Quincy Troupe

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Quincy Thomas Troupe, Jr. (born July 22, 1939 in St. Louis ) is an American author who has emerged as a poet, editor, publicist and university lecturer. He was best known as the biographer of jazz musician Miles Davis .

Live and act

Troupe is the son of professional baseball player Quincy Trouppe. He attended Grambling State University on a basketball scholarship. After the scholarship expired, he gave up studies and entered the United States Army in 1963, where he was stationed in France and played on the army basketball team. During his stay in France, there was allegedly a chance encounter with Jean-Paul Sartre who advised him to try his hand at poetry. In 1964 he published his first poem in Paris Match .

After his discharge from the Army, Troupe moved to Los Angeles in 1966, where he regularly attended the Watts Writers Workshop and began writing poetry in a more jazz- based style. On a tour with the Watts group, he also began to work as a teacher. The Watts Writers Workshop was located in a building that also housed a theater used by the civil rights movement and Black Power . There Troupe met authors who were active in other cities, such as Ishmael Reed or James Baldwin . In 1968 he edited the anthology Watts Poets: A Book of New Poetry and Essays .

During the 1970s, Troupe lived in New York; since 1971 he has taught at Richmond College, which in 1976 became part of the City University of New York as the College of Staten Island. During this time he was regularly publishing; in 1975 his anthology Giant Talk: An Anthology of Third World Writing was published . As a poet, he appeared alone or in joint readings across the country.

In 1985, Spin Troupe magazine commissioned an exclusive two-part interview with Miles Davis ; it led to his becoming a co-author of Davis' autobiography. Miles: the Autobiography was published by Simon & Schuster in 1990; the work received an American Book Award . After the death of Davis, the biographical book Miles and Me: A Memoir of Miles Davis (2000) followed.

In 1991, Troupe became Professor of Caribbean and American Literature and Creative Writing at the University of California, San Diego . On June 11, 2002, then Governor Gray Davis named Troupe the first Californian poet laureate. However, a background check related to the appointment revealed that Troupe had not earned a bachelor's degree in Grambling in 1963, as claimed in the 1976 conversion of the College of Staten Island . He decided to limit the political damage by resigning. Therefore, in October 2002, he resigned from the post of Poet Laureate and from his chair.

In 2006 the autobiography The Pursuit of Happyness was published , which he had written with the millionaire Chris Gardner (it was later the basis for the film The Pursuit of Happiness by Gabriele Muccino ).

Troupe authored other books such as James Baldwin: The Legacy (1989). He currently resides in New York City with his wife Margaret.

Fonts

  • Earl Monroe & Quincy Troupe: Earl the Pearl: My Story, Rodale Press 2013
  • Errançities, New Poems, Coffee House Press 2011
  • The Architecture of Language, Coffee House Press 2006
  • Chris Gardner with Quincy Troupe: The Pursuit of Happyness , HarperCollins / Amistad 2006
  • Little Stevie Wonder, A children's book, Houghton-Mifflin 2005
  • Transcircularities; New and Selected Poems, Coffee House Press, 2002
  • Take it to the Hoop Magic Johnson, a children's book Jump at the Sun 2001
  • Miles and Me; A Memoir, University of California Press 2000 (in German as Mein Freund Miles , Hannibal 2001)
  • 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 Davis with Quincy Troupe: Miles: The Autobiography of Miles Davis, Simon & Schuster, New York, 1989 (in German as: Die Autobiographie Hoffmann & Campe 1993)
  • James Baldwin: The Legacy Touchstone Press (Simon & Schuster), New York, 1989
  • Skulls Along the River, poems, I. Reed Books, New York, 1984
  • Snake-Back Solos: Selected Poems 1969–1977, I. Reed Books, New York, 1979
  • Quincy Troupe, David L. Wolper The Inside Story of TV's Roots , Warner Books, New York, 1978
  • Rainer Schulte, Quincy Troupe (Ed.): Giant Talk: An Anthology of Third World Writing, Random House, New York, 1972
  • Embryo, Balenmir House, New York 1972
  • Watts Poets and Writers, House of Respect, California (1968)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ At that time it was not known that the workshop was infiltrated by the FBI.
  2. ↑ Robin Wils: Fall from Grace. In: The Chronicle of Higher Education. April 2003, accessed February 24, 2020 .
  3. ^ Poet Resigns Post at UC San Diego Over Resume Lie. In: LA Times . December 4, 2002, accessed February 24, 2020 .
personal data
SURNAME Troupe, Quincy
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Troupe, Quincy Thomas Jr.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American poet, editor, publicist and university professor
DATE OF BIRTH July 22, 1939
PLACE OF BIRTH St. Louis