I remember this night like it was yesterday. I was asked by Vice.com to cover the evening as our city spontaneously gathered to mourn the loss of Prince, the man so prolific and universally adored he had his own color. Everyone in Minneapolis has a Prince story or two, mine are all wordless sightings with a side of smiles and (maybe once??) eye contact. My favorite memory is waiting all day in the hot sun to get tickets to see him perform at First Ave after the release of 3121. That evening we waited for hours until -around 2am- he finally took the stage. He was so small and so much larger than life and the energy he brought was the most palpable I have ever felt from anyone on stage. I have never danced harder or lost myself so completely in a show. We left hours later, opening the doors onto a completely deserted city, quiet and empty except for five police on horseback, lined up and completely still. The sight has stayed with me years later and I think of that stillness and that electric energy and the way I felt a part of a great explosion of music and magic.
I am still not ready for a world without Prince. Our city feels different, somehow smaller and less on fire.
