Editing Sun Ra (section)

===Sun Ra and black culture===
According to Szwed,<ref>Szwed (1998), p. 311.</ref> Sun Ra's view of his relationship to black people and black cultures "changed drastically" over time. Initially, Sun Ra identified closely with broader struggles for black power, black political influence, and black identity, and saw his own music as a key element in educating and liberating blacks. But by the heyday of [[Black Power]] radicalism in the 1960s, Sun Ra was expressing disillusionment with these aims. He denied feeling closely connected to any race. In 1970 he said:

<blockquote>I couldn't approach black people with the truth because they like lies. They live lies... At one time I felt that white people were to blame for everything, but then I found out that they were just puppets and pawns of some greater force, which has been using them... Some force is having a good time [manipulating black and white people] and looking, enjoying itself up in a reserved seat, wondering, "I wonder when they're going to wake up."<ref>Szwed (1998), p. 313.</ref></blockquote>

====Afrofuturism====
Sun Ra is considered to be an early pioneer of the [[Afrofuturism]] movement due to his music, writings and other works.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/science/political-science/2014/jan/07/afrofuturism-where-space-pyramids-and-politics-collide |title=Afrofuturism: where space, pyramids and politics collide |last=Taylor-Stone |first=Chardine |date=7 January 2014 |work=Guardian |access-date=11 November 2014}}</ref>

The influence of Sun Ra can be seen throughout many aspects of black music. He grounded his practice of Afrofuturism in a musical tradition that has been described as ‘performing blackness’’. Sun Ra lived out his beliefs of Afrofuturism in his daily life by embodying the movement not only in his music, but also in his clothes and actions. This embodiment of the narrative allowed him to demonstrate black nationalism as a counternarrative to the contemporary culture.{{cn|date=February 2024}}

It was in Chicago, as well, in the mid-fifties, that Ra began experimenting with extraterrestriality in his stage show, sometimes playing regular cocktail lounges dressed in space suits and ancient Egyptian regalia. By placing his band and performances in space and extraterrestrial environments Sun Ra [[Worldbuilding|built a world]] that was his own view of how the African diaspora connected.<ref>Corbett, John. "Brothers From Another Planet." Extended Play: Sounding off from John Cage to Dr. Funkenstein. Durham: Duke UP, 1994. N. pag. Print.</ref>