Music icons Prince and David Bowie died just three months apart at the beginning of last year and their influence is still being felt and unfolded. To celebrate their legacies, Yale University will be holding a four-day conference, titled “Blackstar Rising & the Purple Reign,” later this month and it’s recruited some major players of the industry.
On Wednesday, Jan. 25, the kick-off event will see Questlove and Kimbra for a “critical deejay” discussion of favorite Prince and Bowie tracks (Schwarzman Center; doors at 7:45 p.m.).
On Thursday, Jan. 26, Bowie’s 1973 concert film Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars will be screened (Whitney Humanities Center, 4:30 p.m.), followed by a Q&A with acclaimed documentary filmmaker D.A. Pennebaker and Yale professor Charles Musser.
Later that night, Solange and curator/conference organizer Daphne A. Brooks — professor of African American Studies, American Studies, Theater Studies, and Women’s Gender and Sexuality Studies — will have a keynote discussion at the round-table discussion “Everybody Still Wants To Fly: Activism from Prince to Solange” (Yale Law School Levinson Auditorium, 9 p.m.).
On Friday, Jan. 27, percussionist Sheila E. (who worked extensively with Prince throughout the 1980s) and saxophonist Donny McCaslin (a jazz musician whose band backed Bowie on his final album Blackstar) will participate in a round-table conversation about artistic collaboration (William L. Harkness Hall, 8:30 p.m.).
On Saturday, Jan. 28, TV On The Radio will perform for free (Stephen A. Schwarzman Center, doors open at 7 p.m.).
Additionally, other conference sessions will cover “funk and the 1970s,” “the art of collaboration,” “sonic experimentalism,” and more. Check them all out here.