Femme Funk Fête is an upcoming celebration of black women, funk, and femininity coming to the Contemporary Arts Center on March 15. Femme Funk Fête is in collaboration with Mickalene Thomas’ Femme Noires and Material Life’s Femmes Féroces.
This exhibition will feature a Material Life Shop, a Femmes Noires exhibit, and a Femme Féroces exhibit. DJ Soul Sister will bring music to the Material Life Shop, playing a special set featuring only women artists. Mickalene Thomas’ Femmes Noires exhibition will feature a live performance from Girls Rock New Orleans as well as a dance performance by Chipo Kandake that honors an array of New Orleans Funktresses. Additional music will be provided by Mystery Zone Records from their mobile Hi-Fi, Mystery Zone Soundsystem. Material Life’s Femmes Féroces exhibition will highlight women in funk music with video installations, memorabilia, and audio curated by New Orleans’ own DJ Kuti Bien.
Femmes Féroces: Material Life x Femmes Noires spotlights and honors the creativity and inventiveness of the community of femmes noires, emphasizing the importance of honoring a space for “…all who express and identify themselves as a woman, girl, femme, female, trans, queen on any day or all days,” a definition borrowed from the 100 Black Females Project.
Hosted and founded by Chipo Kandake, Femme Funk Fête is an event born from the desire to showcase and highlight the beautiful dynamics of Feminine energy and the role it played in the establishment of Funk throughout the 60s, 70s, and early 80s. The women of this time were shining examples of liberation and expressiveness through the funk sound. Despite the women of funk’s crucial contributions to the genre, many are overlooked. Femme Funk Fête seeks to celebrate these unsung women like Mallia Franklin, Betty Davis, as well as New Orleans’ own Mary Jane Hopper, Betty Harris, Norma Jean, and Zilla Mayes.
Femme Funk Fête is free and open to the public on March 15 from 1 pm to 4 pm at the CAC New Orleans.