Hawona Sullivan Janzen

St Paul, MN

Dear Prince

Poem · 2016

Dear Prince

Dear Prince Last night I saw purple wildflowers dancing on the side of the road. Seven minutes later I saw a man in a purple vest, hat, and scarf selling purple eggplant and cabbages at a farmer's market. He said to me 'I love you and I don't even know your name.' I am guessing that was you, my love, coming to me in a dream again to let me know that you are still there. If purple is indeed God's way of showing out or reminding us of our own potential to be extraordinary, that explains why you loved purple and why Purple loved you back. You are my purple star in the night sky. You are the lavender lemonade that quenches my thirst at the all purple flower family reunion. You are the purple clouds in the summer rainstorm and the purple desert sand bringing me amethyst love after a lilac-colored drought. Nothing compares to you, my purple love. You make me see the purple in every place I go.

Hawona Sullivan Janzen is a Twin Cities-based curator, artist, and writer who believes that art is the only thing that can save us from ourselves. A historian by training and a Prince fan since adolescence, she has curated numerous Prince-themed exhibitions including Where Purple Reigns: Minnesota Artists on Prince, Minnesota Poets on Prince, and Like a Prince: Crafting Love Poems That Stand the Test of Time at the University of Minnesota's Urban Research and Outreach-Engagement Center (UROC). Her multidisciplinary practice spans roles as gallery curator, coordinator of the Literary Witnesses poetry series, and improvisational jazz singer with the Sonoglyph Collective.

At the Museum — Roberts Gallery

Event photo — Hawona Sullivan Janzen at The People's Museum for Prince

ExhibitionsView the exhibition at Roberts Gallery Way Back Home · Minneapolis, June 2026

Image credits

Installation photography: Daniel R. PrattEvent photography: Jill Boogren