About #W2AVC

This was NOT a symposium. This was a virtual celebration for the release of Prince’s Welcome 2 America, the first complete, unreleased album from Prince’s vault on Saturday, August 21, 2021.

This event was in the spirit of last year’s Sign O’ The Times Super Deluxe Celebration (#SOTTSDC) & the tradition of Harlem Renaissance salons, where gifted & creative poets, writers, artists, musicians, activists & scholars came together 2 have conversations & debates in a supportive & welcoming space!

#W2AVC was a polished solid production, 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 Revolution performance. 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.

#W2AVC marks De Angela’s 7th Prince event. De Angela’s mission is to keep Prince’s name on the lips of the children and in constant and critical dialogue.