City Lights celebrates the publication of
The Funk Queen: A Biography
By Dawn Silva
Published by New Rising Books
Dan Silva in conversation with Harry Duncan. Musical accompaniment by Gail Muldrow.
Purchase the book at this link:
https://citylights.com/new-nonfiction-in-hardcover/funk-queen/
(Be advised: The sound quality of this event is not equal to our usual standard. We experienced technical difficulties on the evening of the event. We apologize for anything lost in translation. We did feel that it was important enough, despite the bad sound quality, to present the event in a more raw form for the historic record.)
Dawn Silva is a Funk artist of epic proportions, singer, songwriter, author, and a former member of Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame Inductee’s Parliament-Funkadelic. Silva is the lead singer of the Funk/Rock group, The Brides of Funkenstein and has toured and shared stages with some of the biggest bands in history.
City Lights celebrates the publication of The Funk Queen – By Dawn Silva – Published by New Rising Books
This true story is no longer Funk’s Best Kept Secret. It is a story of survival and persistence, a tale of a courageous woman who stood against the male-dominated music industry and never backed down; no matter how often she was knocked down, each time, she would rise stronger and better than before.
After two decades, Dawn Silva, written to be a Funk Diva of epic proportions, comes out with one of the most honest and exploratory music-industry autobiographies you will ever read. Silva takes her readers on a journey around the world, and back, beginning with her rich heritage, and the trials and tribulations of a black child growing up in America during the mid 50’s and ’60s, to her defiant stint with the Black Panthers in the early ’70s in Oakland, California, to the mid-’90s performing in front of a quarter of a million people on a sandy beach in Rio De Janeiro, Brasil. Yes, Dawn was meant to sing and dance. Her musical pathway blossomed after meeting and recording with legendary icon Sly Stone at the height of his career, and later touring and recording with one of the greatest funk bands of all time, Parliament-Funkadelic.
Long before the 2018 #MeToo Movement, there was the story of a rebellious American female recording artist who escaped an era of subjugated institutions, misogyny, and physical and mental abuse, beating the odds and recapturing a worldwide underground cult following.
Dawn Silva began her career as a background singer for Sly Stone & The Family Stone. This world-class exposure and moved Silva full swing into the Funk Arena when Stone dropped out of his supporting slot on Parliament-Funkadelic’s 1976 U.S. tour and the rest is history. George Clinton, produced a group on Atlantic Records called, The Brides of Dr. Funkenstein, featuring Sly’s singers, Lynn Mabry, and Dawn Silva. In 1979, the Brides’ unprecedented popularity earned them a #7 hit record on Billboard’s R&B singles. The (Record World R&B Awards) honored the ladies with a #1 Best New Single, for Bootsy Collins’ song, “Disco To Go a #1 Best New Album for Funk or Walk. Silva flew under the radar for most of the ’80s and 90’s moving on to record and tour with “The Gap Band,” credited on “Gap Band V” (Jamming) and the platinum-selling album “Gap Gold.” Silva stood on stage at the Greek Theatre, in Hollywood, California, singing behind the world-famous B.B. King. She crossed paths with the gifted duo, The Eurythmics, and recorded with guitarist Dave Stewart on various studio projects and soundtracks.
Roots & Rhythm DJ Harry Duncan has been one of Northern California’s most active and influential figures in live DJ-ing, radio programming, concert production & promotion, and artist management for decades. When dj-ing live, he spins his freestyle mix of soul, funk, r&b, jazz, roots reggae, ska, African and Latin music which can also heard on “In The Soul Kitchen”, the weekly three-hour radio show he produces and hosts on KCSM, the San Francisco Bay Area’s jazz station. Click here to listen to the “In The Soul Kitchen” streaming live, 7–10 pm Pacific time every Sunday night as well as his last two shows listed under Harry Duncan’s Previous Playlists. Duncan has opened shows for artists like Aretha Franklin, The Roots, George Clinton and P-Funk, The Sun Ra Arkestra, India Arie, Tower of Power, Dr. John, Trombone Shorty, Galactic, Los Lobos, Femi Kuti, Steel Pulse, and Ziggy Marley.
Gail Muldrow is considered one of the funkiest rhythm guitarist in the business.
This event was originally broadcast on Wednesday, March 26, 2025.
Made possible by support from the City Lights Foundation.
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