Zaheer Ali is a historian and scholar of 20th century United States and African-American history. He is currently an adjunct lecturer at New York University, where he taught a Spring 2017 course titled, “Prince: Sign of the Times,” an examination of Prince’s life and legacy in American history and culture. He’s presented his scholarship on Prince at conferences at Yale, Salford University in Manchester, England, and the University of Minnesota.

Anil Dash is the CEO of Glitch, the friendly community where millions of creators collaborate to discover and create apps together. He is recognized as one of the most prominent voices advocating for a more humane, inclusive and ethical technology industry through his work as an entrepreneur, activist and writer. Dash also hosts Function, a podcast exploring how tech is shaping culture and society, which leapt into the top 5 technology podcasts in Apple’s store just after its launch in 2018.

Dash was an advisor to the Obama White House’s Office of Digital Strategy, and today advises major startups and non-profits including Medium, DonorsChoose and Project Include. He also serves as a board member for companies like Stack Overflow, the world’s largest community for computer programmers, and non-profits like the Data & Society Research Institute, which researches the cutting edge of tech’s impact on society, and the Lower East Side Girls Club, which serves girls and families in need in New York City.

Described by the New Yorker as a “blogging pioneer”, his Webby-recognized personal website has been cited in sources ranging from the New York Times to the BBC to TMZ, and in hundreds of academic papers. As a writer and artist, Dash has been a contributing editor and monthly columnist for Wired, had his works exhibited in the New Museum of Contemporary Art, and collaborated with Hamilton creator Lin-Manuel Miranda on one of the most popular Spotify playlists of 2018. In 2013, Time named @anildash one of the best accounts on Twitter, and he is the only person ever retweeted by Bill Gates, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and Prince, a succinct summarization of Dash’s interests. Dash has been a featured speaker and guest in a broad range of media ranging from the Aspen Ideas Festival to SXSW to Desus and Mero’s late-night show.

Dash is based in New York City, where he lives with his wife Alaina Browne and their son Malcolm. He has never played a round of golf, drank a cup of coffee, or graduated from college.

Michael Dean started his journey in the arts back in 1988 as an up and coming rapper in the Seattle hip-hop scene. The release of his independent single ‘The Master”, lead to a mention in the Source magazine. Michael lent his talents on keyboard and vocals touring the midwest with The Evil Tambourines (SubPop) opening for Sir Mix-O-Lot in 1999. From there Michael joined the business side of the music business and operated a CD/DVD replication business for 15 years.

In 1995 Michael started to blog about Prince on the internet. Michael along with a few others was invited to a private online chat with Prince to discuss involvement in creating a website for the musical icon. (Love4oneanother) Michael respectfully declined but was so honored to be considered that he was inspired to start a new website called ‘FreedomTrainOnline’ which would morph into The Prince Podcast. For over 15 years The Prince Podcast, now called Podcast On Prince has done in-depth interviews with band members and associates. Featured in the Huffington Press and Forbes. Michael recently moderated the event ‘Prince: From Minneapolis to the World’ for the Minnesota Historical Society.

Michael came back to his musical roots in 2010 and has since released 3 albums: Stroke The Mind B4 The Behind, Rainydayjams Vol.1, and Lake Minnetonka aka What I Learned From Prince.

Michael also added author to his list of talents. His 1st science fiction novel Truths Destiny (The Destiny Saga) (Volume 1) was released in 2014.

Edgar Kruize is a freelance author, journalist and content creator based in the Netherlands. He is co-owner of communications agency buro33. He is specialized in music in general and specifically the entertainment industry. Kruize has been working for various (trade) magazines, concert and tour promoters, festival organizers and record companies for over two decades. He has written nine books on various musical subjects and is co-owner and publisher at Permafrost Publishers.

All it took was a cough in the Raspberry Beret video to have the young Edgar notice the artist he’d later found out to be Prince. Prince’s impressive body of work has been an inspiration in life and work. Kruize is the author of the book Prince: The Dutch Experience (2017), in which all of Prince’s steps in the Netherlands are retraced. Also he co-hosts the Dutch Prince-blog PurplePicks.net, wrote the liner-notes for the 2019 Sign “O” The Times deluxe dvd/blu-ray set (along with appearing in the documentary about the making of that movie) and (co)hosted multiple Prince themed lectures and live interviews.

Miles Marshall Lewis has written for The New York Times, Rolling Stone, GQ.com, Essence and many other publications. His work has appeared in Black Cool: One Thousand Streams of Blackness, Hip-Hop: A Cultural Odyssey, The Believer Book of Writers Talking to Writers, and elsewhere. He’s also the author of There’s a Riot Goin’ On, and Scars of the Soul Are Why Kids Wear Bandages When They Don’t Have Bruises.

jooZt Mattheij (1970) has a creative job in media professionally and is one of the people behind PrinceVault.com. He appointed himself de facto editor, not because of ego, but because he realized the site needed one and someone had to do it, so he stepped up.

He has been a Prince enthusiast since 1986 when he got to see the Parade show in Rotterdam, by chance. Then over the years got sucked into the Prince-realm deeper, working for Uptown magazine and with Per Nilsen on their book TheVault in 2004, leading up to passionately cataloging Prince’s work as detailed as possible on PrinceVault.com. It has become the go-to website over the years, where even The Estate is known to consult for quick accurate information. It’s quite a responsibility, but someone like Prince deserves his legacy to be preserved and I am happy to do my share.”

Peer-reviewing books, papers and other publications by Prince-scholars like Duane Tudahl, Edgar Kruize, and De Angela L. Duff is his favorite pastime.

Elliott H. Powell is an Assistant Professor of American Studies at the University of Minnesota. His work merges critical race, feminist, and queer theory to consider the political implications of Black popular music. Writings from these research areas are published or forthcoming in The Black Scholar, GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies, and The Oxford Handbook of Hip Hop Studies. He is currently at work on a manuscript, Prince, Porn, and Public Sex, which explores the politics of sex(uality) and music in 1980s Minneapolis.

Harold Pride is a community-based lecturer and arts enthusiast. His previous presentations include “Sonic Visuals” (Spelman College, 2012), “Take This Beat” (University of Salford – Manchester UK, 2017), and “You Look Like You’re From Oakland!”(NYU, 2018). He also participated in a panel discussion on Prince’s social activism, “Black Albums Matter” (California State University, Los Angeles). Attending close to 40 Prince concerts over the span of his career, he was also featured in a promotional commercial for Prince’s The Rainbow Children album, filmed at Paisley Park.

Arthur Turnbull is co-founder of The Music Snobs LLC, and producer of The Music Snobs, Mad Unreal, Snobs On Film, and Entry Points podcasts. Arthur lives in Arizona with his wife and children where he founded Arturo Solo LLC, a technology consultancy.

Ricky Wyatt, “The Ricker,” is a bassist, performer, comic book author, long time Prince fan and a disciple of the MPLS sound. A native of Atlanta, GA, currently living in Richmond, VA. Ricky leads the jazz-funk unit “SoWhut?!” and the R&B unit “Footprints.” A graduate of Virginia State University’s Department of Political Science, and a student of Prince’s purple grooves since ’79, Ricky teaches History at the Binford Middle Arts & Integration Program for Richmond Public Schools and maintains an active performance schedule. Ricky serves as a contributor to Grown Folks Music, a position he has held since 2011, and always holds it down on the Prince & Prince-related podcasts on the GFM podcast network.