Hilton Als on Princes Eyes, Becoming One’s Subjects, and Writing Free

Video Description

“Looking into Prince’s eyes,” writes Hilton Als in My Pinup, “must be like looking at the world. Or more specifically, the world of one Black man loving another.” In this new, brilliant paean to the late, great, purple genius of music, Als takes an oblique inventory of himself—and of the culture that made them both, in all its racial, sexual, and emotive contours and contradictions. The writer talks to PW’s very own Joshua Jelly-Schapiro about Prince’s outsize oeuvre and legacy, criticism as art, and how Als' own evolving practice, as a writer and curator alike, has shaped his singular creative voice. This project is supported by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Program in Public Understanding of Science and Technology, bridging the two cultures of science and the arts. Subscribe to Pioneer Works: https://www.youtube.com/c/PioneerWorksVideo?sub_confirmation=1 More from the Science Studios: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLQvmJDPA9HVpKLiCOzKvGKCWysYXrJ_Mm Read more on the Pioneer Works Broadcast: https://pioneerworks.org/broadcast