“What I’m proposing to do is provide a brief overview of the early history of funk, particularly as it relates to the blues idiom – Buddy Bolden, Bessie, Duke, as well as a few literary texts that are pertinent to the discussion,” Bolden said.
The lecture, titled “The Epistemology of Blues/Funk,” is slated for 1 p.m. on the third floor of the J.D. Williams Library at the Department of Archives and Special Collections Center.
“(Bolden) will likely speak about the influence of early funk on the evolution of the blues sound,” said Mark Camarigg, publications manager for Living Blues magazine. “This influence appears today particularly within the soul blues genre.”
Bolden, an associate professor of African and African American Studies at the University of Kansas, has been a panelist in several of the early Blues Today Symposia sponsored by Living Blues. He is the author of “Afro-Blue: Improvisations in African American Poetry and Culture” (University of Illinois Press, 2003), and the editor of “The Funk Era and Beyond: New Perspectives on Black Popular Culture” (Palgrave Macmillan, 2008). He is working on a book-length study that traces the history of the funk principle from its association with the blues to its subsequent manifestation in swing, soul, funk and hip-hop.
Following the lecture, Margaret Compton and Renna Tuten, archivists from the University of Georgia, plan to show two silent home movies featuring performances by Robert Junior Lockwood, Sonny Boy Williamson and members of the King Biscuit Time band.
The Early Wright Lecture was created in the name of Mississippi’s first black disc jockey and is supported by the Center for the Study of Southern Culture, Living Blues Magazine and the Blues Archive. Previous lecturers have included Stanley Crouch, Paul Oliver, Samuel Charters and William Ferris.
For more information or to request assistance related to a disability, call 662-915-1850. To learn more about the J.D. Williams Library, visit http://www.olemiss.edu/depts/