Langston Hughes & The Harlem Renaissance

Brief Biography

James Mercer Langston Hughes was born on February 1, 1902, in Joplin, Missouri. His parents divorced when he was a young child, and his father moved to Mexico. He was raised by his grandmother until he was thirteen, when he moved to Lincoln, Illinois, to live with his mother and her husband, before the family eventually settled in Cleveland, Ohio. It was in Lincoln that Hughes began writing poetry. After graduating from high school, he spent a year in Mexico followed by a year at Columbia University in New York City. During this time, he held odd jobs such as assistant cook, launderer, and busboy. He also travelled to Africa and Europe working as a seaman. In November 1924, he moved to Washington, D. C. Hughes’s first book of poetry, The Weary Blues, (Knopf, 1926) was published by Alfred A. Knopf in 1926. He finished his college education at Lincoln University in Pennsylvania three years later. In 1930 his first novel, Not Without Laughter, (Knopf, 1930) won the Harmon Gold Medal for literature. Hughes, who claimed Paul Lawrence Dunbar, Carl Sandburg, and Walt Whitman as his primary influences, is particularly known for his insightful, colorful portrayals of black life in America from the twenties through the sixties. He wrote novels, short stories and plays, as well as poetry, and is also known for his engagement with the world of jazz and the influence it had on his writing, as in his book-length poem Montage of a Dream Deferred (Holt, 1951). His life and work were enormously important in shaping the artistic contributions of the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s. Unlike other notable black poets of the period—Claude McKay, Jean Toomer, and Countee Cullen—Hughes refused to differentiate between his personal experience and the common experience of black America. He wanted to tell the stories of his people in ways that reflected their actual culture, including both their suffering and their love of music, laughter, and language itself. The critic Donald B. Gibson noted in the introduction to Modern Black Poets: A Collection of Critical Essays (Prentice Hall, 1973) that Hughes “differed from most of his predecessors among black poets . . . in that he addressed his poetry to the people, specifically to black people. During the twenties when most American poets were turning inward, writing obscure and esoteric poetry to an ever-decreasing audience of readers, Hughes was turning outward, using language and themes, attitudes and ideas familiar to anyone who had the ability simply to read . . . Until the time of his death, he spread his message humorously—though always seriously—to audiences throughout the country, having read his poetry to more people (possibly) than any other American poet.” In addition to leaving us a large body of poetic work, Hughes wrote eleven plays and countless works of prose, including the well-known “Simple” books: Simple Speaks His Mind, (Simon & Schuster, 1950); Simple Stakes a Claim, (Rinehart, 1957); Simple Takes a Wife, (Simon & Schuster, 1953); and Simple’s Uncle Sam (Hill and Wang, 1965). He edited the anthologies The Poetry of the Negro and The Book of Negro Folklore, wrote an acclaimed autobiography, The Big Sea (Knopf, 1940), and co-wrote the play Mule Bone (HarperCollins, 1991) with Zora Neale Hurston. Langston Hughes died of complications from prostate cancer on May 22, 1967, in New York City. In his memory, his residence at 20 East 127th Street in Harlem has been given landmark status by the New York City Preservation Commission, and East 127th Street has been renamed “Langston Hughes Place.” © Academy of American Poets. Retrieved 21 March 2018.

Recommended Media

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Harlem Renaissance Overview

Harlem Renaissance was a blossoming (c. 1918–37) of African American culture, particularly in the creative arts, and the most influential movement in African American literary history. Embracing literary, musical, theatrical, and visual arts, participants sought to reconceptualize “the Negro” apart from the white stereotypes that had influenced Black peoples’ relationship to their heritage and to each other. They also sought to break free of Victorian moral values and bourgeois shame about aspects of their lives that might, as seen by whites, reinforce racist beliefs. Never dominated by a particular school of thought but rather characterized by intense debate, the movement laid the groundwork for all later African American literature and had an enormous impact on subsequent Black literature and consciousness worldwide. While the Renaissance was not confined to the Harlem district of New York City, Harlem attracted a remarkable concentration of intellect and talent and served as the symbolic capital of this cultural awakening.
OVERVIEW: https://www.history.com/topics/roaring-twenties/harlem-renaissanceOVERVIEW: https://nmaahc.si.edu/explore/stories/new-african-american-identity-harlem-renaissanceOVERVIEW: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harlem_RenaissanceOVERVIEW: https://www.thecollector.com/what-was-the-harlem-renaissance/ ARTISTS: https://www.nga.gov/learn/teachers/lessons-activities/uncovering-america/harlem-renaissance.htmlARTISTS: https://www.biography.com/history-culture/g45337922/harlem-reniassance-artistsWRITERS: https://www.history.com/news/harlem-renaissance-writersWRITERS: https://www.nypl.org/blog/2021/02/23/hurston-hughes-harlem-renaissanceMUSICIANS: https://www.thecollector.com/who-are-the-most-famous-musicians-of-the-harlem-renaissance/MUSICIANS: https://scalar.usc.edu/works/harlem-renaissance/music-from-the-harlem-renaissanceINTELLECTUALS: https://historyoftheharlemrenaissance.weebly.com/leading-intellectuals.htmlINTELLECTUALS: https://www.jstor.org/stable/24451637

Schomburg Center

The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture is a research library of the New York Public Library (NYPL) and an archive repository for information on people of African descent worldwide. Located at 515 Malcolm X Boulevard (Lenox Avenue) between West 135th and 136th Streets in the Harlem neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City, it has, almost from its inception, been an integral part of the Harlem community. It is named for Afro-Puerto Rican scholar Arturo Alfonso Schomburg. The resources of the Center are broken up into five divisions, the Art and Artifacts Division, the Jean Blackwell Hutson General Research and Reference Division, the Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division, the Moving Image and Recorded Sound Division, and the Photographs and Prints Division. In addition to research services, the center hosts readings, discussions, art exhibitions, and theatrical events. It is open to the general public.
WEBSITE: https://www.nypl.org/locations/schomburgHISTORY OF CENTER: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schomburg_Center_for_Research_in_Black_Culture

Hughes Bibliography

Poetry1. The Weary Blues. Knopf, 1926.2. Fine Clothes to the Jew. Knopf, 1927.3. The Negro Mother and Other Dramatic Recitations. N.Y.: Golden Stair Press, 1931.4. Dear Lovely Death. Amenia, N.Y.: Troutbeck Press, 1931.5. The Dream Keeper and Other Poems. Knopf, 1932.6. Scottsboro Limited: Four Poems and a Play. N.Y.: Golden Stair Press, 1932.7. A New Song. International Working Order, 1938.8. Shakespeare in Harlem. Knopf, 1942.9. Jim Crow's Last Stand. Atlanta: Negro Publication Society of America, 1943.10. Freedom's Plow. N.Y.: Musette Publishers, 1943.11. Fields of Wonder. Knopf, 1947.12. One-Way Ticket. Knopf, 1949.13. Montage of a Dream Deferred. Holt, 1951.14. Ask Your Mama: 12 Moods for Jazz. Knopf, 1961.15. The Panther and the Lash: Poems of Our Times, 1967, reprinted, Vintage Books, 1992.16. The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes. Knopf, 1994.17. The Block: Poems. N.Y.: Viking, 1995.18. Carol of the Brown King: Poems. N.Y.: Atheneum Books, 1997.19. The Pasteboard Bandit. N.Y.: Oxford University Press, 1997. Fiction1. Not Without Laughter. Knopf, 1930, reprinted, Macmillan, 1986.2. The Ways of White Folks. Knopf, 1934, reprinted, Random House, 1971.3. Simple Speaks His Mind. Simon & Schuster, 1950.4. Laughing to Keep from Crying. Holt, 1952.5. Simple Takes a Wife. Simon & Schuster, 1953.6. Simple Stakes a Claim. Rinehart, 1957.7. Tambourines to Glory. John Day, 1958, reprinted, Hill & Wang, 1970.8. Something in Common and Other Stories. Hill & Wang, 1963.9. Simple's Uncle Sam. Hill & Wang, 1965.10. The Return of Simple. Hill & Wang, 1994.11. Short Stories of Langston Hughes. Hill & Wang, 1996. Prose1. A Negro Looks at Soviet Central Asia. Moscow and Leningrad: Co-operative Publishing Society of Foreign Workers in the U.S.S.R., 1934.2. The Big Sea: An Autobiography. Knopf, 1940, reprinted, Thunder's Mouth, 1986.3. (With Roy De Carava) The Sweet Flypaper of Life. Simon & Schuster, 1955, reprinted Howard University Press, 1985.4. I Wonder as I Wander: An Autobiographical Journey. Rinehart, 1956, reprinted, Thunder's Mouth, 1986.5. (With Milton Meltzer) A Pictorial History of the Negro in America. Crown, 1956. 4th Edition published as A Pictorial History of Black Americans, 1973. 6th Edition published as A Pictorial History of African Americans, 1995.6. Fight for Freedom: The Story of the NAACP. Norton, 1962.7. (With Meltzer) Black Magic: A Pictorial History of the Negro in American Entertainment. Prentice-Hall, 1967.8. Black Misery. Paul S. Erickson, 1969, reprinted, Oxford University Press, 1994. Other1. The Langston Hughes Reader. New York: Braziller, 1958.2. Simply Heavenly. Book and lyrics by Hughes, music by David Martin. New York: Dramatists Play Service, 1959.3. The Ballad of the Brown King. Libretto by Hughes, music by Margaret Bonds. New York: Sam Fox, 1961.4. Five Plays by Langston Hughes. Edited by Webster Smalley. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1963.5. Good Morning Revolution: Uncollected Social Protest Writings by Langston Hughes. Edited by Faith Berry. New York & Westport: Lawrence Hill, 1973. Children's Books1. (With Arna Bontemps) Popo and Fifina: Children of Haiti. Macmillan, 1932, reprinted, Oxford University Press, 1993.2. The First Book of Rhythms. F. Watts, 1954, also published as The Book of Rhythms, Oxford University Press, 1995. © http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/poets/g_l/hughes/biblio.htm3. The First Book of the Negroes, 19524. The First Book of Jazz, 19545. Marian Anderson: Famous Concert Singer, with Steven C. Tracy, 19546. The First Book of the West Indies, 19567. First Book of Africa, 19648. Black Misery, illustrated by Arouni, 1969; reprinted 1994, Oxford University Press.© https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Langston_Hughes

Selected Poetry

POETRY FOUNDATION: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/langston-hughesPOEM HUNTER: https://www.poemhunter.com/langston-hughes/poems/POETS.ORG: https://poets.org/poet/langston-hughesREADERS DIGEST: https://www.rd.com/list/langston-hughes-poems/BIOGRAPHY CHANNEL: https://www.biography.com/authors-writers/langston-hughes-poems See also: THE COLLECTED POEMS OF LANGSTON HUGHES (Vintage Classics) Arnold Rampersad (Editor)

Langston Hughes Home

"The celebrated poet and activist lived in a 19th-century brownstone on East 127th Street for the last 20 years of his life. The long-time home of influential Harlem Renaissance writer Langston Hughes is now open to the public as a historic house museum."

Street Scene

Kurt Weill won the first Tony Award for Musical Score for Street Scene in 1947. While not specifically mentioned, Langston Hughes's work was thus recognized. Today, the scope of the award has been clarified: "The Tony Award for Best Original Score is the Tony Award given to the composers and lyricists of the best original score written for a musical or play in that year. The score consists of music and/or lyrics."
SEE: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Street_Scene_(opera)
 Street Scene is an American opera by Kurt Weill (music), Langston Hughes (lyrics), and Elmer Rice (book). Written in 1946 and premiered in Philadelphia that year, Street Scene is based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning 1929 play of the same name by Rice. It was Weill who referred to the piece as an "American opera", intending it as a groundbreaking synthesis of European traditional opera and American musical theater. He received the inaugural Tony Award for Best Original Score for his work, after the Broadway premiere in 1947. Considered far more an opera than a musical,[1][2] Street Scene is regularly produced by professional opera companies and has never been revived on Broadway. Musically and culturally, even dramatically, the work inhabits the mid-ground between Weill's Threepenny Opera (1928) and Leonard Bernstein's West Side Story (1957).[3] 1. https://www.operanorth.co.uk/news/street-scene-in-a-nutshell/ 2. http://www.nthuleen.com/papers/Mus928weill.html 3. https://www.economist.com/prospero/2020/02/03/a-new-interpretation-of-street-scene-a-seminal-dramatic-musical--------------------------------------------• LONELY HOUSE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0hD1R1HDRgc• WHAT GOOD WOULD THE MOON BE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PyXBCWWjx-M• WHAT GOOD WOULD THE MOON BE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0cgRCM5SaKE• A BOY LIKE YOU (Lotte Lenya): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u70k_QjyIUE