Peach + Black: Prince's Sign "O" The Times' 30-Year Anniversary
Prince scholars Anil Dash, Zaheer Ali, Miles Marshall Lewis, Elliott Powell, and De Angela Duff (moderator) will talk about the cultural impact of Sign 'O' The Times, considered one of Prince's most critically acclaimed—and best—albums.
To commemorate the legacy of Prince and his electric double album and film, we are inviting fans and the public to join us for a beautiful night of thought, music and nostalgia. The panel discussion will be followed by a screening of the film. The event is being sponsored by NYU Tandon School of Engineering, Louella Productions, soulhead.com and New Power New York (NPNY).
About the Prince scholars:
Zaheer Ali is a scholar of 20th-century U.S. and African-American history. He is an oral historian at the Brooklyn Historical Society and an adjunct lecturer at NYU, where he recently taught "Prince: Sign of the Times," an examination of Prince's life and legacy in American history and culture.
Anil Dash is an entrepreneur, activist and writer recognized as one of the most prominent voices advocating for a more ethical technology industry. He is the CEO of Fog Creek Software. Described as a "blogging pioneer" by the New Yorker, Dash was an advisor to the Obama White House's Office of Digital Strategy. In 2013, Time named @anildash one of the best accounts on Twitter, and it is the only account ever retweeted by both Bill Gates and Prince.
Miles Marshall Lewis has written for The New York Times, Rolling Stone, GQ.com, Essence and many other publications. His work has appeared in Black Cool: One Thousand Streams of Blackness, Hip-Hop: A Cultural Odyssey, The Believer Book of Writers Talking to Writers, and elsewhere. He's also the author of There's a Riot Goin' On and Scars of the Soul Are Why Kids Wear Bandages When They Don't Have Bruises.
Elliott Powell is an Assistant Professor of American Studies at the University of Minnesota. His work merges critical race, feminist, and queer theory to consider the political implications of Black popular music. Writings from these research areas are published or forthcoming in The Black Scholar, GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies, and the Oxford Handbook of Hip Hop Studies. He is currently at work on a manuscript, Prince, Porn, and Public Sex, which explores the politics of sex(uality) and music in 1980s Minneapolis.
De Angela Duff is a designer, photographer, web developer, DJ and podcaster. She is also the Co-Director of Integrated Digital Media and Industry Associate Professor at NYU Tandon School of Engineering. She currently produces the Prince and Prince-related podcasts on Grown Folks Music's "Inside The Album" podcasts and hosts "No Turn Unstoned," an online radio show/curated mix.
*Light Refreshments Will Be Served*