Prince is remembered and loved at Spike Lee's Brooklyn block party
Spike Lee hosted a gathering of more than 1,000 people to honour the late singer
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Your support makes all the difference.When Prince died, all anybody could do was dance in the street.
More than a thousand voices sang in unison on the packed Brooklyn block — words written by Prince more than three decades ago. With phones raised, in lieu of lighters one would expect to find at a rock concert, the people swayed and recited lyrics from memory — sometimes entire verses, other times choruses as simple as, “Purple rain / Purple rain.”
The legendary musician was found unresponsive in an elevator inside of his Minnesota estate, Paisley Park. Unconfirmed reports of a fatality at the artist’s home and recording studio circulated in early Thursday afternoon, until Carver County sheriffs and his publicist confirmed that it was, in fact, Prince.
Following news of Prince’s sudden death, director Spike Lee announced an impromptu block party outside his Forty Acres & A Mule Productions headquarters in the Fort Greene neighbourhood, to celebrate and honour the life, memory, and music of the artist.
“‘PRINCE We Love You Shockadelica Joint’ A celebration of his life,” the Instagram poster read. “We will dance, sing, and shout to his music. Wear something purple.”
Brooklynites accepted Lee’s invitation, wearing various degrees of purple, and filled one side of the block to capacity after only a few hours' notice.
Police closed the road to accommodate the scores of people pouring in by the minute. One officer estimated the attendance to be “easily a couple thousand,” other reports said roughly one thousand had shown up. Spike Lee told CNN’s Anderson Cooper that 5,000 people were crammed into the area — hyperbole that perhaps resulted from the energy of the night.
The music, which spanned much of Prince’s earlier catalogue, lasted two hours; the people began to dissipate after three.
Reactions to Prince’s death varied from person to person, although the atmosphere of party itself was exuberant. Some cried, many danced, others stood stunned, grappling with the idea that a once-living legend — who seemed as invincible as he was gifted, charismatic, and prolific — was not going to play another show, record another album, sing another song.
“It feels so good to be around so many people that loved him and that love his legacy,” a musician and artist who goes by Supanova told The Independent.
Supanova appeared to be hit hard by Prince’s death. He spent a large portion of the event with his head bowed down, at some points he had to rest his head on a parked truck and cry. While the other partygoers made the words to “Purple Rain” bounce off the row houses, Supanova stood on the hood of the truck with arms outstretched, custom Prince guitar in hand.
He said he was shocked, but found a certain amount of peace and focus from the loss. “[Prince] was an artist, master musician that inspired his generation and the future generations to be fearless in their creativity and their self-expression,” he added.
Photographer Sam Draisin, 28, remembered fondly his time spent playing in a Prince cover band called The Erotic City — named after the B-side to the hit single, “Let’s Go Crazy.”
“We were terrible,” he said. “We were a bunch of punk kids who had been in punk bands and all loved Prince. … We played horribly, but it was a lot of fun.”
Mr Draisin, who founded the “Humans of New York” parody site “Jerks of New York,” said his mother had raised him on early Prince records, and couldn’t recall a time when the artist was not in the upper echelon of pop stardom.
“Prince had a sound that was his. He had an aesthetic that was his. He had an entire ethos that was his,” Mr Draisin said. “You can tell how much he’s generally influenced sexuality in pop culture. … He was incredibly revolutionary in terms of playing with gender, playing with sexuality.”
Educator Regina Bain, 39, danced to Prince’s 1985 hit “Raspberry Beret,” and was fully embracing the moment in concert with the other thousand Brooklynites.
“Today I was very sad. I was stunned — stunned in a way that I haven’t been with so many other artists because it was so unexpected. In this moment I’m with people,” she said, elevating her voice to match the cheers of the crowd. “I’m so thankful for his life.”
Ms Bain felt that Prince’s legacy was rooted in his authenticity, as well as his ability to allow himself to change and evolve without apologising.
“I didn’t know how much he had an impact on me until now… because he’s gone,” she said. “He was an icon that had an impact on my life and on others’ lives, and I’m realizing that more and more now that he’s gone.”
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