September 2021
Paisley Park, Welcome 2 America Virtual Celebration (#W2AVC), Next Year, GFM podcast w/ Duane Tudahl, The Time Rock & Roll Globe article, Jill Jones #PrinceTwitterThread, People Magazine, Lewis Taylor
I am an ark in the swift flood of time, and my companions, a fellowship. Who throws in with us sails into light.
~Rumi
Unfortunately, the figurative summer is soon coming to a close! It came and went so fast. However, I am grateful to experience one of the best summers ever despite these unprecedented times. I got to spend a week with my aunt and cousins in Ohio in May and a month with my mom and sister in the ATL in June. This simple sentence belies how grateful I am to have seen them all IN PERSON after over a year. Previously, we would have seen each other numerous times over the course of a year. I never took it for granted, but it was a rude awakening that that certainty is never guaranteed.
I got to travel to MPLS to step foot in Prince’s home, once again, for the Welcome 2 America Release Party on Friday, July 30, 2021. This was my first non-family trip after March 2020’s lockdown! Of course, it would be MPLS! I. had. to. hear. the Welcome 2 America concert footage on Paisley Park’s mind-blowing sound system.
The concert experience was everything I hoped for and more! I couldn’t believe the concert opened with my favorite Prince song, “Joy In Repetition!” However, the experience was made even sweeter by sitting in between my husband and Zaheer Ali. Zaheer was cracking me up the entire time. I’ll never forget our shared moments of surprise, delight, giggles, and disbelief of a recurring occurrence (inside joke). We had a blast!
Thanks 2 Darling Nisi for this annotated 😂 photo (Scott Woods had already headed back) with the purple posse that met for breakfast that weekend! It was so great breaking bread with everyone after a year of social distancing!
A very memorable quote from the weekend on numerous occasions:
“It’s too COVID-Y up in here!” ~Zaheer Ali
Curated a Welcome 2 America Virtual Celebration (#W2AVC) (July 2021)
#W2AVC was a polished solid production, curated by yours truly. This was NOT a symposium. This was a virtual celebration for the release of Prince’s Welcome 2 America, the first complete, unreleased album from Prince’s vault on Saturday, August 21, 2021.
This event was in the spirit of last year’s Sign O’ The Times Super Deluxe Celebration (#SOTTSDC) & the tradition of Harlem Renaissance salons, where gifted & creative poets, writers, artists, musicians, activists & scholars came together 2 have conversations & debates in a supportive & welcoming space!
MASSIVE THANKS to each and every attendee, roundtable panelist, and moderator!
MASSIVE THANKS to very special guest Mathieu Bitton, designer of the stunning, Welcome 2 America packaging! We are so very grateful for his extraordinary work!
MASSIVE THANKS to Nicolay for his participation and for granting me permission to use "The Sopranos" from City Lights Vol. 1! https://nicolay.bandcamp.com
MASSIVE THANKS to Reverend for the graphics!
Donate to the PRN Alumni Foundation: https://prnalumni.org!
For #W2AVC speaker bios, visit https://w2avc.polishedsolid.com.
#W2AVC was a polished solid production, curated by De Angela L. Duff.
#W2AVC “Euro Take” (AKA The 🔥 Memorabilia) Roundtable with Kirsty Fairclough, Karen Gabay, Edgar Kruize, Hasit Shah, UMB & Casey Rain of The Violet Reality, Moderator.
#W2AVC "Take 2" (AKA Shake Your Head) Roundtable with the core four: Zaheer Ali, Anil Dash, Miles Marshall Lewis, Elliott Powell & De Angela L. Duff, Moderator.
P.S. Mad thanks to Darling Nisi for this gem!
#W2AVC "Take 3" (AKA Get Out of Your Feelings) Roundtable with Nicolay, Harold Pride, Arthur Turnbull, Ricky Wyatt & Scott Woods, Moderator
#W2AVC "Take 4" (AKA The Ladies 💗) Roundtable with Miss TLC, Rhonda Nicole, Tonya Pendleton, Erica Thompson & KaNisa Williams, Moderator
#W2AVC Very Special Guest Mathieu Bitton, designer of the stunning, Welcome 2 America packaging!
The Estate of Prince Rogers Nelson is not affiliated, associated, or connected with the ‘Welcome 2 America Virtual Celebration (#W2AVC),’ nor has it endorsed or sponsored the ‘Welcome 2 America Virtual Celebration (#W2AVC).’ Further, the Estate of Prince Rogers Nelson has not licensed any of its intellectual property to the producers, advertisers, or directors of ‘Welcome 2 America Virtual Celebration (#W2AVC).’
#Next Year
Join us in a year for a #W2AVC After Salon in the spirit of last year’s #SOTTSDC After Salons! We only scratched the surface with #W2AVC. However, we need time to marinate on & live with this record. This album deserves repeat listening! I don't want the conversations surrounding this release to die!
Also, see you in 2022 for 2 polished solid Prince symposia! (Hopefully) a hybrid #TripleThreat40 celebrating 1999, Vanity 6 & What Time Is It? & a virtual #SexyMF30 celebrating the symbol album! Dates to be announced next year! We're super excited! We hope you R 2!
Produced and Hosted a Grown Folks Music Behind The Book Podcast Reunion (August 2021)
On Saturday, 7 August 2021, Duane Tudahl, Miss TLC, Ricky Wyatt, and I reunited to discuss Duane's new book, Prince and the Parade and Sign O' The Times Era Studio Sessions: 1985 and 1986, for a 3 hr+ Grown Folks Music (GFM) Behind The Book Podcast! This was our first GFM Prince podcast since March 2020! It had been a very long time!
We cut it short this time around! If 3 hours isn't enough for you, feel free to listen to our almost 2-hour conversation from 3 years ago about not only Duane's first book, Prince and the Purple Rain Era Studio Sessions: 1983 and 1984, also with Duane, Miss TLC, Ivan Orr, and me…
…but also this additional 3-hour conversation about Purple Rain Deluxe!
Wrote “Another Starr Production: The Time at 40” for Rock and Roll Globe (July 2021)
The Time 1981 press photo (Art: Ron Hart)
In this article, “Another Starr Production: The Time at 40,” for Rock and Roll Globe, I am grateful for the opportunity to further reflect beyond the hilarious #1plusplus1is3 symposium roundtable about 40 years of The Time’s debut featuring Richard Cole, Eloy Lasanta AKA Prince’s Friend, Marc Wiggins AKA Big Sexy, Ricky Wyatt & Michael Dean of the Podcast on Prince!
Contributed to Jill Jones #PrinceTwitterThread (July 2021)
The #PrinceTwitterThread is a curated series by Edgar Kruize and Deejay UMB. Jill Jones is their 5th #PrinceTwitterThread. I was honored and grateful to be able to discuss sampling Jill Jones.
IF you want to read this Twitter Thread on one web page instead, here you go.
Here’s the entire Jill Jones #PrinceTwitterThread! So many great threads and voices!
To read previous #PrinceTwitterThread series, visit Edgar Kruize’s purplepicks.net.
P.S. My purple friend Tricky Kid’s AKA Roy Turner’s did a wonderful, follow-up 2-part interview with Jill Jones for his podcast series, Prince: The Encore. A must listen!
Quoted in People Magazine Prince Special Edition (September 2021)
“Call People magazine, Rolling Stone
Call your next of kin, 'cause your ass is gone”~Prince from “Positivity”
Even though I was credited incorrectly, being quoted in a special edition Prince magazine is literally a dream come true. I’m NOT the host of the Prince podcast; the brilliant Andrea Swensson is. I don’t know HOW that happened! It would have been INCREDIBLE to be credited correctly for my polished solid Prince symposia, but I am grateful nevertheless.
I owe my deepest gratitude to Michael Gonzales and Ericka Blount for this incredible opportunity.
NEVER in a million years did I ever expect to see my name in one of the many Prince special edition magazine issues I’ve been collecting over the years. Also, the quote is featured on one of the best spreads of this edition, featuring an “I KNOW I’m clean!” Prince classic photo. I couldn’t ask for anything more! Those eyes are peeping my quote. Of course, that’s not true, but it tickles me to suspend disbelief for a moment!
UPDATE Sep. 2022: A Prince friend sent me a snapshot of a subsequent printing and the podcast attribution error has been corrected. YAY!
Thanks for reading! If you’re seeing this newsletter for the first time, you can read previous issues in the archive. If you are not a subscriber, please consider becoming one and/or spreading the word with your purple friends.
P.S. Muse 2 The Pharaoh podcast: Reclaiming the Black Body: Prince, Intellectual Property and the Rights of Publicity
I’m thrilled that Darling Nisi aka KaNisa Williams is continuing her Muse 2 The Pharaoh podcast. Her latest episode, Reclaiming the Black Body: Prince, Intellectual Property and the Rights of Publicity, is essential listening, as always. Check the show notes chock full of info for further research.
Her last incredible 2-part series, Prince, Black Exceptionalism and the Myth of the Magical Negro, from November 2020 featured some of my favorite Prince thinkers, my triplet Kamilah Cummings, Tonya Pendleton, and Erica Thompson.
Darling Nisi’s continued critical analysis about Prince is important work!
P.S.S. If you’ve never listened to Lewis Taylor’s debut, do yourself a favor and do so!
More folks need to hear this masterpiece. Yes, high praise, I know, but very deserving. If you’re a Prince fan, you should love it. Lewis Taylor writes and produces his own songs, sings divinely, and plays almost all of the instruments–bass, drums, guitar, and keyboards–on the record. Sound familiar?
Massive Thanks to Be Records for re-releasing this instant classic on vinyl!
For more context, listen to a Grown Folks Music (GFM) podcast I produced and edited with Ivan Orr of GFM and Jehan of The Music Snobs about Lewis Taylor.
P.S.S. S. Massive Thanks to Darling Nisi for this stunning gif(t) of Sheila E!
It’s hypnotizing and simply beautiful and luscious and … OK. I’ll stop!