IN-PERSON AND VIRTUAL
Join us for an evening highlighting a half century of poetry by Quincy Troupe—biographer of Miles Davis, journalist, and author of the new collection, Duende: Poems, 1966–Now. The program will feature Troupe and other invited poets, reading from the collection with musicians Kelvyn Bell (Guitar) and Lonnie Plaxico (Bass), followed by a conversation between poet, visual artist and novelist Rachel Eliza Griffiths and Quincy Troupe.
This event will have limited capacity.
Visitors must wear a mask the duration of the program.
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. Read more here.
Troupe is a generous and gregarious poet in this giant offering that includes many new poems, as well as a selection chosen from across his eleven previously published volumes. What’s remarkable is the constancy, the energy, and how he’s always looking right at you in the here and now, and at the same time sees something over your shoulder that others don’t see yet, maybe a distant storm gathering over the waters, something we’re going to need to rise up and face soon enough.
Readers everywhere who wish to get a copy of Duende: Poems, 1966-Now, can do so in-person or online at The Schomburg Shop. All proceeds benefit The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture.