The Smithsonian's 2023 exhibition, Afrofuturism: A History of Black Futures, featured Sun Ra prominently—alongside his dazzling clothing and space harp. Veryl Oakland's photographs were included in both the exhibition and its companion publication.
The Afrofuturism Exhibit: A History of Black Futures
Sun Ra's influence has only grown in the years since his passing — and few institutions have made that clearer than the Smithsonian. In 2023, the National Museum of African American History and Culture opened Afrofuturism: A History of Black Futures, a major exhibition tracing Afrofuturism's reach across literature, art, activism, and of course— music.
Sun Ra's work sat alongside that of Jimi Hendrix, Parliament-Funkadelic, and Outkast in the exhibition's music gallery, with his purple star costume and space harp on display as artifacts of that legacy. The exhibition ran for roughly a year at the museum's Bank of America Special Exhibitions Gallery in Washington, DC.
We were honored to have several of Oakland's photographs of Sun Ra included in the exhibition, and in its companion publication from Smithsonian Books, Afrofuturism: A History of Black Futures, which gathers more than a hundred images and objects from the museum's collection.
One of those same photographs has also taken on a second life: it's the image used on the official historic marker for Sun Ra's house in Philadelphia, added to the city's historic register in 2022 — a small but fitting reminder of how far a single photograph can travel once it leaves the archive.
It's a rare thing to see one artist's work asked to do so much — museum wall, book page, and historic marker alike — and we're proud that Oakland's photographs have been trusted to help tell that story each time.
