Stanley Crouch
| Stanley Lawrence Crouch | |
|---|---|
| Born | December 14, 1945 (age 71) Los Angeles, California |
| Nationality | American |
| Occupation | American poet, music and cultural critic, syndicated columnist, novelist and biographer |
| Known for | Jazz criticism |
| Notable work | 2004 novel Don't the Moon Look Lonesome? |
Stanley Crouch (born December 14, 1945) is an American poet, music and cultural critic, syndicated columnist, novelist and biographer, perhaps best known for his jazz criticism and his 2004 novel Don't the Moon Look Lonesome?
Stanley Lawrence Crouch was born in Los Angeles, the son of James and Emma Bea (Ford) Crouch. He was raised by his mother. In Ken Burns' 2005 television documentary Unforgivable Blackness, Crouch says that his father was a "criminal" and that he once met the boxer Jack Johnson. As a child he was a voracious reader, having read the complete works of Hemingway, Mark Twain, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and many of the other classics of American literature, by the time he finished high school. His mother told him of the experiences of her youth centered on east Texas and the black culture of the southern midwest, including the burgeoning jazz culture centered in Kansas City. He became an enthusiast for jazz music in both the aesthetic and historical senses. He graduated from Thomas Jefferson High School in Los Angeles in 1963. After high school, he attended junior colleges and became active in the civil rights movement, working for the Student Nonviolent Co-ordinating Committee. He was also involved in artistic and educational projects centered on the African-Americana community of Los Angeles, soon gaining recognition for his poetry. In 1968 he became poet-in-residence at Pitzer College, then taught theatre and literature at Pomona College until 1975. The Watts riots were a pivotal event in his early development as a thinker on racial issues. A quote from the rioting, "Ain't no ambulances for no nigguhs tonight," was used as a title for a polemical speech that advocated black nationalist ideas, released as a recording in 1969, then for a 1972 collection of his poems.
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