Sun Ra House approved for inclusion on the Philadelphia Register of Historic Places

“In a widely celebrated move, the staff of the Historical Commission nominated the Sun Ra House (aka the Arkestral Institute) at 5626 Morton Street and the full Commission voted in favor of adding the home to the local register for legal protection. Sun Ra was the visionary founder of Afrofuturism, an artistic movement of music, art, poetry, philosophies, and performances that linked the Black experience with mythologies of space and ancient Egypt. Sun Ra lived and worked at 5626 Morton Street in Germantown from 1968 until the end of his life in 1993. Surviving members of the Sun Ra Arkestra still live in there. The unassuming Second Empire rowhouse clad in schist has had a profound and widely recognized cultural impact.”

You can read the full article here.

Photo of Sun Ra at the Arkestral Institute at 5626 Morton Street in 1978 courtesy of the Philadelphia Historical Commission

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