Extraordinary Woman: The Queen of Funk

Betty Davis broke many boundaries in the '70s music scene with her sexual style and outrageous funk music -- but then she disappeared.
About this Event

"Betty Davis was a force of nature," says Grammy award-winning music historian Rob Bowman. "A flamboyant funk diva who wrote and arranged her own material, she was renowned for her aggressive sexuality in performance and for a voice that could shred shrapnel."

Davis, who started writing songs at age 12, left for New York City from a small Pennsylvania steel town when she was just 17. There she was aborbed into the music scene, befriended Jimi Hendrix and Sly Stone and married Miles Davis for a tumultuous year. She had an outsized influence on Miles, changing the way he dressed and turning him from jazz to funk on the album she named "Bitches Brew."

Her raw on-stage persona, unabashed sexuality and portrayal of female desire proved too outrageous for the 1970s. Radio stations boycotted her songs, and her record label dropped her. She became a pioneer, writing, performing and producing her work, but then she disappeared.

Join us on Sunday, June 7, noon, at the Revue Cinema for a documentary and discussion about the incomparable Queen of Funk. We will be screening the 2017 documentary Betty -- They Say I Am Different, directed by Phil Cox, who spent years trying to find and persuade Davis to make the film.

We're thrilled to have Rob Bowman back to share his expertise in our Q&A. What change did Davis bring to the music scene? How did her music evolve? Was she, as Miles Davis said, "Madonna before Madonna, Prince before Prince?" What impact did race and musical genres have on her success?

This screening and discussion is part of Back Lane Studios' Extraordinary Women Series, presented in partnership with the Revue Cinema.

Here's what critics wrote about the documentary:

The New York Time: “Betty Davis was a raw funk pioneer. Her decades of silence are over…”

The New Yorker : “A beautiful impressionistic meditation on Betty Davis’s career.”

Davis passed away from cancer in 2022, but fortunately Cox managed to connect with her and create this documentary. It blends animation, archival footage and documentary techniques to create a sensitive portrait.

Please note this Extraordinary Women event starts at noon.

Tickets are by donation ($16 suggested) on Eventbrite or at the door. When buying by donation on Eventbrite, you can only buy one ticket at a time.