purple people
Artistry, Awareness, and Epilepsy
On Sunday, I was driving past a dinner theater near my house, and saw this on the marquee: “All Star Purple Party: A Tribute to the Artist Prince.”
Tempting! But it was already nearly showtime and anyway, I was just going to get some groceries for the week and settle down for a quiet night — the clocks falling back will do that.
I kind of regret not making the effort to rally, though. From the videos on the band’s website, it looks like a blast. And this is not just any Prince tribute band. Turns out bandleader Edward “Junie” Henderson is a musical legend in his own right: Grammy-nominated, Soul Train Award-winner, and an inductee into the African American History Museum on the Mall in DC. As front man for the band Experience Unlimited (EU), he had a #1 hit in the classic “DA BUTT.” How did I miss it? Ah well. Next time.
The title “Purple Party” is of course self-evident: the late, great Prince is forever associated with the color purple because of his breakout hit, “Purple Rain,” and he was known as “The Purple One” throughout his career. In fact, the Pantone Color Institute has honored The Artist with his very own shade of the color.
But being who I am, and it being when it is, another connection sprung to mind when I saw that marquee.
a month of purple
You may not know this, but the man in purple struggled with epilepsy throughout his childhood, something he revealed in a 2009 interview on the Travis Smiley show. He shared how the experience — and the bullying that he received because of it — were an influence on his musical career: "I went into [my]self and I taught myself music,” he said, also noting that “early in my career I tried to compensate by being as flashy as I could and as noisy as I could."
Meanwhile, just one year before that interview, a nine-year-old girl named Cassidy Megan from Nova Scotia founded Purple Day®, “a grassroots effort dedicated to increasing awareness about epilepsy worldwide,” which is celebrated every year on March 23. According to Cassidy, “There are so many different shades of purple, just like there are so many different types of epilepsy and seizures. Purple can represent every unique person, experience, and perspective of the epilepsy community.”
Cassidy is now 23, and in that time, the association of the color of kings with epilepsy awareness has only grown. The Epilepsy Foundation of America has jumped on the purple bandwagon, adopting it for their November celebration of National Epilepsy Awareness Month. And the purple wave looks to be sweeping the nation. Monuments from Dallas to Chicago to New York can be seen lighting up the late fall night:
In my hometown of Albany, NY, the governor has agreed to paint the town purple — actually, make that the whole state, from Niagara Falls to the State Capitol to Penn Station. Pretty cool.
Talk about flashy! But hey, if it means one less young musician getting bullied, I’m all for it. And to my hometown homies up in NY, if you catch any of the landmarks on this list, please snap a pic; I’d love to feature it here.
💜💜💜💜💜
Purple and Prince I was aware of, but of his epilepsy, I was not. Always learn interesting bits and (puzzle) pieces from your writes and all with the general theme of we’re all in this together (just ask Joyce).