Eruptions of Funk Symposium: Schedule of Events
Thursday March 29, 2007
9:00-10:45
Funk Aesthetics and the Black Arts Movement:
Ferguson Center, Ballroom
C. Leigh McInnis, Jackson State University:
“Funk’s Jes Grew Quality: The Struggle of Black Art to Find Its
Way”
Amy Nathan Wright, University of Texas:
“The Philosophy & Cosmology of Funk: The Politics and Pleasures
of a Parliament-Funkadelic Thang”
Carmen Phelps, Longwood University:
“The Funky Career of Pam Grier”
Howard Rambsy II, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville:
“Aaron McGruder’s Huey Freeman as Contemporary Black Folk
Hero”
10:45-11:45
Book Signing:
Ferguson Center, Ballroom
Brenda Dixon-Gottschild
Cheryl Keyes
Tracie Morris
Thomas Sayers Ellis
Scot Brown
11:45-1:30
Kalamu ya Salaam
Aldon Lynn Nielsen
Mark Anthony Neal
Rickey Vincent
Tony Bolden
Lunch
1:30-4:00
Roundtable One: James Brown and the History of Funk
Ferguson Center, Ballroom
Brenda Dixon Gottschild, Temple University (Emeritus):
“James Brown—African Art in Motion”
Kalamu ya Salaam, Independent Activist/Writer:
“Say It Loud”
Tracie Morris, Eastern Michigan:
“What you say? James Brown and the Performative Utterance”
Rickey Vincent, University of California, Berkeley:
“Say it Loud: The Cultural Politics of James Brown in 1968”
4:15-5:00
Feature Presentation:
Ferguson Center, Ballroom
Thomas Sayers Ellis, Sarah Lawrence College:
“A Talk on Funk & Prosody”
5:00-7:30
Dinner
7:30-8:30
Poetry Night:
Ferguson Theater
Thomas Sayers Ellis, author of The Maverick Room
and
Kalamu ya Salaam, My Story, My Song(CD)
8:30-9:30
Reception: Ferguson Theater
Friday March 30, 2007
8:30-10:15
Dancing on the Funk: Or, The Black Body as Text
Ferguson Center, Ballroom
Karen Ohnesorge, Ottawa University:
“Cane Fields, Blues Text-ure: An Improvisational Mediation on Jean
Toomer’s Cane and Jean-Michel Baquiat’s Undiscovered Genius of
the Mississippi Delta”
Rondee Gaines, Georgia State University:
“Erotic Explorations in Blue: A Critical Analysis of Sonia Sanchez’s
The Full Moon of Sonia”
Melva Sampson, Spelman College:
“Dancing in the Spirit: Rhythmic Movement in Hip-Hop
“Krumping” Dance Culture as Liberative Praxis of Hope and
Resistance”
Sabrina Freeney, Georgia State University:
“Pam Grier and Black Female Sexuality”
10:30-12:15
Funkativity, Syncretism, and Black Cultural Memory
Ferguson Center, Ballroom
Emily Lordi, Columbia University:
“Where what she did left singing…”: Billie Holiday and the Haunting
Poetics of Gayl Jones”
Ondra Thomas-Krouse, University of Georgia:
“Performance as Memory in Zora Neale Hurston’s Mules and Men”
Scot Brown, UCLA:
“‘Just A Touch of Love’: Funk Music, The Politics of Culture in
Dayton, Ohio”
12:15-2:00
Lunch
2:00-4:30
Roundtable Two: Blue/Funk—From Jazz to Hip-Hop
Ferguson Center, Ballroom
Cheryl Keys, UCLA:
Funkin' with Bach: The Impact of Professor Longhair on Piano
Rock”
Aldon Lynn Nielsen, Penn State University:
“Alabama”
Mark Anthony Neal, Duke University:
“The Life and Times of James 'Thunder' Early”
R. Scott Heath, Georgetown University:
“Hip_Hop Redux: A User-Friendly Plug-in”
4:30-5:00
Words & Music: Open Mike
5:00-7:30
Dinner
7:30-9:00
Snappin Funk in 3-D: Poetry, Music, and Dance
Ferguson Theater
Poetry:
Tracie Morris, Former Slam Champion and author of
intermission: poems
Poetry:
Christian Dacus, Common Ground, University of
Alabama
Music:
Violinist Derryck “D-Sharp” Gleaton, Music
Performance Major, University of Alabama
Dance:
Sheree Woods, Dance and Theater Major, University of
Alabama
Dance:
RipTide Dance Troupe, University of Alabama
Vocals:
Jennifer Johnson, Alumni, Common Ground, University
of Alabama