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Tayari's Blog: Funky Q&A With Abdel Shakur

Posted by TayariJones on August 4, 2007 02:55 PM
Filed under The Writing Life

Abdel Shakur is the editor of Indiana Review. I met him this past February at the AWP Conference in Atlanta. He's a baby-faced brother, with an old-school aesthetic. Yesterday, he sent me an email telling me that he was about to start accepting submissions for a special issue on Funk. I was a little confused.

T: For some reason when I think of Indiana, "funky" isn't exactly what comes to mind. Actually, for me, nothing much comes to mind. Well, the Jackson 5, but that was a long time ago. What has possessed Indiana Review to "Focus on the Funk" ?

A: Well, I should say right off the top that Indiana Review's editorial staff is comprised of MFA students in Indiana University's creative writing program. Although Indiana may not be the funkiest place you can imagine (even though "I'm going back to Indiana," is the hit!), we have a diverse group of writers with some very funky aesthetics.

T: So how did you come up with the idea? And then, was it hard to get it approved?

A: Actually, I really wasn't trying to do a special issue this year. The editor position at IR is for only one year, and a lot of my focus this year is on strengthening the magazine as an institution. But I was soliciting work for the new issue and I contacted poet Thomas Sayers Ellis. He sent me a beautiful series of photographs he took at the James Brown memorial in Harlem. That got me to thinking. I saw James Brown in concert when he came to Bloomington last year;he had this energy that was just so, so, good. That energy is one of the essences of funk for me. Plus, my dad raised me on P-Funk, so it's a family thang as well.

T: What is "Funk" exactly?

A: George Clinton said that funk has the power to move and re-move, and I think that's a good place to start. Instead of trying to define exactly what funk "is," it's probably a lot more productive to describe what it does. Funk is completely dynamic and organic. It's all about change and subversion. Like a hamhock in your cornflakes. The purpose of the special section is not necessarily to make IR the arbiters of funkiness, but to offer our readers a range of engaging interpretations of funk. Hopefully we'll feature some work that makes you want to jump back and kiss yourself.

T: If people want to submit, where can they go for more info?

A: You can find more information at our website and blog. When our reading period opens September 1 st (we'll still be accepting regular submissions, by the way) if you have work you'd like us to consider for this special section, please mark it "Attn: Funk Editor". Indiana Review can only contain so much funk, so we'll only be reading for this section during the month of September. Any submissions after that will be returned.

T: "Funk Editor." I bet you love that. Are you having that printed on your business cards? OK, let's play a game. I name something and you say funky or not funky.

A: Okay

T:The Brand New Heavies?
A: Funky.
T: Preternaturally funky.

T: Nina Simone?
A: The high priestess of funk. Check out "Mississippi Goddamn"

T: Golf?
A: It's just not funky. Lo siento. However, Tiger Woods-- despite himself, funky at times.

T: Geckos?
A: Unfunky. Salamanders-- funky, definitely.

T: Cat Stevens?
A: Possibly funky. They don’t let him fly on airplanes no more.

T: Yoga?
A: No offense to yoga, but not funky.

T: Toni Morrison?
A: Sula’s got some funk.

T: Orchids?
A: Beautiful, but not funky.

T: Kevin Federline?
A: Dirty, certainly. Funky? No.

T: Barack Obama?
A: It's too early to tell. But Michelle, on the other hand, has a PhD in Funk.