Quincy Troupe
Quincy Troupe | |
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Born | Quincy Thomas Troupe, Jr. July 22, 1939 professor emeritus |
Notable works | Miles: The Autobiography, with Miles Davis (1989) |
Quincy Thomas Troupe, Jr. (born July 22, 1939)
Early life
Troupe is the son of
In his book Miles and Me Troupe recalls the experience:
When I left that joint that afternoon, I felt as though I had undergone a secret initiation, a rite of passage, one that would separate me forever from the rest of the students at Beaumont High School, to which I had just transferred. The school was overwhelmingly white and the students there were "square" to the bone. To my way of thinking , hardly anyone there had any sense of style.
As a young man, Troupe was athletic and attended Grambling State University on a basketball scholarship. However, after his first year he quit and subsequently joined the United States Army, where he was stationed in France and playing on the Army basketball team. While in France, he had a chance encounter with the noted French Existentialist philosopher, Jean-Paul Sartre, who recommended that Troupe try his hand at poetry.
When he returned to civilian life, Troupe moved to
His work is associated with Black Arts Movement writers such as
Career
Throughout the 1970s, Troupe lived in New York, teaching at the College of Staten Island. During that time, he was a regular on the poetry circuit, performing alone or in groups around the country.
In 1985, Spin magazine hired Troupe to write an exclusive two-part interview with Miles Davis, which led Simon & Schuster to him as co-author for Davis's autobiography. Miles: The Autobiography[9] was published in 1990 and won an American Book Award[10] for the authors, garnering them numerous positive reviews and accolades.
From 1991 to 2003, Troupe was professor of Caribbean and American literatures and creative writing at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), in La Jolla, California.
On June 11, 2002, Troupe was appointed California's first poet laureate by then Governor Gray Davis. A background check related to the new political appointment revealed that Troupe had, in fact, never possessed a degree from Grambling; he attended for only two semesters in 1957–58 and then dropped out.[11] After admitting that he had not earned a degree, he made the decision to resign, rather have it become a political issue for the Democratic Governor.[citation needed] As a consequence, Troupe resigned from the poet laureate's position in October 2002 and retired from his post at UCSD.
Shortly after the controversy, Troupe moved back to New York City.
The year 2006 saw the publishing of his collaboration with self-made millionaire Chris Gardner on the latter's autobiography, The Pursuit of Happyness. The book served as the inspiration for a film of the same name later that year starring Will Smith.
Other notable works by Troupe include James Baldwin: The Legacy (1989) and Miles and Me: A Memoir of Miles Davis (2000). He also edited Giant Talk: An Anthology of Third World Writing (1975) and is a founding editor of Confrontation: A Journal of Third World Literature and American Rag.
Troupe currently lives in New York City with his wife, Margaret.
Books
- Miles and Me, Seven Stories Press (2018)
- Earl the Pearl: My Story by Earl Monroe & Quincy Troupe, Rodale Press (2013)
- Errançities, New Poems, Coffee House Press (2011)
- The Architecture of Language, Coffee House Press (2006)
- The Pursuit of Happyness, by Chris Gardner and Quincy Troupe, HarperCollins/Amistad (2006)
- Little Stevie Wonder, A children's book, Houghton-Mifflin (2005)
- Transcircularities; New and Selected Poems, Coffee House Press, October (2002)
- Take it to the Hoop Magic Johnson, a children's book, Jump At The Sun, a division of Hyperion/Disney Books of Children (2001)
- Miles and Me, University of California Press (2000)
- Choruses, poems, Coffee House Press (1999)
- Avalanche, poems, Coffee House Press (1996)
- Weather Reports: New and Selected Poems, Harlem River Press, New York and London (1991)
- Miles: The Autobiography, Miles Davis with Quincy Troupe, Quincy Troupe, Co-author, Simon & Schuster, New York, 1989
- James Baldwin: The Legacy ed., Touchstone Press (Simon & Schuster), New York (1989)
- Skulls Along the River, poems, Quincy Troupe, I. Reed Books, New York (1984)
- Snake-Back Solos: Selected Poems 1969-1977, Quincy Troupe, I. Reed Books, New York (1979)
- The Inside Story of T.V.'s Roots, Quincy Troupe and David L. Wolper, Warner Books, New York (1978)
- Giant Talk: An Anthology of Third World Writing, Rainer Schulte and Quincy Troupe, eds., Random House, New York (1972)
- Embryo, Quincy Troupe, Balenmir House, New York (1972)
- Watts Poets and Writers, Quincy Troupe, ed., House of Respect, California (1968)
References
- ^ "Quincy Troupe". Poets.org. Retrieved August 27, 2010.
- ^ "Savoy Records Catalog: 78 rpm 500/600 series – single index". Jazzdisco.org. Retrieved December 1, 2015.
- ^ "The Civil Rights Era (1865–1970): Black Power: 1952–1968". SparkNotes. Retrieved December 1, 2015.
- ^ "A Brief Guide to the Black Arts Movement | Academy of American Poets". Poets.org. 2014-02-19. Retrieved December 1, 2015.
- ^ "Quincy Troupe". The Poetry Foundation. Retrieved December 1, 2015.
- ^ "A Brief Guide to the Black Arts Movement | Academy of American Poets". Poets.org. February 19, 2014. Retrieved December 1, 2015.
- ISBN 9780520932241. Retrieved December 1, 2015.
- ^ Jones, Mother (April 1977). Mother Jones Magazine. p. 19. Retrieved December 1, 2015.
- ISBN 0671725823.
- ^ [1] Archived November 27, 2013, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "Poet Laureate Quits After a Résumé Lie". The New York Times. October 20, 2002. Retrieved July 7, 2014.
External links
- 90.3 WCPN
- Fall From Grace, from The Chronicle of Higher Education, April 4, 2003.
- Interview with Quicy Troupe regarding his relationship with Miles Davis, from This American Life, April 19, 1996.
- Quincy Troupe papers, 1915–2008 Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, The New York Public Library.
- Photographs and posters featuring Quincy Troupe from the EBR African American Cultural Life digital collection, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville.