Cube Fest 2022: Keynote: You Haven't Met the Captain of the Spaceship...Yet
Venue: Center for the Arts at Virginia Tech, Blacksburg
Directions: Google Map Link
Date: Sunday, August 21, 2022
Time: 1:00 - 2:00 PM
Event Types: Music, Speaking Engagements
Cost: Free

Description:
The Moss Arts Center at Virginia Tech presents the Cube Fest 2022 Keynote titled "You Haven't Met the Captain of the Spaceship...Yet" on Sunday, August 21, 2022 inside the Perform Studio within The Moss Arts Center.

Sun Ra was a wildly inventive jazz composer, foundational figure of Afrofuturism, electronic music experimenter, keyboardist, bandleader, founder of the Sun Ra Arkestra, orator, philosopher, mystic, gnostic, poet, prankster, and so much more. Sun Ra continues to provide inspiration to countless modern musicians and remains a culturally relevant figure who in recent years has been cited on Lovecraft Country, along with countless books and articles in popular and academic press.

Despite his large cultural presence, Sun Ra, the person, is not well known or understood. As Sun Ra once said, “History is ‘his’ story. My story is mystery.”

In this keynote lecture, Thomas Stanley (writer, audio activist, professor at the George Mason School of Art, and Sun Ra scholar) leads us deep into the thought processes of Sun Ra in preparation for the Cube Fest immersive experience of Sun Ra’s album, "Space Is the Place". Stanley is the author of the book "The Execution of Sun Ra: The Mysterious Tale of a Dark Body Sent to Earth to Usher in an Unprecedented Era of Cosmic Regeneration and Happiness" (Volume II).

This event may contain adult language.

Admission is free.

Cube Fest 2022 is a series of concerts featuring music that moves around, above, and through the listener. Impossible to re-create at home listening on a stereo system or with headphones, these works were created specifically for the Cube’s world-leading audio system, complete with over 140 loudspeakers. Presenting the latest innovations in sound and musical composition, Virginia Tech’s immersive music festival offers a sonic adventure that can only be properly experienced in one place in the entire world — the Cube.

This year’s Cube Fest celebrates immersive Afrofuturist music with works from leading artists selected from an international pool of submissions. Presented by the Institute for Creativity, Arts, and Technology and the Moss Arts Center, the festival runs from Friday, Aug. 19, through Sunday, Aug. 21, with events taking place in the Cube and Perform Studio, located in the Moss Arts Center at 190 Alumni Mall.

An ideology examining the past and the future through a Black cultural lens, Afrofuturism connects African diaspora culture with science and technology. Cube Fest 2022 features works by Afrofuturist artists Jupiter Blue, King Britt, Yvette Janine Jackson, and Sea Novaa, and includes an evening-long concert, “The Other Wakanda,” presented by Stephen James Taylor.

For more information, visit: https://vtx.vt.edu/articles/2022/08/mac-cubefest22.html or https://artscenter.vt.edu/performances/cube-fest-2022.html or https://www.facebook.com/artscenteratvt or https://www.instagram.com/artscenteratvt/.

Disclaimer: NextThreeDays relies on restaurants and venues to keep us up-to-date as their pricing and weekly specials change. If this special/event is incorrect, please email info@NextThreeDays.com with "Incorrect Special/Event" in the subject line and a description of the issue. Thanks for your help!

Want to hear the latest on what's happening with local events in the New River Valley?
Click here to Sign-up for our Email Newsletter.

Have an event you want to Submit on NextThreeDays? Click here for our Submit Event Form.

And join NextThreeDays on Facebook and Twitter.