birminghamal.gov
The City of Birmingham is holding a special outdoor film screening of the documentary “The Magic City: Birmingham According to Sun Ra” is at Sloss Furnaces National Historic Landmark. This event marks the official Alabama debut of the film as part of the “Year of Birmingham Jazz” initiative.
The film recently had its U.S. premiere at the Big Ears festival in Memphis, Tennessee.
“Definitely, Sun Ra built something of his own, but he’s also the product of a community and of a place,” director Guillaume Maupin said during a forum at the East Village Arts of Birmingham in January 2022. “Sun Ra is very much a part of Birmingham.”
There are many ways to understand Birmingham through its steel industry, its Civil Rights history, or its Southern culture. But through the lens of Sun Ra, Birmingham becomes something stranger: a place of transformation.
Born in the segregated South, Sun Ra didn’t just leave Birmingham, he reimagined it. To him, the “Magic City” wasn’t about industry; it was about possibility. It was proof that even in a place defined by limits, new realities could be imagined.
His music, cosmic, experimental, and boundary-breaking carried echoes of Birmingham while pushing far beyond it. Through sound, he built an entirely new vision of identity and freedom, one that refused to be confined by history.
Today, we might call that Afrofuturism. Sun Ra just called it truth. Seen this way, Birmingham isn’t just where he came from, it’s where the spark began. A grounded, complicated city that, in his hands, became something cosmic.
That’s the real magic!
Event Details
Date: Thursday, April 2, 2026
Location: Underneath the water tower on the north side of the Sloss Furnaces campus
Time: Doors open at 7:00 PM, with the film beginning at 8:00 PM
Admission: The event is free and open to the public
Program: The screening will be followed by a Q&A session with directors Guillaume Maupin and Pablo Guarise
