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About rickeyvincent.com
The idea for this site came about a few years ago when my previous site, "Funklore"
was getting a lot of interest, but I was unable to update it. My brother,
Teo Barry Vincent, a true PedroBellian Webmaster had designed it just for fun
in 1997, but never gave me the codes to upload anything. And I didn't really
understand how webpages worked anyway.
After returning to UC Berkeley for a Phd in Ethnic Studies in 2002, I managed to get a Ford Fellowship for minorities in higher education. With school paid for I promptly purchased a fancy new Imac in January 2004 and got upgraded like a mug. A few sessions with my nephew David Caro Greene and my brother Teo and I was uploading photos & thangs. Teo designed all of the wild flash animation on the front pages of the site, but has recently left town, so it may be awhile before I can update that again.
The site has been an avenue for me to tell some stories about thangs, such
as how George Clinton came to write the introduction to my book, as well as
promote some of my favorite people, such as Zootzilla and Funkyman. It was also
a way for me to take an inventory of all the funky business I had been doing
before I jumped back into higher education. The plan of course is to ultimately
funkatize higher education, and take my funky biz to a higher and tighter level.
So, rickeyvincent.com is silly and serious at the same time. I hope you enjoy
it!.
Professional Background
I learned years ago that if I truly wanted to pursue The Funk with the freedom
required to do so, that I would have to go to the Zone of Zero Funkativity and
get a degree, and a job first. Therefore, along the road in pursuit of The Funk,
I have a career in education.
Out of Berkeley High School in 1979 I got into UC Berkeley through a minority
engineers program called the Professional Development Program (PDP). Not having
any interest in Engineering or the Reagan Defense Industry in the 1980s, I began
as an Astronomy major. After a summer internship in Arizona at the Kitt Peak
national Observatory, (where I worked on a "Luminosity Function of the Galactic
Nucleus" for Dr. Jeremy Mould ) and had a blast, I was told that it would
take another 12 years of study to return as a professional Astronomer.
So I returned to Cal directionless, and as an afterthought, spent the summer
of 1983 at KALX radio, and things took off. After taking a Black music history
course with Music Professor Olly Wilson I found a calling. I became motivated
to learn (and to teach) the history of black music through the 1980s.
I was
also deeply inspired to be a writer by Prof. Roy Thomas, who nurtured me and
my work from my high school days in PDP through my UC graduation ten years later.
Around 1991 I got a hookup with the school paper, The Daily Californian, writing my
own outrageous weekly column, "Below the Funk!"
I graduated in 1987 as an Ethnic Studies major, and worked in after-school programs
until entering San Francisco State’s Master’s in Ethnic Studies program in 1991.
With the support of Prof, Oba T’Shaka, Prof. Laura Head and Prof. Jose
“Dr Loco” Cuellar, I zeroed in on ‘The History of Funk’
as a research topic and graduated in 1993.
Thanks to associate Dean Jim Okutsu, I was hired at SF State to teach introductory
“Critical Thinking” courses in Ethnic Studies, which paid the bills
and allowed me to explore a wide range of teaching methodologies.
I took my “History of Funk” idea to dozens of publishers, but St.
Martin's press was the largest, and quickest, and one of only two that showed serious
interest. After two frenzied years of work, the "funk book" was published in 1996.
After “Funk” was published, Ethnic Studies Dean Philip McGee allowed
me to design and teach a course based on the book, originally titled “Protest
Music Since 1965: Funk, Rap and the Black Revolution” I taught a variation
of that popular class from 1997 to 2002 when I left SF State to return to Cal
as a Phd candidate in Ethnic Studies.
Along the way I developed a new course called the “Hip Hop Workshop”
and with the help of a core crew of students, and a set of turntables purchased
by the Ethnic Studies College, the course became one of the largest and most
popular ever in the College of Ethnic Studies.
I have since returned to UC Berkeley to pursue a Phd in Ethnic Studies, and
to develop research for new books that I have been preparing for a decade now.
The family
None of this funky mess would be worthwhile if I didn’t have my family
to make everything go. My wife Tess is the loveliest, hardest working and most
generous person I’ve ever met. She is the Greatest Woman on the face of
this earth, and I would be panhandling on Telegraph avenue right about now if
it weren’t for her.
Here's a list of Ted Vincent's books: (he's sometimes listed as Theodore G. Vincent)
1970 - Black Power and the Garvey Movement Ramparts Press, San Francisco (reprinted by Nzinga press, 1987, and reprinted by Black Classic Press, 2007);
1972 - Editor: Voices of a Black Nation: Political Journalism in the Harlem Renaissance Ramparts Press, San Francisco. (reprinted by Afrika World Press 1991)
1981 - Mudville's Revenge: The Rise and Fall of American Sport University of Nebraska Press 1994 (1981)
1995 - Keep Cool: The Black Activists Who Built the Age of Jazz London, Pluto Press
2003 - The Legacy of Vicente Guerrerro, Mexico's first Black Indian President. University of Florida Press You can check some of his recent work out at:
Black Indian Mexico
My fater Ted Vincent passed away on June 14th, 2009 after suffering a heart attack on May 29th. His last work was as consultant to the "African Presence in Mexico" exhibit at the Oakland Museum. He died doing what he always devoted his life to: a greater understanding between us all.
David Caro Greene webmaster II
Click here to email Rickey Vincent: rickeyvincent77@yahoo.com
