Celebrating Quincy Troupe's Duende: Poems, 1966-Now, with poets Michael Warr & devorah major.

Troupe will be joined in poetry and conversation by devorah major and Michael Warr. Hosted by Conney Williams.

Quincy Troupe writes poetry in great waves. The words are just notes. It's the music you make with them that matters. He's not a wordsmith, he's a shaman conjuring long repetitive lines, cadences of looking across the sea towards Africa and haunted by the legacy of slavery and racism, or of remembering fellow conjurers, poets and musical artists, celebrating, always celebrating, but never only that.

Quincy Troupe is an award-winning poet who wrote the definitive biography of Miles Davis, Miles: The Autobiography, the Chris Gardner biography The Pursuit of Happyness and a memoir, miles & me, soon to be a major motion picture. Author of 20 books, he conducted the last interview with James Baldwin, which was published as James Baldwin: The Last Interview & Other Conversations. Troupe’s work has been translated into 30 languages. His most recent book of poetry is Duende, Poems 1966 – Now from Seven Stories Press (January 2022). Troupe is also a biographer, journalist, professor, spoken word performer with noted jazz artists, alumnus of the Watts Writers Workshop, associated with the Black Arts Movement, former California poet laureate, children’s book author, and magazine editor of Black Renaissance/Renaissance Noir. He lives in Harlem with his wife, Margaret Porter Troupe, an arts curator and educator.

Michael Warr has received a 2021 San Francisco Arts Commission Artist Award and the 2020 Berkeley Poetry Festival Lifetime Achievement Award. His books include Of Poetry & Protest: From Emmett Till to Trayvon Martin (W.W. Norton), The Armageddon of Funk, We Are All The Black Boy, and Power Lines: A Decade of Poetry From Chicago’s Guild Complex (Tia Chucha Press). He is a San Francisco Library Laureate and recipient of a Creative Work Fund Award for his multimedia project Tracing Poetic Memory, PEN Oakland Josephine Miles Award for Excellence in Literature, Black Caucus of the American Library Association Award, Gwendolyn Brooks Significant Illinois Poets Award, a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, and more. His poetry is translated into Chinese as part of “Two Languages / One Community” a collaborative project with poet and translator Chun Yu. Michael is the former Deputy Director of the Museum of the African Diaspora and a board member of the Friends of the San Francisco Public Library. Of Poetry & Protest: From Emmett Till to Trayvon Martin is available online at the Museum of the African Diaspora (MoAD) by clicking here.

about devorah major

I am San Francisco’s third Poet Laureate,  an award-winning poet and fiction writer,  creative non-fiction writer, performer, editor, and part-time senior adjunct professor at California College of the Arts as well as the former poet-in-residence of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. I have toured internationally in places such as Northern and Southern Italy, Bosnia, Jamaica, Venezuela, Belgium, England and Wales, and throughout the United States both performing my poetry and serving on panels speaking on African-American poetry, Beat Poetry, and poetry of resistance. I have two novels and six books of poetry published. My newest volume of poetry califia’s daughter was released by Aquarius Books/Willow Press in July of 2020. In 2019 my first international title a braccia aperte (with open arms) was released in Italy by Multimedia Edizione. My first novel, An Open Weave, was awarded the First Novelist Award by the Black Caucus of the American Library Association, was released by Seal Press and later sold to Women’s Press in London and resold as a trade paperback to Signature Press. Curbstone Press released my second novel (which includes poetry), Brown Glass Windows to critical acclaim City Lights Publishing released another book of my poetry, and then we became  in 2016 and where river meets ocean in 2006. Creative Arts Books, Inc. released my third solo book of poetry, with more than tongue. I am the recipient of a 2002 California Arts Council Spoken Word Literary Arts Fellowship.