WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.250 align:middle line:84% I am very honored tonight to be able to present to you 00:00:05.250 --> 00:00:08.700 align:middle line:90% poet and writer Quincy Troupe. 00:00:08.700 --> 00:00:10.890 align:middle line:84% He's the author of 13 books, including 00:00:10.890 --> 00:00:15.570 align:middle line:84% six volumes of poetry, the most recent of which is Choruses. 00:00:15.570 --> 00:00:17.190 align:middle line:84% He's a professor of creative writing 00:00:17.190 --> 00:00:20.250 align:middle line:84% and American and Caribbean literature at the University 00:00:20.250 --> 00:00:23.350 align:middle line:90% of California San Diego. 00:00:23.350 --> 00:00:26.040 align:middle line:84% He's the founding editorial director of Code, 00:00:26.040 --> 00:00:29.670 align:middle line:84% a monthly style magazine for men of color, 00:00:29.670 --> 00:00:32.450 align:middle line:84% and director of Artists On the Cutting Edge, 00:00:32.450 --> 00:00:35.040 align:middle line:84% a reading and performance series held 00:00:35.040 --> 00:00:39.150 align:middle line:84% at the Museum of Contemporary Art in San Diego. 00:00:39.150 --> 00:00:41.940 align:middle line:84% Many of you know him as a featured author 00:00:41.940 --> 00:00:46.690 align:middle line:84% on the Bill Moyers PBS special, The Power of the Word. 00:00:46.690 --> 00:00:49.320 align:middle line:84% He's also the co-author with Miles Davis 00:00:49.320 --> 00:00:54.690 align:middle line:84% of the best-selling 1989 book, Miles, the Autobiography. 00:00:54.690 --> 00:00:58.530 align:middle line:84% And in 2000, he published Miles and Me, 00:00:58.530 --> 00:01:03.900 align:middle line:84% a memoir of his friendship with the great jazz man. 00:01:03.900 --> 00:01:06.360 align:middle line:84% Troupe has won two American book awards-- in 1980 00:01:06.360 --> 00:01:10.800 align:middle line:84% for Snake-Back Solos, in 1990 for the Miles autobiography. 00:01:10.800 --> 00:01:12.720 align:middle line:84% He's won many, many awards and distinctions, 00:01:12.720 --> 00:01:17.430 align:middle line:84% toured in Europe, US, Africa, Canada, Mexico, Brazil. 00:01:17.430 --> 00:01:21.180 align:middle line:84% His 13th book-- one that my grandsons are going to be 00:01:21.180 --> 00:01:22.845 align:middle line:90% extremely excited about-- 00:01:22.845 --> 00:01:26.020 align:middle line:84% [LAUGHS] is Take it to the Hoop, Magic Johnson, 00:01:26.020 --> 00:01:29.070 align:middle line:84% which seemed to have come about in a serendipitous way when 00:01:29.070 --> 00:01:33.120 align:middle line:84% an editor realized that his poem for Magic 00:01:33.120 --> 00:01:36.240 align:middle line:90% could serve children very well. 00:01:36.240 --> 00:01:38.070 align:middle line:84% And now, there's another children's book 00:01:38.070 --> 00:01:41.610 align:middle line:84% coming out which will be on the singer Stevie Wonder. 00:01:41.610 --> 00:01:44.490 align:middle line:84% He's also completing a novel, another memoir, 00:01:44.490 --> 00:01:47.880 align:middle line:84% and a screenplay based on the Miles memoir. 00:01:47.880 --> 00:01:51.450 align:middle line:84% In addition, his selected poems will be out in 2002 00:01:51.450 --> 00:01:54.600 align:middle line:84% from Coffeehouse Press, and in 2003 00:01:54.600 --> 00:02:00.060 align:middle line:84% his book of essays and critical articles will be out. 00:02:00.060 --> 00:02:03.720 align:middle line:84% As if this exuberant record of artistic accomplishment 00:02:03.720 --> 00:02:07.560 align:middle line:84% is not enough to demonstrate the fearlessness of Troupe's 00:02:07.560 --> 00:02:11.940 align:middle line:84% creative spirit, let me offer one small example 00:02:11.940 --> 00:02:14.850 align:middle line:90% of how he can find the music-- 00:02:14.850 --> 00:02:17.620 align:middle line:90% the beauty in all places. 00:02:17.620 --> 00:02:23.220 align:middle line:84% In January 1996, artist and sculptor Mathieu Gregoire 00:02:23.220 --> 00:02:27.180 align:middle line:84% asked him to participate in a collaborative project 00:02:27.180 --> 00:02:32.280 align:middle line:84% for the Point Loma Wastewater Treatment Plant in San Diego. 00:02:32.280 --> 00:02:37.590 align:middle line:84% You might think an unpromising location for poetry. 00:02:37.590 --> 00:02:41.520 align:middle line:84% Troupe's contribution are the Point Loma poems, some of which 00:02:41.520 --> 00:02:44.040 align:middle line:90% are published in choruses-- 00:02:44.040 --> 00:02:46.120 align:middle line:84% poems that will become inscriptions, 00:02:46.120 --> 00:02:50.880 align:middle line:84% sandblasted into the granite of the 25-acre facility, 00:02:50.880 --> 00:02:57.090 align:middle line:84% into the walls, along the paths, including haiku and tanka poems 00:02:57.090 --> 00:03:00.810 align:middle line:84% that have been written for the underground work areas 00:03:00.810 --> 00:03:04.770 align:middle line:90% where no sunlight shines. 00:03:04.770 --> 00:03:08.880 align:middle line:84% These are poems in which he's had the courage 00:03:08.880 --> 00:03:14.640 align:middle line:84% to urge the workers who spend their dayless days in there-- 00:03:14.640 --> 00:03:18.990 align:middle line:84% "Think of making love to the work that you do here. 00:03:18.990 --> 00:03:20.760 align:middle line:90% Think of it as a song-- 00:03:20.760 --> 00:03:26.370 align:middle line:84% music whispering, a breeze, a tongue of someone you love." 00:03:26.370 --> 00:03:29.300 align:middle line:90% Please welcome Quincy Troupe. 00:03:29.300 --> 00:03:38.000 align:middle line:90%