Mentioned in Minneapolis' Star Tribune
It was so so great to finally meet and share a meal with Jon Bream, music journalist and the author of my very first Prince book, Prince: Inside The Purple Reign (1984), at this year’s 2022 Prince Celebration at Paisley Park! It was an absolute surprise and honor to get a mention in his Star Tribune review of Celebration.
#1plus1plus1is3 Featured in the Journal of Popular Music Studies
Massive gratitude to the Journal of Popular Music Studies, Volume 34, Issue 2, p. 5–27, for highlighting last year's Prince #1plus1plus1is3 Virtual Symposium in their field notes section of their June 2022 edition, released just in time to celebrate Prince's upcoming birthday.
https://online.ucpress.edu/jpms/article/34/2/5/182288/1plus1plus1is3Transcripts-from-a-Virtual-Symposium (You'll need a university account to register to read them.)
Three transcripts are featured, representing each album celebrated during the event: Controversy (1981), Diamonds & Pearls (1991), and The Rainbow Children (2001).
It was extremely difficult to whittle down twenty stellar presentations to just three. My heartfelt thanks & gratitude also extends to ALL of the presenters from #1plus1plus1is3!
To accompany the transcripts, you can (re)watch the video archives of each transcript:
Controversy #1plus1plus1is3 Presentation: "I Wish We All Were Nude: Prince’s Controversy Shower Poster as Aesthetic Linchpin & Artifact" by Zachary Hoskins
Diamonds & Pearls #1plus1plus1is3 Presentation: “A Tale Of Two Princes: Diamonds & Pearls & the Myth of Colorblindness in the Work of Prince” by Kamilah Cummings
The Rainbow Children #1plus1plus1is3 Presentation: “Deconstruction: Work & Racial Capitalism in The Rainbow Children” by Robert Loss
For abstracts and bios of the speakers, visit https://1plus1plus1is3.polishedsolid.com.
Massive thanks to Dr. Elliott Powell!💜🙏
Invited by Tonya Pendleton to Speak on Clubhouse about Prince (April 21, 2022)
@TonyaPendleton invited me to speak about Prince and more specifically my Prince symposia on Clubhouse on a very significant date, April 21 (the date of Prince's passing). It was my first time speaking on the platform. I’m a bit uneasy with the culture of Clubhouse. However, because I was amongst purple family and friends, it was a welcoming experience.
When friends call, I show up for them because they show up for me. I didn’t know if I could keep myself together, but I did! I was grateful that Arthur Turnbull joined me for a portion of the conversation. Arthur is yet another dear purple friend who always answers my call particularly when it comes to being my wingman (co-host) for the online symposia.
Curated Prince #SexyMF30 Virtual Symposium
#SexyMF30 was a polished solid production, created and curated by De Angela L. Duff.
This 2-day virtual symposium celebrated Prince for 30 years of the Love Symbol album, on 26-27 March 2022 (Sat-Sun)!
There were 33 speakers (academics, music journalists, podcasters, authors, and independent scholars), 6 moderators, 3 roundtable discussions about the album, Act I & II tours, and 3 Chains O’ Gold video collection, and 12 presentations about the album, fashion/style of the era, 3 Chains O’ Gold video collection and comic book.
Event website: http://sexymf.polishedsolid.com
Betty Davis Syllabus
I compiled this Betty Davis Syllabus (#BettyDavisSyllabus) quickly to seize the moment to introduce Betty Davis to new fans and music lovers who want a deeper dive. I also compiled this for my aunt, an avid music lover who had never heard of Betty Davis upon her passing, despite being a teenager in the seventies.
I wanted to create a list of media for anyone to get acclimated to Betty Davis’ music and the important scholarship surrounding her. I thought it essential to have my initial pass crowdsourced to ensure the best coverage of the breadth of academic scholarship about Betty Davis.
In curating the 2018 Betty Davis symposium, my goal was to spread the word about her. However, my Prince work consumed me, instead. I want to rectify that by spearheading this Betty Davis syllabus.
Words could never communicate her impact on me & countless others! However, I hope this compilation of resources will begin to articulate Betty Davis’ impact on music, culture, and folks all around the world.
Please take the time to first and foremost listen to Betty Davis and then watch and read about her. Trust me! It will be an incredible journey!
![BLACK PORTRAITURE[S] VII Conference](https://www.polishedsolid.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/bp-vii-play_and_performance-uai-258x172.jpeg)
Presented at Black Portraiture[s] VII
De Angela presented at the Black Portraitures[VII] conference: Play and Performance on Feb 18, 2022, at Express Newark at Rutgers University-Newark in Newark, NJ, on the What Else Can There Be? Black Play / Cultural (Dis)Locations panel.
"Under The Cherry Moon: Prince at Play"
Abstract:
This presentation will discuss Prince at play in his second feature film and directorial
debut, Under The Cherry Moon (UTCM)! On the heels of the massive success of Purple
Rain, most artists would have followed up with a sequel. Prince did not. UTCM was a
black and white, artistic buddy film, shot in France, and released in 1986.
While UTCM is often maligned by most, the film is the ultimate public document of
Prince as his most authentic self. While Purple Rain conjures the mystique that Prince
constructed and carefully crafted for the public, UTCM reveals him as he truly was with
his close friends and associates: hilariously funny and always at play.
Moreover, the most pervasive theme throughout UTCM is play. The film’s reception can
shift massively if viewed through this lens. Let me guide you through a “new position” of
this brilliant motion picture.
Video Transcript Featured in Journal of Popular Music Studies
I am thrilled to have the transcript of my virtual talk, “Conjuring the Prince Mystique” from the virtual 78-88: Prince, The First Decade: An Interdisciplinary Conference, 3 - 5 June 2021 (organized by Dr. Kirsty Fairclough, Dr. Mike Alleyne, and Kristen Zschomler) included in the Journal of Popular Music Studies, Volume 33, Number 4, pp. 23–27 (Electronic ISSN: 1533-1598).
This issue features a digital lecture roundup, book reviews, and a special issue on music and gentrification. Check it out if you have access to an academic library!
If you don’t have access, you can always watch the video from my personal archives:
78-88 Conference Presentation: Conjuring The Prince Mystique from De Angela Duff on Vimeo.
Many thanks to outgoing editors Robin James and Eric Weisbard for selecting my talk as exemplary of the online style of conference presentations that COVID-19 generated, among several other presentations.
Also, congratulations to one of the incoming editors to the Journal of Popular Music Studies, my purple friend and one of the core four: Elliott H. Powell!
Co-producing PRN Alumni's 5-Year Anniversary Virtual Event
On Saturday, 13 November 2021, De Angela is co-producing, alongside the PRN Alumni Foundation, a one-day virtual event to commemorate five years of the PRN Alumni Foundation, a 501c3 non-profit founded by former Prince staff who share the global icon’s philanthropic mission in supporting youth programs dedicated to the education, enrichment, and expression of music and the arts, supporting urban farming initiatives, and helping alumni members in need.
This event will be centered around Prince’s acoustic album The Truth, originally released as an accompaniment to the 1996 triple CD set Crystal Ball, which finally received its own spotlight when released as a limited edition standalone for Record Store Day, earlier this year. It’s worthy of further conversation and introspection.
We hope you’ll join us!
Event website: https://prnalumni5.polishedsolid.com
Eventbrite: https://prnalumni5.eventbrite.com
Spoke at the 2nd Annual Dayton Funk Symposium
I was honored to present “Pour Some Water On Me: Prince and the Ohio Players” at the 2nd Annual Dayton Funk Symposium, at the University of Ohio in Dayton, Ohio, on Saturday, 6 November 2021. Even though my presentation was virtual, the conference was in person.
I am thrilled that the University of Dayton has posted its video archives from the first (2018) AND second (2021) Dayton Funk Symposia. I wish more conferences would do so. There are a lot of stellar talks.
So now, you can also, specifically, watch the Q&A portion of my talk, beginning at the 43-minute mark. If you want to see the talk itself at the highest resolution, you can watch the featured video above without the Q&A portion
James "Diamond" Williams, drummer of the Ohio Players, attended my talk AND remembered my family, vividly. What an honor & privilege! I will never ever forget that moment. FLOORED! Before the University of Dayton posted the video archives, I could only hear, but, now that the video archives have been shared, I can see him, as well. Thank you so very much, Dr. Sharon Gratto and the University of Dayton, for the opportunity and documentation!
Abstract:
In Prince’s incomplete and posthumous memoir, The Beautiful Ones, the Ohio Players is referenced four times. However, Prince’s love of the Ohio Players was evident, decades before the release of this book. Prince has covered Ohio Players’ classics, such as “Skin Tight,” “I Want To Be Free,” “Love Rollercoaster,” and “Heaven Must Be Like This,” in numerous rehearsals, shows, and after shows over the years. However, the Ohio Players are rarely discussed as one of Prince’s influences by music critics. This talk will attempt to deconstruct why, while also exploring Prince’s funk roots and influences.
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 she was credited incorrectly, being quoted in a special edition Prince magazine is literally a dream come true for De Angela. She is NOT the host of the Prince podcast; the brilliant Andrea Swensson is. It would have been INCREDIBLE for De Angela to be credited correctly for her polished solid Prince symposia, but she is grateful nevertheless.
She owes her deepest gratitude to Michael Gonzales and Ericka Blount for this incredible opportunity.
NEVER in a million years did she ever expect to see her name in one of the many Prince special edition magazine issues she's 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. She couldn’t ask for anything more! Those eyes are peeping her quote. Of course, that’s not true, but it tickles her to suspend disbelief for a moment!
Curated Welcome 2 America Virtual Celebration (#W2AVC)
#W2AVC Thank You and Recap!
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!
For #W2AVC speaker bios, visit https://w2avc.polishedsolid.com and to watch the complete video archives of the entire day, visit https://w2avc.polishedsolid.com/media/.
#W2AVC was a polished solid production, curated by De Angela L. Duff.
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).’
Wrote “Another Starr Production: The Time at 40” for Rock and Roll Globe
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
The #PrinceTwitterThread is a curated series by Edgar Kruize and Deejay UMB. Jill Jones was their 5th #PrinceTwitterThread. De Angela was honored and grateful to be able to discuss sampling Jill Jones: https://twitter.com/polishedsolid/status/1418650050801061895.
IF you want to read this Twitter Thread on one web page instead, here you go. To read previous #PrinceTwitterThread series, visit Edgar Kruize’s purplepicks.net.
Moderated & Designed Flyers for IASPM-US Research Seminar
On June 7, 2021, I moderated a one-hour, virtual, IASPM-US Research Seminar, “Say It Loud: Black Voices in U.S. Popular Music Studies.” The seminar featured presentations by Drs. Brittnay L. Proctor, Matthew D. Morrison, Elliott H. Powell, Kimberly R. Mack, and Daphne A. Brooks about their respective research / book projects in Black music studies, followed by a Q&A.
I also designed the event flyers for various social media platforms.
Here are a couple of the flyers De Angela designed in reverence to the original James Brown “Say It Loud” promotional buttons.
Presented & Moderated at Prince 78-88 Conference
On 3 June 2021, De Angela presented, "Conjuring The Prince Mystique" at the virtual 3-day Prince 78-88: The First Decade, a 2-day Interdisciplinary Conference, 3-5 June 2021, organized by Dr. Kirsty Fairclough, Dr. Mike Alleyne, and Kristen Zschomler. She also moderated the excellent Under The Cherry Moon panel, also on 3 June 2021.
Presentation Abstract:
Before the symbol and the color purple, Prince’s key visual signatures were the trench coat and smoke. Both were prevalent beginning with Dirty Mind and reaching their peak during the Controversy and 1999 eras. This talk will concentrate primarily on how the ubiquitousness of smoke from fog machines, combined with light, present in music videos and album art would come to symbolize how Prince was ultimately evoked–mysterious, otherworldly, and bewitching.
Please note that the Estate of Prince Rogers Nelson is not affiliated, associated or connected with the Prince 78-88 conference, nor has it endorsed or sponsored it. Further, the Estate of Prince Rogers Nelson has not licensed any of its intellectual property to the organizers or speakers.
Presented at Pop Conference 2021
C. Liegh McInnis, Kamilah Cummings & De Angela presented a panel, Prince: Disrupting Notions of Blackness, at Pop Convergence 2021 on Friday, 23 April 2021. Our panel was moderated by Michaelangelo Matos.
Pop Conference 2021— the longest-running music writing and pop music studies conference of its kind—brought together the world’s leading pop scholars, journalists, writers, musicians for three days of virtual events exploring pop music’s role in mirroring and shaping one of the most chaotic and disruptive moments in modern global history, from 22 to 25 April 2021. The conference was hosted by NYU’s Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music and Tisch School of the Arts and was free and open to the public.
De Angela presented "Controversy: The Blueprint of Prince’s Musical Transformation and Disruption." Kamilah Cummings presented “Purple, Lace, & Race: Prince and the Art of Protest.” C. Liegh McInnis presented “The Art of Double Disruption: How Prince Worked in the Tradition of Jean Toomer and Richard Wright to Rebel Simultaneously against White Supremacy and Black Self-Limitation.”
Our Panel Description:
Prince’s legacy as a Pop music icon is undisputed. His influence on popular culture is endless. In addition to being one of the greatest entertainers of all time, he was a groundbreaking songwriter, musician, arranger, composer, producer, and entrepreneur. Prince was also the ultimate disruptor. In a career that spanned five decades, Prince challenged systems, spaces, and sounds. In the process, he disrupted widely held notions about what it meant to be a black artist, activist, and, ultimately, a black person in a society that remains at odds with its own concepts of blackness, freedom, and equality. Through analysis of his music, lyrics, and individual acts of protest, this panel seeks to expand the discussion of Prince’s legacy by examining his role as a disruptor.
My Presentation Abstract:
In the 15 November 1981 Baltimore Sun article, "Whites Are Missing Good Rock By Blacks," Geoffrey Himes proclaimed, "As young and talented as Prince is, he has a better opportunity to demolish the rules about black rock 'n' rollers than anyone else." Not only did he accomplish this three years later at the pinnacle of his commercial success with 1984's Purple Rain film and its accompanying soundtrack, but Prince would also go on to create a genre of music labeled the "Minneapolis Sound." However, by 1988's critical masterpiece Sign O' The Times, Prince was his own genre, often copied, but never duplicated.
While Sign O' The Times would encapsulate everything Prince was as a singer, songwriter, composer, arranger, and producer, the linchpin of Prince's discography is 1981's Controversy. The album is the perfect amalgamation of Prince as a disruptor. Although its predecessor 1981's Dirty Mind would shock fans and critics alike with Prince's sexual explicitness and sociopolitical awareness, while adopting punk's aesthetics and ideologies, Controversy is where all the themes that Prince would revisit throughout the rest of his career–race, sex, gender, politics, spirituality, duality, and love—and a bricolage of musical genres–rock, pop, soul, r&b, new wave, and rockabilly—were woven together in a quilt of his authentic voice and sonic palette.
In this talk, the deconstruction of Controversy reveals that the album as a whole would ultimately anchor the trajectory of Prince's career, while also serving as the blueprint of constant transformation and disruption for the rest of it.
Featured in an article written by Jon Bream for Minneapolis’ Star Tribune
I was beyond thrilled to be featured in this article, “Prince: Five Years Later,” written by the one and only Jon Bream in Minneapolis’ Star Tribune on 18 April 2021. Jon Bream covered Prince's career from the very beginning. He's been writing about Prince for almost 40 years. I've read so many Jon Bream articles over the DECADES that it's totally surreal to see my name in one. His book was the very first Prince book that I purchased in real-time. So to say that this was a big deal is an understatement.
There are a couple of corrections I need to make to the article. While I have spent a lot of my own money on my Prince symposia and other events, I personally haven’t spent $10K. If you’ve ever put on an in-person event, you should understand how costly they can get. I ask several, generous NYU sponsors for money in order to make these events happen. I am EXTREMELY grateful for their continued support. I couldn’t do these symposia without them. Otherwise, I would definitely have to start charging.
While I want to keep these events FREE as long as I can, they are not cheap, not even the virtual ones. They come with a lot of sacrifices, particularly from the speakers. The biggest sacrifice being their time. They spend hours upon hours, having to field A LOT of email or slack messages, texts, or phone calls, crafting their presentations, showing up for the tech checks (even though despite tech checks, tech issues still arise), getting themselves ready and finally participating! Again, I am EXTREMELY grateful for their continued support. There would be no symposia and other events without the speakers.
I listened to Dirty Mind on the floor of my Aunt's house, not my grandmothers’. However, even more important than that, it was a vinyl record, as opposed to a cassette :)
Even though I did purchase 1999 on cassette, twice, I played the first cassette so much that the tape shredded. However, I eventually got the vinyl. I wish I could say that I learned my lesson, but I also bought a cassette of Graffiti Bridge, which I still possess as I am an archivist as Steven G. Fullwood would want me to say.
If you watch this 6 minute video which was filmed in MPLS at the Guthrie Theater in 2016 about my record collecting habits for the EYEO Festival, hopefully, you'll understand my love of vinyl and why that distinction is important to me.
Eyeo 2016 Ignite! – De Angela Duff from Eyeo Festival on Vimeo.
This talk is not very representative of my normal delivery as this was super stressful. I don't know if you know about the ignite (aka Pecha Kucha) talk format but the slides advance automatically: 20 slides, 15 seconds each... So I was trying to make sure I said everything I wanted to say before I ran out of time. I'm much calmer and measured when giving “normal” talks.
Even though I did purchase 1999 on cassette, twice, because I played the first cassette so much that the tape shredded. However, I eventually got the vinyl. I wish I could say that I learned my lesson, but I also bought a cassette of Graffiti Bridge, which I still possess as I am an archivist as Steven G. Fullwood would want me to say.
Words fail to express how grateful I am for Jon Bream’s Prince coverage over the years and even now! A mere, “Thank you so very much, Jon Bream!” will have to suffice!
Contributed to Prince Five Years Later on soulhead.com
De Angela was honored to be featured in the article, “Five Years Later: Members of The Prince Community Reflect,” by Miles Marshall Lewis on soulhead.com!
Troy Gua (pop conceptualist, creator of Le Petit Prince art project), KaNisa Williams aka Darling Nisi (creator-host of the Muse 2 the Pharaoh podcast), Tonya Giddens (creator of the Purple Paisley Brunch), Michael A. Gonzales (cultural critic), and Priana Aplin (superstar Prince fam) were also featured.
Interviewed on BBC Manchester Radio about Prince
On 18 April 2021, De Angela was interviewed by Karen Gabay for The People on BBC Manchester Radio about Prince, five years later.
Interviewed on WNYC's The Takeway about Prince
On 12 April 2021, De Angela appeared in a short segment on The Takeaway to discuss Prince's Welcome 2 America new album release. Massive thanks to WNYC for the invitation!
You can listen here: https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/takeaway/segments/how-previously-unreleased-album-could-impact-princes-legacy
