January 19, 1994

Contact: Craig D'Ooge (202) 707-9189

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Poetry and Jazz Program at the Library of Congress

On Thursday evening, February 3, poets Michael S. Harper and Quincy Troupe will read from their work in a special program featuring jazz performed by the George Botts Quartet. The program, co-sponsored by the Gertrude Clarke Whittall Poetry and Literature Fund and the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, will be held at 6:45 p.m. in the Montpelier Room on the 6th floor of the James Madison Memorial Building. Tickets are not required. Michael S. Harper, University Professor and Professor of English at Brown University, is the author of seven collections of poetry, including Dear John, Dear Coltrane and Healing Song for the Inner Ear. He has been the recipient of the Governor's Poetry Award and a Doctorate of Letters from Notre Dame College in Manchester, New Hampshire; he was named a Literary Lion by the New York Public Library; and he has recently completed a term as Poet Laureate for the State of Rhode Island. Mr. Harper is the editor, with Anthony Walton, of Every Shut Eye Ain't Asleep: An Anthology of Poetry by African Americans Since 1945, to be published in February 1994 by Little, Brown and Company.

Quincy Troupe is professor of Literature at the University of California at San Diego and professor of American and Third World Literature at the College of Staten Island (CUNY); he also teaches in Columbia University's Graduate Writing Program. He has taught at Ohio University, the University of Ghana at Legon, Ghana; Lagos University in Lagos, Nigeria; and California State University at Sacramento. His collections of poetry are Embryo; Snake-Back Solos, which won the 1980 American Book Award for poetry; Skulls Along the River; and Weather Reports: New and Selected Poems. He has edited two anthologies, Watts Poets and Writers and Giant Talk: An Anthology of Third World Writing. His work on Miles Davis, Miles: The Autobiography, Miles Davis with Quincy Troupe, won the 1990 National Book Award. Mr. Troupe is currently at work on the screenplay, with Charles Fuller, for the film adaptation of the Miles Davis book; the film will feature Wesley Snipes in the title role. He is also completing work on a novel, The Footmans, a memoir of his life growing up with his father, Quincy Troupe Sr., one of the greatest catchers in the all-black baseball leagues; and a biography of the South African musician Hugh Masekela.

Saxophonist George Botts has performed with such artists as Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, Sarah Vaughan, Jimmy Witherspoon, Etta Jones, Redd Foxx, Betty Carter, T-Bone Walker, Benny Goodman, Anita O'Day, and John Coltrane, among many others. His career, as a band member and as a band leader, has included venues as varied as the Apollo Theater, the Phillips Collection, the Cotton Club, the National Press Club, and a 1993 Presidential inaugural ball. The other members of the quartet are Percy Smith, drums; James King, bass; and Ellsworth Gibson, piano.

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PR 94-019
1/19/94
ISSN 0731-3527