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 - 5.30 PM) and June 18 (12:00-10:00 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.

Draft schedule below. Subject to change

DAY ONE

JUNE 17 - 11:00 a.m. - 5:30 p.m.

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

12:00 p.m. - 12:15 p.m. - Welcome

12:15 p.m. - 1:15 p.m. - “Do Your Dance”: Prince’s Advanced Body Moving On Screen, Part 1

• 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 (12:45 p.m. - 1:00 p.m.)
• Panel Discussion (1:00 p.m. - 1:15 p.m.)

1:15 p.m. - 1:30 p.m - BREAK

1:30 p.m. - 2:30 p.m. - “Do Your Dance”: Prince’s Advanced Body Moving On Screen, Part 2

• Jazz Roots Influences in Prince’s Movement by Karen Turman (1:30 p.m. - 1:45 p.m.)
• Prince as Dancer / Dance Advocate in Film and on Stage by Dana Venerable (1:45 p.m. - 2:00 p.m.)

• “For You, I Would Dance a Ballet”: Prince’s Ballet Muses, Moves, and Music by Kristen Zschomler (2:00 p.m. - 2:15 p.m.)

• Panel Discussion (2:15 p.m. - 2:30 p.m.)

2:30 p.m. - 2:45 p.m. - BREAK

2:45 p.m. - 4:00 p.m. - “Brave New World”: Prince’s Cinematic World Building, Part 1

• "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.)

• “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 (3:15 p.m. - 3:30 p.m.)

• Prince and The Four Purposes of Lighting: The Cinematography of Michael Ballhaus in “Under the Cherry Moon”, by Sherry Wein (3:30 p.m. - 3:45 p.m.)
• Panel Discussion (3:45 p.m. - 4:00 p.m.)

4:00 p.m. - 4:15 p.m. - BREAK

4:15 p.m. - 5:30 p.m. - “Brave New World”: Prince’s Cinematic World Building, Part 2

• “What? Speak up, I can't hear over that suit. Maybe you can hear this?”: Prince in the song, “Movie Star”, by Mike Wyeld (4:15 p.m. - 4:30 p.m.)

• Feminine Alchemy Unleashed: Tracing the Evolution of Women in Prince’s Visual Tapestry, by Dr. Mauriciere de Govia (4:30 p.m. - 4:45 p.m.)

• Lay Down Your Funky Weapon: Graffiti Bridge as an ‘Avant-Purple’ Parable of Hope, by Chris Johnson (4:45 p.m. - 5:00 p.m.)
• The Question of Who? Truth and Mythology in Purple Rain, by Chris Aguilar-Garcia (5:00 p.m. - 5:15 p.m.)

• Panel Discussion (5:15 pm. - 5:30 p.m.)

END OF DAY

DAY TWO

June 18 - 12:00 p.m. - 10:00 p.m. (Dinner Break 4:00 p.m. - 5:30 p.m.)

12:00 p.m. - 12:45 p.m. - Registration

1:00 p.m. - 2:45 p.m. - “Living Truth in Human Form”: Prince’s Activism and Social Commentary on Screen, Part 1

• The “Female” Gaze in Prince Videos: ‘Scandalous’ and ‘Insatiable’, by Montse Frisach (1:00-1:15)

• Reconfiguring the Urban: Blackness, Counter-Memory and Geographical (Re)Imaginings within Prince’s song “Uptown”, by Zuhri James (video) (1:15-1:30)

• In his Music and and the Moving Image: Prince On Screen and the Interests of Children and Youth, by Twila Perry (1:30-1:45)
• Panel Discussion (1:45 - 2:00)

2:00 p.m. - 2:15 p.m. - BREAK

2:15 p.m. - 3:00 p.m. - “Living Truth in Human Form”: Prince’s Activism and Social Commentary on Screen, Part 2

• A Strong Spirit Transcends: Prince as Myth, Meme and Immortal, by Kwame Phillips (2:15 p.m. - 2:30 p.m.)

• Prince on Screen: The Audacity of Resistance, Liberation, Joy, and Sex, by Rhonda Nicole Tankerson (2:30 p.m. - 2:45 p.m.)

• Panel Discussion (2:45 p.m. - 3:00 p.m.)

3:00 p.m. - 3:15 p.m. - BREAK

3:15 p.m. - 4:30 p.m. - "Let Me Guide U to the Purple Rain": Exploring Purple Rain's Legacy

• Purple Groove: How Purple Rain’s Visual Aesthetic Shaped Krush Groove, by India Mallard (3:15 p.m. - 3:30 p.m.)
• Movement through the Gift: Narrative and Exchange in Purple Rain, by Arlene Oak (3:30 p.m. - 3:45 p.m.)

• Wear Something Purple: Sartorial Pan Responses to Purple Rain from 1984 to Present Day, by Casci Ritchie (3:45 p.m. - 4:00 p.m.)

• Prince and Place: Minneapolis's Cultural and Social Geography in Purple Rain, Crystal Wise, Sarah Lee, and Kristen Zschomler (4:00 p.m. - 4:15 p.m.)

• Panel Discussion (4:15 p.m. - 4:30 p.m.)

4:30 p.m. - 5:30 p.m. - DINNER BREAK (Explore various West Bank local restaurants on your own.)

5.30 p.m. to 10.00pm - Purple Rain Panel and Screening, presented in partnership with The Film Society

• Book signing by Andrea Swensson, author of Prince and Purple Rain: 40 Years. (5:00 p.m. - 5:30 p.m)

• Welcome by Andrea Swenson (5:30 p.m. - 5:45 p.m.)

• Purple Rain Panel Discussion moderated by Kirsty Fairclough and Mike Alleyne with special guests Craig Rice, Dr. Matt Fink, Riki McManus, Kirk Hokanson, and Vaughn Terry (5:45 p.m. - 6:30 p.m.)

• Movie screening of Purple Rain with popcorn and Raisinets (7:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m)

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.