Feature
wed jul 15 @ 7pm

Brother from Another Planet and A Joyful Noise, curated by Jesse Pires

Sun Ra: Brother from Another Planet
(Dir. Don Letts, UK, 2005, video, 59 mins)
Don Letts, the legendary London DJ who introduced reggae and ska to a generation of punk rockers, delves into the mysterious world of Sun Ra in this British, made-for-television documentary. Sun Ra biographer John Szwed, musician Archie Shepp and member’s of Sun Ra’s Arkestra discuss the life and work of one of jazz music’s pre-eminent pioneers. For the uninitiated, Brother from Another Planet is a great introduction to Sun Ra, and for Ra devotees, it’s required viewing.



Sun Ra: A Joyful Noise
(Dir. Robert Mugge, USA, 1980, video, 61 mins)
Consisting of explosive live footage of the Sun Ra Arkestra and fascinating interviews with the man himself, A Joyful Noise is the complete Sun Ra experience. Filmed in and around Philadelphia and Washington D.C. when the Arkestra was living in Germantown, Robert Mugge’s documentary captures the group at the height of its creative powers. Each live performance featured in the film further illustrates the distinctive alchemy Sun Ra was able to create with his disciplined band. Ra makes his case for a better world through music, transcending banal, earthbound realities to produce a strange and fascinating aesthetic fusing ancient history with future visions.

Rain or shine. FREE.

ICA acknowledges the Christian R. and Mary F. Lindback Foundation, Dolfinger-McMahon Foundation and the Philadelphia Eagles for support of education programs related to this exhibition. ICA also wishes to thank WPRB, Princeton, NJ for in-kind promotional support.


Whenever Wednesday: Performance: 'Saturn Never Sleeps
wed jul 22 @ 7pm



‘Saturn Never Sleeps’ is a cosmic adventure in contemporary music. For this artist-curated event, Philadelphia DJ, composer and producer King Britt, in collaboration with multimedialist Rucyl, present a night of sonic and visual funk taking micro-edits of Sun-Ra source music and combining it with live experimentation together with video collage.

Visit Saturn Never Sleeps for more details.

ICA acknowledges the Christian R. and Mary F. Lindback Foundation, Dolfinger-McMahon Foundation and the Philadelphia Eagles for support of education programs related to this exhibition. ICA also wishes to thank WPRB, Princeton, NJ for in-kind promotional support.


Whenever Wednesday: An evening curated by Ars Nova Workshop
wed jul 29 @ 7pm

Death’s Headquarters: In Celebration of Le Sony’r Ra
curated by Ars Nova Workshop
featuring performances from Sonic Liberation Front & Planet Y

"To save the planet, I had to go to the worst spot on Earth, and that was Philadelphia, which was death's headquarters." -Sun Ra



Photo: Val Wilmer

Please join Ars Nova Workshop and ICA for two very special performances in conjunction with Pathways to Unknown Worlds. An expanded 12-member Sonic Liberation Front, the Philadelphia ensemble acclaimed for their iconoclastic combination of Free Jazz passion and Afro-Cuban percussion, will premiere “Jetway Confidential No.3 (for Sun Ra)”, a new composition dedicated to Sun Ra and commissioned specifically for this performance, and perform an arrangement of Sun Ra’s “Where Pathways Meet” from 1978’s Lanquidity recording, which featured saxophonist and SLF member Julian Pressley. This evening will also feature a very rare appearance from Planet Y - Buchla Music Easel master Charles Cohen and Stinking Lizaveta’s Yanni Papadopoulos, best described as "Subotnick meets Sun Ra meets Schnitzler.” (Aquarius Records) In addition, newly-unearthed archival films will be projected on the gallery walls.

Planet Y
Yanni Papadopoulos, dg-20 Casio digital guitar
Charles Cohen, Buchla Music Easel
+
Sonic Liberation Front
Todd Margasak, cornet
Terry Lawson, tenor saxophone/flute
Dan Scofield, alto saxophone
Julian Pressley, alto saxophone
Brent White, trombone
dmHotep, guitar
Travis Woodson, guitar
Matt Engle, double-bass
Chuck Joseph, Bata drums/drumkit
Shawn "Dade" Beckett, Bata drums/percussion
Khari Clemmons, Bata drums
Kevin Diehl, Bata drums/drumkit

Led by percussionist Kevin Diehl, a protégé of Free Jazz pioneer Sunny Murray, Sonic Liberation Front merges post-bop with traditional Afro-Cuban Yoruba roots music. While other ensembles have merged Bata drumming and jazz, none have done it with the vigor of SLF. The band members are true students of the Lukumi tradition under the guidance of percussionist/omo aña Chuckie Joseph, a lifelong Yoruba cultural scholar. It’s been said a million times that all music originates in West Africa ¬ and by returning the focus to its origins, SLF achieves a natural eclectism that serves as a fountain of ingenuity. Ancient to the future, indeed. For this special performance, an expanded 12-piece SLF performs featuring some of the most notable names in Philadelphia’s exploratory music scene including members of the Sun Ra Arkestra, Make A RIsing, and Shot x Shot.




ICA acknowledges the Christian R. and Mary F. Lindback Foundation, Dolfinger-McMahon Foundation and the Philadelphia Eagles for support of education programs related to this exhibition.ICA also wishes to thank WPRB, Princeton, NJ for in-kind promotional support.



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