The Union League Club of Chicago Library Committee invites Caxton Club members to a LIVE program: Dr. William Sites in Conversation with Dr. Timothy Gilfoyle on Sun Ra’s Chicago

Sun Ra's Chicago

William Sites

Timothy J. Gilfoyle

Sun Ra (aka Sonny Blount) was one of the most wildly prolific and unfailingly eccentric figures in the history of music. Renowned for extravagant performances in which his Arkestra appeared in neo-Egyptian garb, the keyboardist and bandleader also espoused an interstellar cosmology that claimed the planet Saturn as his true home. 

Sun Ra’s Chicago brings this visionary musician back to earth—specifically to the city’s South Side, where from 1946 to 1961 he lived and relaunched his career. Sites and Gilfoyle will explore how Sun Ra’s Chicago shows that late twentieth-century Afrofuturism emerged from a deep, utopian engagement with the city—and that by excavating the postwar black experience of Sun Ra’s South Side milieu, we can come to see the possibilities of urban life in new ways.

Sun Ra’s Chicago earned Honorable Mention for ULCC Outstanding Book on the History of Chicago 2021. 

William Sites is Associate Professor in the Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice at the University of Chicago.  His fields of interest include urban and community studies, political economy, social movements, immigration, race, culture, social theory, and historical methods. 

Timothy J. Gilfoyle is professor of history at Loyola University Chicago where he teaches American urban and social history.  His research has focused on the development and evolution of 19th-century urban underworld subcultures and informal economies.

This event will start with a reception at 5:30 PM. The program will begin at 6:00 PM followed by Q & A. The price is $24 per person. A cash bar will be available. Advance reservations is mandatory, and prepayment is required by September 7. Books will be available for purchase and signing.

Note: All attendees must wear face masks.