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!