Duane Tudahl is a Grammy-nominated, award-winning author who has worked in entertainment for over thirty years and has produced and/or directed documentary programming for the History Channel, CBS, GTV, Fox, Discovery, Pax, the Gospel Music Channel, the Food Channel, Tru-TV, and HGTV, among others. He has also been an editor on multiple Emmy-nominated programs, including Intervention, and Unsolved Mysteries. He is a former stand-up comic and has been writing about Prince and the Minneapolis music scene for over 25 years. Prince and the Parade/Sign O’ The Times Era Studio Sessions: 1985-1986 is the second book in his series that chronicles Prince’s legacy in the recording studio.

Iconoclastic daughter of the Southern Diaspora, Spelman, and DST turned BK tastemaker, DJ Monday Blue is a vinyl priestess with digital flex. A featured vinyl DJ at NYC’s Soho Grand Hotel, she’s powered stages for Soul in the Horn, Black Girls Love Vinyl, 651 Arts, Virgin Hotels NYC, Buy From A Black Woman, The Pulitzer Prizes, Andscape, and The Meteor, effortlessly blending genres and energizing diverse cultural spaces. Creator of Doyennes of Disc—a vinyl party celebrating women selectors—she continues to push sonic boundaries and grow community.

Violet Brown is a Civil Rights Attorney, Constitutional Law Professor, Musician, and … PrinceGirl4Ever. Raised by two Prince Fam Parents (dad especially) she grew up on his music; Purple Rain being the first song she learned to play on keys, Musicology being the tour that changed her life. In addition to helping cultivate diversity in the Minnesota Law School and Legal Worlds, Violet plays bass, keeps positivity flowing about Prince, music in general, and all things related via her social media, and has traveled the globe visiting Prince-related historical locations, attending concerts, and continuing to support The Work of Real Music by Real Musicians.

Tammy Sharpe, a Brooklyn native, is a Visual Merchandising Manager, Stylist, Event Planner, and Creative Designer. She’s had the pleasure of styling Janet Jackson, Leslie Uggams, Rosie O’Donnell, Natalie Merchant, Roberta Flack, Cynthia Nixon, and more.

From the tender age of 5, she has embarked on a lifelong purple journey. She has since amassed a formidable collection of memories, having attended a plethora of his shows over the years.

Indelibly influenced by the legendary Prince, she has meticulously crafted her approach to fashion down to the tiniest details. Prince’s impact on her style is undeniable—a constant source of inspiration.

“Style is not thinking about style. So let me stop.” ~Prince

Randy Ferguson is a DJ, musician, playlist curator, musicologist, and diversity & inclusion professional. He received his bachelor’s in Economics and his master’s in Higher Educational Administration, both at Stony Brook University. He currently works at NewYork-Presbyterian as a Program Manager in Diversity and Inclusion.

His love of music has been with him all his life. He went into music as a hobby, as he started writing lyrics and composing music by the age of 12. He started learning how to produce music by the age of 14. Then, he started DJing by 19, which he currently does.

His curated playlists, as he describes his playlists “as an album listening experience.” He has curated up to 20 playlists. He is a huge fan of Prince, Michael Jackson, and Stevie Wonder (his top 3 artists of all time) and studied their music and life, which opened the doors for him to become a musicologist. He hopes to dedicate his life to music by starting hisHe hopes to dedicate his life to music by starting his own entertainment conglomerate company.

Melissa A. Weber is an artist-scholar and music historian whose areas of interest and expertise include 20th century popular music, the music and culture of her native New Orleans, and archives. Her expertise and research has resulted in writing and/or presentations for the American Musicological Society, Association for Recorded Sound Collections (ARSC), International Association for the Study of Popular Music, Pop Conference, Radio Preservation Task Force at the Library of Congress, and Society for Ethnomusicology, among others. 

Professionally, she serves as curator of the Hogan Archive of New Orleans Music and New Orleans Jazz, a unit of Tulane University Special Collections. As an adjunct professor, she teaches History of Urban Music at Loyola University New Orleans. 

In her spare time, and under the moniker of Soul Sister, she has hosted her Soul Power show on WWOZ FM New Orleans community radio station for over 30 years as of 2024. As a performance DJ, she has shared stages with artists ranging from Questlove to George Clinton & Parliament-Funkadelic and was the first DJ to receive a prestigious Big Easy Entertainment Award. Her broadcast programs and live performances feature only the music she loves, from her personal collection of vinyl: 1970s and 1980s R&B, funk, disco, jazz, rare groove, rare groove, jazz fusion, true school hip hop and more.

Her record collection earned her a spot in the 2014 book Dust & Grooves: Adventures in Record Collecting and the documentary Dig We Must, slated for summer 2025 release.

Her writing includes pieces for the Journal of Popular Music Studies, Wax Poetics, Red Bull Music Academy; Vinyl Me, Please; and an essay about Parliament-Funkadelic in the 2024 book How Women Made Music: A Revolutionary History from NPR Music.

She first fell in love with Prince in 1980 with the 45 she owned of “Why You Wanna Treat Me So Bad” (and “Baby” on the B-side). She has thrown Prince-themed gatherings, including dance parties, film screenings, and talks, in New Orleans since 2013, and opened (as DJ Soul Sister) for The Revolution in 2018.

Jason Orr is an award-winning documentary filmmaker, marketing consultant, cultural arts curator, and festival producer, most notably, FunkJazz Kafé Arts & Music Festival and Life Arts Documentary Film Festival + Music Conference. He’s the director, writer, and producer of the award-winning documentary film, “FunkJazz Kafé: Diary Of A Decade”, producer of the award-winning “Maynard” documentary on former Atlanta mayor and visionary, Maynard Jackson, producer/director of “Stepping Into Tomorrow’ and director of “Hoodwinked: The Nigga Factory,” a web series produced by Speech of Arrested Development.

Orr has also produced and directed short films and music videos with several mainstream artists such as Meshell Ndegeocello, UK artist Omar Lye-Fook, Dionne Farris, and Van Hunt.

On-screen, Orr has appeared as himself on TV One’s hit series “Unsung,” Centric’s “Leading Ladies – India Arie,” and the 2023 Atlanta Journal Constitution documentary, The South Got Something To Say, providing expertise commentary on music and social history.

In 2014, he received a proclamation from the City of Atlanta for his contributions to the city’s music, film, and cultural arts communities.

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 his 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 first science fiction novel Truths Destiny (The Destiny Saga) (Volume 1) was released in 2014.