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Quincy Troupe: Finding Language to Support His Dreams

Chris Hildreth
/
quincytroupe.com

Quincy Troupe’s best-known book doesn’t even carry his name.  He co-wrote the autobiography, The Pursuit of Happyness, with Milwaukee native Chris Gardner.  The book was made into a major movie, starring Will Smith.

But Troupe is also an award-winning poet, children’s book author, and performer. He’s written biographies of Miles Davis and basketball star Earl Monroe, and ten collections of poetry.  And if that weren’t enough, he’s retired from a distinguished academic career, and edits Black Renaissance Noire, a literary journal of the Institute of Africana Studies at New York University.

Troupe will be in Milwaukee this evening for the annual Boudreaux reading at UW-Milwaukee, but he first joined me in the studio to discuss his work, spanning from co-writing to poetry:

poem___sentences.mp3
Quincy Troupe reads his poem, "Sentences."
poem_2.mp3
Quincy Troupe reads his poem, "The Legend of Pablo Escobar."

Writer, performer, and poet Quincy Troupe will give the annual Boudreaux reading tonight at UWM’s Hefter Center.  Troupe is the author of ten volumes of poetry, and co-author of such other titles as The Pursuit of Happyness by Chris Gardner, Earl the Pearl: My Story by Earl Monroe, and Miles: The Autobiography of Miles Davis.

Bonnie North
Bonnie joined WUWM in March 2006 as the Arts Producer of the locally produced weekday magazine program Lake Effect.