ABSTRACT
This chapter attempts to answer Mullen's question by providing an introduction to the role of funk in contemporary African American poetry. One of the most exquisite wordsmiths in African American poetry is Sterling Plumpp, whose career has spanned more than four decades. At the most basic level, funk is an impulse. It signifies honesty and beauty of expression at the depths of human emotion. According to ethnomusicologist Portia Maultsby, funk derives from the word lu-funki, which is of Central African origin. The art historian Robert Farris Thompson traces it to the Kikongo term lu-fuki. In both instances, the word denotes body odor. His latest book, which is entitled Velvet Bebop Kente Cloth, is a scintillating performance of the funk principle in poetry. The funk trope in Velvet Bebop is conversant with much of black dance and music criticism. Harris's Drag is a resplendent feminist rewriting of P-Funk philosophy.
