{"id":1674,"date":"2010-07-24T17:13:02","date_gmt":"2010-07-24T21:13:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thebookbeat.com\/backroom\/?p=1674"},"modified":"2020-05-07T13:33:41","modified_gmt":"2020-05-07T17:33:41","slug":"john-sinclair-book-signing-thursday-aug-5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thebookbeat.com\/backroom\/2010\/07\/24\/john-sinclair-book-signing-thursday-aug-5\/","title":{"rendered":"John Sinclair Book Signing Thursday, Aug. 5!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Poet and blues scholar John Sinclair will be at The Book Beat on Thursday, August 5<\/strong> from 7-8:30 pm<\/strong> to sign and discuss his newest book Sun Ra- Interviews and Essays<\/strong>. <\/em><\/p>\n

This new book collects interviews with Sun Ra, his friends, associates, and contemporaries, regarding his prolific output, mystique, and philosophy.\u00a0 It includes essays by Wayne Kramer, Amiri Baraka, Sadiq Bey, and others. This book is in a series of titles that Sinclair has edited for Headpress publishers in London, England.<\/p>\n

Composer, bandleader, pianist and space philosopher, Sun Ra was a unique individual and one of the most colorful and enduring of musical legacies, transcending time, place and culture. From the mid 1950s until his death in 1993, Sun Ra led The Arkestra , a fluid collective that lived and played together under the despotic tutelage of their leader, who claimed to hail from Saturn. Their music was jazz, but avant garde compositions in which players were instructed to adhere to a space key improvising without regard for conventional tonal centers was symptomatic of an altogether different direction in sound: electronic music, space music and free improvisation. But Sun Ra s legendary status was earned as much for his eccentricities as for his unique artistic vision. He developed and propagated a mystifying sci-fi mythology which he weaved into both the music and Dadaist performances of The Arkestra (performances which inspired artists as diverse as George Clinton and MC5). This book collects together for the first time interviews with Sun Ra, the people that knew him, and his contemporaries, alongside illuminating essays and conversational pieces regarding his prolific musical output, mystique, philosophy, fans, and much more.<\/div>\n

About the Author<\/h3>\n

EDITOR BIO: In 1969, the poet-provocateur, MC5 manager and White Panther John Sinclair found himself the victim of that decade s draconian American drug laws, and facing a twenty-year jail sentence for the possession of two joints. The counterculture Sinclair helped create came to his rescue, however, when John Lennon, Stevie Wonder, Phil Ochs and others performed at a successful benefit gig to petition for his release. Since that epochal moment, Sinclair has travelled the globe and performed with some of the world’s finest musicians. He interviewed Sun Ra in 1966.<\/p>\n

Also available at this sigining will be a reprint facsimile of the “Poetry is Revolution” poster from 1967 by Leni Sinclair produced in a limited edition of 75 copies, and a reprint of Sinclair’s 1966 book Fire Music: A Record<\/em>. Both editions have been printed by Book Beat.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The Endless Realm\"\"<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n


\n<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

I have nothing<\/span><\/span><\/span>
\nNothing!<\/span><\/span><\/span>
\nHow really is I am . . . .<\/span><\/span><\/span>
\nNothing is mine.<\/span><\/span><\/span>
\nHow treasured rich am I<\/span><\/span><\/span>
\nI have the treasure of nothing . . . .<\/span><\/span><\/span>
\nVast endless nothing<\/span><\/span><\/span>
\nThat branches out into realm beyond realm.<\/span><\/span><\/span>
\nThis and these are mine<\/span><\/span><\/span>
\nTogether they are nothing.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The idea of nothing<\/span><\/span><\/span>
\nThe notion of nations<\/span><\/span><\/span>
\nNation . . . . notion<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

I have the treasure of nothing<\/span><\/span><\/span>
\nAll of it is mine.<\/span><\/span><\/span>
\nHe who would build a magic world<\/span><\/span><\/span>
\nMust seek my exchange bar<\/span><\/span><\/span>
\nIn order to partake of my endless<\/span><\/span><\/span>
\nTreasure from my endless realm of nothing.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Poet and blues scholar John Sinclair will be at The Book Beat on Thursday, August 5 from 7-8:30 pm to sign and discuss his newest book Sun Ra- Interviews and Essays. This new book collects interviews with Sun Ra, his friends, associates, and contemporaries, regarding his prolific output, mystique, and philosophy.  It includes essays by […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,8,33,221],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1674","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-detroit","category-music","category-psychedelia","category-punk-rock"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thebookbeat.com\/backroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1674","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thebookbeat.com\/backroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thebookbeat.com\/backroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebookbeat.com\/backroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebookbeat.com\/backroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1674"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebookbeat.com\/backroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1674\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thebookbeat.com\/backroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1674"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebookbeat.com\/backroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1674"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebookbeat.com\/backroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1674"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}