The Purple One: Prince, Race, Gender, and Everything in Between

This is a compilation of academic essays and scholarly articles exploring the impact of Prince’s work on specific facets of popular culture, edited by Jeffries (African American and African studies, Ohio State Univ.), Shannon M. Cochran (English, Clayton State Univ.), and Molly Reinhoudt (managing editor of Research in African Literatures and Spectrum: A Journal on Black Men). In this follow-up to 2023’s Feel My Big Guitar: Prince and the Sound He Helped Create from the same editors, each piece focuses on one topic, from Black father-son relationships to beauty standards to gender pedagogy to sexuality and spirituality, and works such as Purple Rain, Under the Cherry Moon, and The Batman Project are analyzed from a social sciences perspective. A representative essay is Samuel P. Fitzpatrick’s “Not in Vain: The Artistry of Denise Matthews,” which explores Prince’s relationship with his protégée Vanity, an intriguing look at the artist-apprentice dynamic. The depth of exploration in this volume surpasses that of the typical celebrity biography or performing arts book.