Willoughby Lucas Hastings

Southern Galactic: A Celebration for Sun Ra is a collaborative public art piece created by Huntsville, AL, visual artists Jahni Moore and Willoughby Lucas Hastings. The piece took place in May of 2023 and culminated in a weekend-long multidisciplinary event honoring founding Afrofuturist Sun Ra and his connections to "The Rocket City" Huntsville.

In the months leading up to the event, Moore and Hastings held a “Call for Southern Afrofuturist Musicians” and a “Call for Southern Afrofuturist Visual Artists;” from this pool, three local musicians were selected to perform during the final event and two regional visual artists were selected as recipients of Career Advancement Grants. GrimeySea, Amiel Univers, and Shelly William’s band Midlife Chrysler were the selected musicians and Simone Taylor Cunningham and Timothy Short were the selected visual artists.

In early May, Hastings facilitated four textile workshops at the University of Alabama in Huntsville and the North Huntsville Public Library in preparation for the project’s main events scheduled for May 19th through May 22nd, coinciding with the anniversary of Sun Ra’s birthday.

On Friday, May 19th, Moore and Hastings welcomed the public to their opening event, a screening of Cauleen Smith’s 2011 video performance, Space is the Place: A March for Sun Ra, and John Coney and Sun Ra’s 1974 film Space is the Place at the University of Alabama in Huntsville.

On the morning of May 20th, Southern Galactic hosted an Afrofuturist Lecture Series at the North Huntsville Public Library. The panelists included William Hampton, Simone Taylor Cunningham, Mason Quick, Nailah Hunter, and Howard Bankhead. Hampton, the founder and curator of Huntsville Revisited Museum discussed Sun Ra’s work and how Sun Ra’s attendance at Alabama A&M University in the 1930s impacted his intergalactic persona and art practice. Then Atlanta-based Visual Artist, and recipient of the Southern Galactic Career Advancement Grant, Simone Taylor Cunningham described how the genre of Afrofuturism impacts her work and introduced the pieces featured in the University of Alabama in Huntsville’s fall Afrofuturist exhibition curated by Jahni Moore. After which, NASA Marshall Space Flight Center researcher Mason Quick presented his atmospheric physics research connecting real-world experience with the philosophical and aesthetic potential of space travel proposed by Sun Ra. Lastly, Southern Galactic Headling Musician, Nailah Hunter outlined the trajectory of her art practice and how Sun Ra’s otherworldly Jazz music often inspires her work. She especially delved into the symbolic and technical aspects of being a harpist and how the instrument has multiple origins but is often regarded as European and associated with femininity and divinity thereby creating complex connotations to navigate as an Afrofuturist harpist. After their talks, the speakers were joined by the Director of the Tennessee Valley Jazz Society, Howard Bankhead in a panel discussion about the future of the Afrofuturist genre while drawing connections between each other’s work.

That evening, Southern Galactic held its third event, inviting the public to the sight of Jahni Moore’s Space is Our Place mural at the local brewery, Straight to Ale for two Afrofuturist musical performances. GrimeySea opened with a set list featuring both original songs and covers of some of Sun Ra’s most notable works. While Nailah Hunter performed a compilation of ambient celestial sound baths and immersive mythic ballads. Sound assistance for all Southern Galactic events was managed by Cadmar Haynes with assistance from Josh Hastings.

On Sunday, May 21st, Southern Galactic concluded with its main event, an outdoor walking parade honoring Sun Ra, in downtown Huntsville's Big Spring Park. Parade participants wore the hand-dyed red-clay t-shirts with appliqued stars and Saturns made during Hastings textile workshops or the black bleach stenciled t-shirts created by Jahni Moore that prominently featured a portrait of Sun Ra. They also held Space is the Place-inspired homemade cardboard and textile signs or puppets. The parade was led by Jahni Moore wearing a Sun Ra-inspired garment handsewn by Hastings and directly followed by members of Huntsville Drumline, a local non-profit that provides extracurricular training in drumline performance. While performing throughout the parade, Huntsville Drumline concluded at the center of the park in a stationary performance of several prepared drumline cadences. The public then supported local food and art vendors or enjoyed other family-friendly activities including, flying kites, coloring book pages, face painting, and playing with bubbles and chalk. And after a brief break, performances continued first with poetry by Marc Lacey and CeceThePoet and then with the last two local musicians. Midlife Chrysler performed feel-good funky jazz tunes while Amiel and St. Univers closed out the event with high-energy hip-hop tracks full of “Rocket City” references.

Southern Galactic: A Celebration for Sun Ra was funded by collaborating grants from the Verdant Fund and the Alabama State Council on the Arts with additional sponsorship from the University of Alabama in Huntsville. The Huntsville-based non-profit, United Women of Color also sponsored a paid internship in conjunction with accreditation awarded by UAH to Lee Coman-Ubiles who provided all the graphic design for our event. Hastings and Moore worked closely with the North Huntsville Public Library, Straight to Ale, and the City of Huntsville to secure the locations for each of their events. Lastly, the project could not have succeeded without the generosity and excitement of all those that supported or participated in the events.

While Southern Galactic was initially proposed as a one-time temporary public artwork Moore and Hastings hope it will evolve into an annual event albeit with evolving sponsorship and leadership. If you are interested in getting involved with future iterations of the project or simply want to know more about the event feel free to reach out via Instagram @southern_galactic_hsv or via email at spaceisourplacehsv@gmail.com. You can also read about the project in Jonece Starr Dunigan’s article Space is our place: How an Alabama city became a launch pad for Afrofuturism here. If you would like to purchase a red-clay star or Saturn t-shirt limited sizes are still available for 10$ a piece and can be ordered on the Contact The Artist page listed above.