The Black Feminist Funk Movement and Black Musical Feminism

Chapter 2 , “The Black Feminist Funk Movement and Black Musical Feminism,” argues that select African American women’s classic funk was a form of Black feminist funk music and contributed to a Black feminist funk subculture and a Black feminist funk submovement that paralleled and accessibly articulated many of the theories and praxes of the Black Women’s Liberation Movement. The chapter also introduces the concept of “Black musical feminism,” which is a framework for identifying and analyzing the long tradition of African American women’s musical expressions of Black women’s empowerment, a Black womenfolk and Black mother wit-informed worldview, Black womanhood, Black sisterhood, and Black women’s simultaneous commitment to racial justice, gender justice, sexual justice, and economic justice. Here, the theory and praxis of the Black Women’s Liberation Movement will be discussed with an eye on the ways it, whether directly or indirectly, influenced the tenor of Black women’s funk and, vice versa, the ways that Black women’s funk, in turn, served as a musical mouthpiece for the Black Women’s Liberation Movement. If, indeed, “music is more than merely music” for many, if not most, African Americans (especially those actively involved in social, political, and cultural movements), when, where, why , and how the unique relationship between Black women’s popular music and Black women’s popular movements developed are key questions. With that in mind, the chapter asks and answers the questions: How was the Black Women’s Liberation Movement’s politics and emphasis on racial, gender, sexual, and economic justice expressed through the work of select African American female funk singers? What is Black musical feminism? How was the Black musical feminism of the Black Women’s Liberation Movement influenced by, and how did it influence, the Black Arts Movement and the Feminist Art Movement? How was the Black musical feminism of the Black Women’s Liberation Movement influenced by, and how did it influence, the Black aesthetic and the feminist aesthetic of the 1960s and 1970s?