Photo: Press
The life and legacy of Prince is to be discussed, analysed and ultimately celebrated in a joint academic conference.
Purple Reign: An Interdisciplinary Conference On The Life And Legacy of Prince is a three-day international academic conference hosted by the School of Arts and Media, University of Salford, UK, and the Department of Recording Industry, Middle Tennessee State University, USA.
The conference is set to take place May 24-26 and aims to provide fresh perspectives on the commercial and creative aspects of his career as well as re-examining the meaning of his work in the context of his untimely passing a year ago.
A statement from the University Of Salford says: “Purple Reign presents a timely consideration of the cultural impact, iconic status of Prince and his global legacies across many media platforms. It will examine all aspects of his creative output and the ways in which it intersects with video, performance, literature, theatre, film, digital culture, design and fashion.
“We will address the issue of Prince’s significant influence and lasting appeal from a number of multi-disciplinary perspectives. We have welcomed scholars form across the globe, covering study fields of popular music and sound, gender and culture, television, film and celebrity studies, visual arts, performance studies, and digital media.”
Among the speakers will be Dez Dickerson, Prince’s guitarist from The Revolution and Prof. Sarah Niblock, co-author of ‘Prince: The Making Of A Pop Music Icon. Also set to appear are Ken Paulson, Dean of the College of Media and Entertainment at Middle Tennessee State University.
To mark the event, Manchester’s arts centre, Home, will screen the 1986 film, Under A Cherry Moon, which Prince directed and starred in alongside Kristin Scott Thomas and Steven Berkoff.
The event will be brought to a close by students from the University’s Music programmes who will perform music in homage to Prince.
As previously reported on Gigwise, ‘Deliverance’ – a new EP of previously unreleased material from Prince – was released on Friday to mark the first anniversary of his death.
