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Funkentelechy: Langston Hughes’ Blues Vision in Ryan Coogler’s Sinners—Toward a Kinetic Aesthetic

November 6, 2025 @ 11:00 am - 12:50 pm

This talk will highlight the ways in which Langston Hughes and Ryan Coogler represent and exemplify salient elements of the blues ethos, while doing so nearly a century apart in nonmusical mediums. Central in this regard are the comparatively high degrees of significance that Hughes and Coogler attribute to dancing in blues aesthetics. Additional focus will spotlight the artists’ representations of blues-based values and their methods of stimulating and/or simulating common elements of blues-based music. Parallels between Hughes’s depictions of dancers and Coogler’s funk sub-motif, which includes P-Funk’s symbolism, will be briefly discussed as well.

Organizers

  • UCLA African American Studies Department
  • UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music

Venue

  • Lani Hall
  • 445 Charles E. Young Dr East 2520 Schoenberg Music Building
    Los Angeles, CA 90095 United States
    + Google Map
  • Phone (310) 825-4761
  • View Venue Website

Organizers

  • UCLA African American Studies Department
  • UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music

Venue

  • Lani Hall
  • 445 Charles E. Young Dr East 2520 Schoenberg Music Building
    Los Angeles, CA 90095 United States
    + Google Map
  • Phone (310) 825-4761
  • View Venue Website