Prince on Screen: Images and Ideology | An Academic and Fan Conference

Welcome to Prince on Screen: Images and Ideology | An Academic and Fan Conference! Join us at Cowles Auditorium, University of Minnesota for two days filled with presentations, panels and a screening exploring Prince's legacy through moving image. The Prince on Screen conference is funded through the generous support of the University of Minnesota's Imagine Fund.

This is a 2-day event - June 17 (11:00AM - 5.00 PM) and June 18 (9:15AM-7:00 PM)

The International Centre 4 Prince Studies's mission is to build and sustain Prince’s legacy through interdisciplinary scholarship. We explore and critique the multi-faceted aspects of Prince’s influence across a range of subjects: music, race, gender, sexuality, popular culture, fashion, and film. We aim to solidify Prince’s place in pop music history through rigorous analysis of his vast output. We connect academics, students, fans, musicians, cultural critics, and the general public to Prince's music and his legacy.

Schedule subject to change. No food or beverages allowed in the Cowles Center. 

DAY ONE 

JUNE 17 - 11:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. 

11:00 a.m. - 11:45 a.m. - Registration  

11:45 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. - Welcome 

• Dr. Elliott Powell, Beverly and Richard Fink Professor in Liberal Arts and Associate Professor of American Studies and Asian American Studies at the University of Minnesota  
• Dr. Kirsty Fairclough, Professor of Screen Studies, Head of Research and Innovation, School of Digital Arts (SODA) at Manchester Metropolitan University, UK and Founding Member, International Centre 4 Prince Studies (IC4PS) 

12:00 p.m. - 1:00 p.m. - “Do Your Dance”: Prince’s Advanced Body Moving On Screen, Part 1, Moderated by Dr. Crystal Wise, IC4PS 

• Dancing Prince: Prince, Cat Glover, and their imprint on Waacking by LaTasha Barnes (12:00 p.m. - 12:15 p.m.) 
• “Sexuality”: Gesture and the Punk Funk Aesthetic - Melanie George (12:15 p.m. - 12:30 p.m.) 
• “Dance On”: The Symbiotic Influence between Prince and the Dance Community by Robert Redick (12:30 p.m. - 12:45 p.m.) 
• Panel Discussion (12:45 p.m. - 1:00 p.m.) 

1:00 p.m. - 1:15 p.m. - BREAK 

1:15 p.m. - 2:15 p.m. - “Do Your Dance”: Prince’s Advanced Body Moving On Screen, Part 2, Moderated by Dr. Kirsty Fairclough, IC4PS 

• Jazz Roots Influences in Prince’s Movement by Dr. Karen Turman (1:15 p.m. - 1:30 p.m.) 
• Prince as Dancer / Dance Advocate in Film and on Stage by Dana Venerable (1:30 p.m. - 1:45 p.m.) 
• “I Would Dance a Ballet”: Prince’s Ballet Muses, Moves, and Music by Kristen Zschomler (1:45 p.m. - 2:00 p.m.) 
• Panel Discussion (2:00 p.m. - 2:15 p.m.) 

2:15 p.m. - 2:30 p.m. - BREAK 

2:30 p.m. - 3:30 p.m. - “Brave New World”: Prince’s Cinematic World Building, Part 1 moderated by Casci Ritchie, IC4PS 

• Feminine Alchemy Unleashed: Tracing the Evolution of Women in Prince’s Visual Tapestry, by Dr. Mauriciere de Govia (2:30 p.m. - 2:45 p.m.) 
• "Life Is Just A Party, And Parties Weren’t Meant To Last:" Life, Death, And Celebration In Prince's Cinematic And Musical Odyssey, by De Angela Duff (2:45 p.m. - 3:00 p.m.) 

• "Days of Wild": “The Beautiful Experience”, “The Undertaker”, and Prince On Film in the Mid-1990s, by Robert Loss (3:00 p.m. - 3:15 p.m.) 
• Panel Discussion (3:15 p.m. - 3:30 p.m.) 

3:30 p.m. - 3:45 p.m. - BREAK 

3:45 p.m. - 4:45 p.m. - “Brave New World”: Prince’s Cinematic World Building, Part 2, moderated by Dr. Elliott Powell 

• “Push the Little Red Button and I Belong to U”: How Prince's Cinematic Inspirations Transformed His Music and Influenced His Fashion Turns, by Robin Shumays (3:45 p.m. - 4:00 p.m.) 
• Prince and The Four Purposes of Lighting: The Cinematography of Michael Ballhaus in “Under the Cherry Moon”, by Dr. Sherry Wein (4:00 p.m. - 4:15 p.m.) 
• Lay Down Your Funky Weapon: Graffiti Bridge as an ‘Avant-Purple’ Parable of Hope, by Chris Johnson (4:15 p.m. - 4:30 p.m.) 
• Panel Discussion (4:30 p.m. - 4:45 p.m.) 

End of Day One 

DAY TWO 

June 18 - 9:15 a.m. - 7:00 p.m. (with break for lunch on your own) 

9:15 a.m. - 10:00 a.m. - Registration 

10:00 a.m. - 11:00 a.m. - Prince On Screen, On Screen - Video Presentations, moderated by Kristen Zschomler, IC4PS 

• Reconfiguring the Urban: Blackness, Counter-Memory and Geographical (Re)Imaginings within Prince’s song “Uptown”, by Zuhri James (10:00 a.m. - 10:15 a.m.) 
• Purple Groove: How Purple Rain’s Visual Aesthetic Shaped Krush Groove, by India Mallard (10:15 a.m. - 10:30 a.m.) 
• “What? Speak up, I can't hear over that suit. Maybe you can hear this?”: Prince in the song, “Movie Star”, by Mike Wyeld (10:30 a.m.-10:45 a.m.) 
• Panel Discussion (10:45 a.m. - 11:00 a.m.) 

11:00 a.m. - 11:15 a.m. - BREAK 

11:15 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. - “Living Truth in Human Form”: Prince’s Activism and Social Commentary on Screen, moderated by Dr. Crystal Wise, IC4PS 

• The “Female” Gaze in Prince Videos: ‘Scandalous’ and ‘Insatiable’, by Montse Frisach (11:15 a.m. - 11:30 a.m.) 

• A Strong Spirit Transcends: Prince as Myth, Meme and Immortal, by Dr. Kwame Phillips (11:30 a.m. - 11:45 a.m.) 
• In his Music and the Moving Image: Prince On Screen and the Interests of Children and Youth, by Twila Perry (11:45 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.) 
• Prince on Screen: The Audacity of Resistance, Liberation, Joy, and Sex, by Rhonda Nicole Tankerson (12:00 p.m. - 12:15 p.m.) 
• Panel Discussion (12:15 p.m. - 12:30 p.m.) 

12:30 p.m. - 1:30 p.m. - LUNCH BREAK on your own 

1:30 p.m. -  2:30 p.m. - "Let Me Guide U to the Purple Rain": Exploring Purple Rain's Legacy, moderated by Kristen Zschomler, IC4PS 

• The Question of Who? Truth and Mythology in Purple Rain, by Chris Aguilar-Garcia (1:30 p.m. - 1:45 p.m.)  
• Movement through the Gift: Narrative and Exchange in Purple Rain, by Dr. Arlene Oak (1:45 p.m. - 2:00 p.m.) 
• Wear Something Purple: Sartorial Fan Responses to Purple Rain from 1984 to Present Day, by Casci Ritchie (2:00 p.m. - 2:15 p.m.) 
• Prince and Place: Minneapolis's Cultural and Social Geography in Purple Rain, Crystal Wise and Sarah Lee (2:15 p.m. - 2:30 p.m.) 
• Panel Discussion (2:30 p.m. - 2:45 p.m.) 

2:45 p.m. - 3:00 p.m. BREAK 

3:00 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. - Purple Rain Panel and Screening, presented in partnership with The Film Society  

• Purple Rain Panel Discussion (3:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m.) moderated by Dr. Kirsty Fairclough  With special guests Craig Rice, Riki McManus, Kirk Hokanson, and Vaughn Terry 

• Purple Rain Reflections, Andrea Swensson (4:00 p.m. - 4:15 p.m.) 

4:15 p.m. - 4:30 p.m. - BREAK 

• Movie screening of Purple Rain (4:30 p.m. - 6:20 p.m)  

Closing Remarks - IC4PS Members 

6:30 p.m. - 7:00 p.m.— Book signing by Andrea Swensson, author of Prince and Purple Rain: 40 Years.  

Disclaimer: The Estate of Prince Rogers Nelson is not affiliated, associated, or connected with the International Centre 4 Prince Studies, nor has it endorsed or sponsored the International Centre 4 Prince Studies. Further, the Estate of Prince Rogers Nelson has not licensed any of its intellectual property to the International Centre 4 Prince Studies.