SACRAMENTO, CA (MPG) - New Rising Publishing is pleased to announce the release of the publication “The Funk Queen Dawn Silva: An Autobiography.”  The deluxe coffee-table book spans the wide-screen life and career of funk icon Dawn Silva who was the founder and lead vocalist for the George Clinton-created Brides of Funkenstein, while also having enjoyed stints as a vocalist in some of funk music’s greatest groups including Sly & The Family Stone, Parliament Funkadelic and the Gap Band.

As a memoir, the publication serves as a reference work that touches on Silva’s participation in many key historical events and developments within the funk music genre while also serving as a cautionary tale as Silva navigated through a myriad number of inequities, challenges, and obstacles as a woman artist in the male-dominated music industry of the 1970s and 1980s. 

“My mother once said that there is nothing in the music industry that prepares you for that lifestyle,” said Silva.  “She was right, and it was all the motivation I needed to complete my autobiography.  I felt very strongly about putting my story in print in hopes of it inspiring and empowering those who read it.” 

Epic in scope, the publication chronicles Silva’s rich cultural heritage, growing up during the Jim Crow era of the 1950s & 60s as well as her stint in the Black Panther Party of the 1970s.  Her musical journeys are spotlighted through her tenures with Sly & The Family Stone, George Clinton / Parliament-Funkadelic (aka P-Funk), Brides of Funkenstein (lead vocalist), as well as her background songstress days for the Gap Band and her later forays into rock/new wave with Was Not Was as well as her going solo and defying many of the norms for women in funk music. 

The book takes a kaleidoscopic look at her musical experiences and how they galvanized her reputation as the “Funk Queen,” as Silva directly challenged the long-established status quo and institutional misogyny of the music industry.

“This is 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,” said New Rising Publishing Executive Director Henry Mayers.  “This true story is no longer funk’s best kept secret. It is the 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.” 

The release has garnered praise from some of pop culture’s foremost music critics and scribes who have hailed the book as an authentic masterpiece. 

Noted cultural critic and scribe Nelson George added, “Dawn Silva is a dynamic storyteller with a raw, incandescent aura.  Dawn was not twenty feet from stardom.  The stars were twenty feet from Dawn,” he added.

“It’s one of the most honest in my-life-in-music and books you’re going to read, and it’s also one of the most exploratory. (Each event is) preceded by cause and followed by effect, each one building up a portrait, of people, places, and things, that are themselves as real as the pages in your hand,” said music critic Dave Thompson.

“The Funk Queen Dawn Silva: An Autobiography” is a limited-edition 544-page book and is the first project to roll out from New Rising Publishing, a progressive artistic publishing house dedicated to high-quality publications, ranging from fiction to non-fiction for writers with unique stories to tell.  To order the publication, visit newrisingpublishing.com.