My presentation on Come is part one of a two-part presentation with part two being on The Gold Experience (TGE). Connecting the two presentations, my goal is to show that Come and TGE are another example of how Prince’s art is a direct representation of his life, especially his constantly changing ideologies. As such, “Come as the Introduction/EP to The Gold Experience or When Life Imitates Art and/or Art Imitates Life in the Artistic Production of Prince” is part one. Then, part two is “The Gold Experience as the New, New Beginning in the Same Way that Every Seven to Ten Years There’s a New Negro.” To explain my position, in both presentations, I’m going to present alternative track lists for Come and TGE to show what I surmise is a more accurate reflection of what Prince intended for both albums to be and to show how life influenced the creation of both works and how life influenced the altering or changing of both works. I’ll also reference older albums to show how Prince often used them to draw a line in the sand to say his old self stops at this point so that his new self can begin here to show that’s what he’s doing with Come and TGE and to show that this was nothing new for him.

C Liegh McInnis is a poet, short story writer, Prince scholar, retired instructor of English at Jackson State University, the former publisher and editor of Black Magnolias Literary Journal, and the author of eight books, including four collections of poetry, one collection of short fiction (Scripts: Sketches and Tales of Urban Mississippi), one work of literary criticism (The Lyrics of Prince: A Literary Look at a Creative, Musical Poet, Philosopher, and Storyteller), and one co-authored work, Brother Hollis: The Sankofa of a Movement Man, which discusses the life of a legendary Mississippi Civil Rights icon. He is also a former First Runner-Up of the Amiri Baraka/Sonia Sanchez Poetry Award sponsored by North Carolina State A&T and edited the Black Magnolias Special Prince Issue. He has presented papers at national conferences, such as College Language Association, the National Council of Black Studies, the Neo-Griot Conference, and the Black Arts Movement Festival, and his work has appeared in numerous journals and anthologies, including Obsidian, Tribes, The Southern Quarterly, Konch Magazine, Bum Rush the Page: A Def Poetry Jam, Journal of Popular Music and Society, Down to the Dark River: An Anthology of Poems on the Mississippi River, Black Hollywood Unchained: Essays about Hollywood’s Portrayal of African Americans, Black Panther: Paradigm Shift or Not? A Collection of Reviews and Essays on the Blockbuster Film, Asymptote, The Pierian, Black Gold: An Anthology of Black Poetry, Sable, New Delta Review, The Black World Today, In Motion Magazine, MultiCultural Review, A Deeper Shade, New Laurel Review, ChickenBones, Oxford American, Journal of Ethnic American Literature, B. K. Nation, Red Ochre Lit, and Brick Street Press Anthology. In January of 2009, C. Liegh, along with eight other poets, was invited by the NAACP to read poetry in Washington, DC, for their Inaugural Poetry Reading celebrating the election of President Barack Obama. He has also been invited by colleges and libraries all over the country to read his poetry and fiction and to lecture on various topics, such as creative writing and various aspects of African American literature, music, and history.