The Metropolitan Museum of Art is opening its imposing Temple of Dendur to a concert that'll tap into the cosmic theatricality of the late avant-jazz artist Sun Ra.
Set for Leap Day, the multi-sensory performance with dance and invocations by award-winning poet Carl Hancock Rux will feature the sounds of "Lady Marmalade" singer Nona Hendryx and composer/trombonist/Sun Ra devotee Craig Harris.
Be prepared for an evening of avant-garde costumes by Virgil Ortiz and experimental performance art – the event is in partnership with Harlem Stage WaterWorks that has commissioned, yearlong, citywide celebration of Sun Ra, The Cosmic Synthesis of Sun Ra and Afrofuturism.
The temple itself was completed by 10 B.C. along the Nile River with design and decoration referencing the Egyptians' religious and mythological concepters, including figures of the Nile god, Hapy, and images of the sun disk with the outspread wings of Horus, the sky god. The Egyptian government gave the temple to the U.S. as a gift in 1967.