Dig if You Will the Picture: Remembering Prince

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Remembering Prince
Remembering Prince

DIG IF YOU WILL THE PICTURE
Writers reflect on Prince in a super-star’s send-off, a backstage pass to our most private moments of praise, celebration and deep, indelible loss.

REIGN
REIGN

BY JOSH LEFKOWITZ
a Prince poem

BECAUSE THEY WAS PURPLE
BECAUSE THEY WAS PURPLE

BY TAMEKA CAGE CONLEY
i remember. not wearing sexy panties. then wearing sexy panties. cuz i was grown. 

NOTHING COMPARES 2 U
NOTHING COMPARES 2 U

BY ABBY REED MEYER
"What's this song about anyway?" I ask. I know I'm being a little naughty. But the question’s genuine; I don’t know. 

LINER NOTES
LINER NOTES

BY NICHOLAS WARD
Dig, if you will, this picture: me, as a teenage boy standing in front of my suburban classmates, who wear glazed-over expressions of bewilderment and don’t know whether to laugh with me or at me.

I SHALL GROW PURPLE
I SHALL GROW PURPLE

BY RONNIE SIRMANS
I won’t wear purple as an old man.

ANTHEM FOR PAISLEY PARK
ANTHEM FOR PAISLEY PARK

BY DANTE DI STEFANO
Because the world is cold-calling you now

WHAT IT IS
WHAT IT IS

BY HEATHER MCCLEAN
It’s my mother coming home with the Purple Rain album and learning exactly where to place the needle on the record to hear "When Doves Cry."

THE KING OF PURPLE
THE KING OF PURPLE

BY VINCENT GOMEZ, AGE 12
We rode in his little red Corvette,
while seeing the most beautiful girl in the world. 

BACKING UP
BACKING UP

BY TONY MANCUS
“The Ballad of Dorothy Parker” comes on as I’m scrubbing and the lines “took another bubble bath | with my pants on | all the fighting stopped | next time I’ll do it sooner” ring through the tiny kitchen, erasing the image of my parents, their respective houses. 

PRINCE CALLED ME UP ONSTAGE AT THE PONTIAC SILVERDOME
PRINCE CALLED ME UP ONSTAGE AT THE PONTIAC SILVERDOME

BY KHADIJAH QUEEN
Prince called me up onstage at the Pontiac Silverdome

COULD HAVE SWORN IT WAS JUDGMENT DAY
COULD HAVE SWORN IT WAS JUDGMENT DAY

BY WILLIAM BRADLEY
I had been told to expect about a month-long hospital stay for my autologous bone marrow transplant to treat my recurring Hodgkin’s Disease. 

ELEGY
ELEGY

BY AMORAK HUEY
So we listen to Purple Rain and try to remember what it felt like to be 14 and plugging cassettes into our jam boxes to brace ourselves for a decade spent pretending to be a human being.

SEVENTEEN IN ‘84
SEVENTEEN IN ‘84

BY KATHY CURTO
 “When Doves Cry” is on my new Walkman and I’m spooked because I’ve already played it seven times over and over and am now pressing Play for the eighth time which makes me think that I might be going crazy.

LET'S GO CRAZY
LET'S GO CRAZY

BY W. TODD KANEKO
Tonight the radio knows how it feels / to be turned on and tuned in to the right / frequencies. 

TRICKSTER
TRICKSTER

BY M. SOPHIA NEWMAN
It was a hot summer night, and the Dutch Club was packed.

CHANT FOR A NEW POET GENERATION
CHANT FOR A NEW POET GENERATION

BY ALLISON JOSEPH
What's this strange relationship / between your sugar walls and mine

AND THIS BRINGS US BACK TO THE PHARAOH…
AND THIS BRINGS US BACK TO THE PHARAOH…

BY BJ LOVE
Can we just go to a movie / and cry together? Can this be / how we finally see eye to eye?

TRY TO IMAGINE WHAT SILENCE LOOKS LIKE
TRY TO IMAGINE WHAT SILENCE LOOKS LIKE

BY JAMES TATE HILL
Once upon a time I wrote a novel about Prince.

TWO POEMS AFTER PRINCE
TWO POEMS AFTER PRINCE

BY E. KRISTIN ANDERSON
APRIL IN MINNEAPOLIS, 2015

WHEN THE CICADAS WERE OUT OF THEIR FUCKING MINDS
WHEN THE CICADAS WERE OUT OF THEIR FUCKING MINDS

BY MATTHEW LIPPMAN
I tried to imagine myself on the other side of Prince but couldn’t do it.

GROUP THERAPY: REMEMBERING PRINCE
GROUP THERAPY: REMEMBERING PRINCE

A PANEL DISCUSSION ABOUT PRINCE
"He is a legend. A true artist. And his death is so stunning because he seemed unearthly."

FREAK
FREAK

BY GABRIELLE FREEMAN
When you’re 13 & U wake up with a body like / that / your head don’t know / but your body does.

BIRTHDAY SUIT
BIRTHDAY SUIT

BY ALIA VOLZ
Being so small and powerless, not even knowing what it was I wanted, just wanting, wanting.
Then I heard him.

Prince, An Illustration
Prince, An Illustration

AN ILLUSTRATION BY SHANNON WRIGHT

THE BEAUTIFUL ONES
THE BEAUTIFUL ONES

BY SHEILA SQUILLANTE
Apparently he was a vegetarian. Still, I feel like Prince would dig the picture of two young girls (or maybe middle-aged women) using their hands to grab hard and sure at something they wanted. Something hot and ready, delectable and sustaining.