Earth Libraries and Saturn are beyond excited to welcome back the one and only Sun Ra Arkestra for a very special evening of music on Friday, May 22nd, as part of this year’s Sun Ra Day Festival honoring Sonny Blount’s 112th “arrival day” here in the Magic City. The final event of a three day celebration happening at venues around the city from May 20-22, the concert at Saturn will see the band return to our stage for the first time since 2016, marking ten years since they last lifted off with us here in Birmingham in what proved to be an unforgettable night of cosmic tone therapy broadcast by Subcarrier for Alabama Public Television. The festival itself will kick off on May 20th with a screening of the recently released documentary Sun Ra: Do The Impossible at Sidewalk Cinema, followed by a special showing of the legendary 1959 film The Cry of Jazz on May 21st at the Birmingham Museum of Art presented by Film Birmingham that will be accompanied by a panel discussion with members of the Arkestra— and led by our very own Burgin Mathews from the Southern Music Research Center and Jessica Chriesman from Sidewalk Film Festival!!!— about Ra’s contributions to the world of cinema and visual art. And to top it all off, at noon on May 22nd there will be a special public dedication at the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame of their new Hammond Solovox display in the Sun Ra exhibit upstairs to help celebrate Sun Ra Day. If you attended last year’s event, you know this is a not-to-be-missed festival experience. Tickets are $40 online, or $45 the day of, with the concert starting promptly at 8 pm. Space is the place!!!