How Prince's Death Drove an Author to Minneapolis
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- The author relocated from New York to Minneapolis roughly a year after Prince's 2016 death and founded The People's Museum for Prince, a grassroots institution that traces his transformational impact through fans' memories.
- Prince's 2016 death struck the author in a New York subway station, prompting her to buy a purple sequined gown she called "armour" and to attend Purple Rain screenings roughly every few days for about a month.
- The author's PhD research pivoted entirely to Prince and his legacy after the move, a shift from her previous career as a New York arts administrator who supported other artists rather than creating her own work.
- In Minneapolis, the author fell in love with a man whose house she was sitting — a relationship she describes as mirroring the emotional intensity of the rest of her transformation, before it ended "in an intense and devastating way" and she returned to Australia during the pandemic.
- Dearly Beloved, a documentary short about the author's journey connecting with Prince, is currently screening at festivals, with a feature-length version in development.
- The author, now 55 and splitting time between Australia and Minneapolis, had never seen Prince live despite decades of fandom, partly fearing his 2001 religious conversion had "diminished" the liberating vision she held of him.
Why it matters: Prince's death redirected the author from supporting other artists to becoming one herself — she quit her New York arts administration job about a year after his 2016 death, shifted her PhD to his legacy, and founded The People's Museum for Prince, a grassroots museum currently screening a documentary short at festivals.
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