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Quincy Troupe



Duende: For Garcia Lorca and Miles Davis

it’s in the bottomless power, magic of duende
climbing stealthily from earth, wrapped inside
secrets, mystery infused in black magic
that enters bodies in forms of music, art,
poetry imbuing language with sovereignty,
in blood spooling back through violent centuries,
voices echoing ancient Africa, rise, thread

from skins of blessed, sacred rituals, people
emerge from drums as heart beats in time
when memory is revived here now,
when old voices find their way into song,
rhythms stitch forgotten sounds into language
beat out of them by whips on slave ships,
bring back wonder of feet pounding, dance,

the holy ghost lost in bloody homelands,
now souls underneath rise up through bodies,
spool back with talismans, hypnotic, pull ancient
voodoo up in buckets filled with holy water,
evoke memories drinking from whodunit secrets
awakened in poetry of Garcia Lorca,
Andalusian dues heard in Miles Davis’ clues

vibrating anew in Sketches of Spain, andante blues






James Carter is a Tuning Fork

James Carter is a tuning fork, he is
a tuning fork vibrating out in
the world, is a tuning fork vibrating
out in the world, James Carter is
an earthquake of sound, baritone sound
aching with beautiful love & power
out in the world, he is a bomb cyclone,
hurricane voice, bringing tornado wonder,
through his thunder clapping energy,
lightning bolts of sound dropping
suddenly down here aching with beauty
now in our midst, eye say he’s a tuning fork,
ashe, a tower of power, ashe,
humming, burning with musical fire,
hitting on all cylinders down here in our midst,
so eye say listen to the tuning fork,
the vibrating fork, shot out of the baritone
sound of his ancestor, Hamiet Bluiett,
now listen to James Carter who became
his own sound vibrating like a tuning fork
earthquaking sound wherever jc went
& played his singing voice faster than
blurring hummingbird wings beating
fast and quick outside your eardrums



Poet, writer, editor, and performer Quincy Troupe has authored twenty books, including Seduction: New Poems, 2013 - 2018 and Ghost Voices: A Poem in Prayer (2018). He co-wrote with Miles Davis Miles: The Autobiography (1989), which won the American Book Award. The film version of his memoir, Miles and Me will be released in 2023 and his new book of poems, Duende Poems, 1966 - Now will be published in January 2022. Born in St. Louis, Missouri, he lives in Harlem in New York City.

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Founded in 2020, Three Fold is an independent quarterly based in Detroit that presents exploratory points of view on arts, culture, and society in addition to original works in various media, including visual art, literature, film and the performing arts. We solicit and commission contributions from artists, writers, and activists around the world. Three Fold is a publication of Trinosophes Projects, a 501(c)3 non-profit organization located in the historic Eastern Market neighborhood in downtown Detroit. Click here to check out Three Fold’s events page and view a schedule of the publication’s on-site activities.

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