The #EroticCity40 symposium was held at NYU 370 Jay Street, Rm 202, Brooklyn, NY & livestreamed on April 12–14, 2024 (Friday through Sunday) to celebrate the four albums that defined 1984—Prince’s Purple Rain, The Time’s Ice Cream Castle, Apollonia 6, and Sheila E’s The Glamorous Life—alongside the Purple Rain film. 

Over 3 days, there were 48 speakers and a total of 14 sessions, featuring 14 presentations, 5 roundtable discussions, a daily 80s fashion contest, a special in-person segment of What Did Prince Do This Week?, and a very special keynote with Vaughn Terry, best known as one-half of the design team duo Louis & Vaughn, who crafted Prince’s iconic looks during the Purple Rain era! We also discussed film, race, gender, and sexuality in addition to music and fashion.

This event was FREE, but please consider donating to the Purple Playground, a 501(c)3 nonprofit fan-based group formed in June 2017 to honor Prince’s legacy and create their Academy of Prince music program for teens. To learn more about the Purple Playground, visit purpleplayground.org.

#EroticCity40 is the 7th annual Prince symposium, curated by De Angela L. Duff!

In 2017, De Angela L. Duff was introduced to Mable Ivory by Deanna Martin in front of Webster Hall in NYC, after a performance by The Revolution. Spontaneously, they decided to grab some dinner. De Angela casually mentioned that she very much wanted to watch the Sign O’ The Times film together with some Prince friends in a small screening room at NYU. Mable responded, “Why do you want to do that, when it can be much bigger?” And that is how it all began.

De Angela owes immense gratitude to Mable for encouraging her to think on a grander scale and to Deanna for introducing her to Mable. She is grateful for the journey and indebted to Mable Ivory for getting her to dream bigger. With Ron Worthy also on board, the Peach + Black panel and screening was born within weeks.

In response to the reception of the event, De Angela realized that this work was important to the Prince community and for exposing new people to Prince’s full body of work.

The original peach + black panel of Zaheer Ali, Anil Dash, Miles Marshall Lewis, and Elliott Powell, moderated by De Angela herself, has convened in every Prince symposium that De Angela has created since. She is eternally grateful for their continued participation and Prince passion.

#EroticCity40 marks De Angela’s 12th Prince event. Her mission is to keep Prince’s name on the lips of the children and in constant and critical dialogue.