Big Mama Thornton: I Can’t Be Anyone But Me (Film + Q&A)

Alabama-born Willie Mae “Big Mama” Thornton joined a traveling variety show at age 14 and for the next 40 years was one of America’s greatest blues singers, navigating the dangerous sharks and shoals of the music business while defying gender norms and retaining her own unique style. Elvis Presley’s hit “Hound Dog” was both inspired and originally sung by her; Janis Joplin’s “Ball and Chain” was written by Thornton and became her signature song. After leaving the South, Thornton spent years living in Oakland, becoming a charismatic leading figure in the Bay Area’s music scene, playing juke joints from Russell City to Richmond, and even sharing the stage with rock legends like the Grateful Dead. Director Robert Clem’s 2025 documentary “I Can’t Be Anyone But Me” features interviews with several of her East Bay musical colleagues, but the film has never been screened in Oakland… until now.

Following the film screening, Liam O’Donoghue, host of the East Bay Yesterday podcast and KPFA radio show, will moderate a panel discussion with several of Big Mama Thornton’s friends and collaborators who are featured in the film including:

-Ronnie Stewart, founder and executive director of the West Coast Blues Society

-Lee Ashford, longtime local blues legend and manager

This event is presented in collaboration with Oakland Heritage Association. Since 1981, OHA has engaged residents, policymakers, elected officials and others in exploring strategies to preserve Oakland’s irreplaceable cultural, natural, and architectural heritage.

To read more about the film, see the Guardian’s coverage here: “The biggest, baddest, saltiest chick you would ever see”: Why no one sang the blues like Big Mama Thornton.

AGENDA

6PM: Doors open

6:30 - 8PM: Film screening

8PM - 8:30: Panel discussion

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bAEaj5mDLEc