Sunday Poet: Langston Hughes

Okay, I give up. I tried to post some poems by Hughes, but Blogger can't handle the formatting, and I don't know enough HTML to make it work. So here is some info on Hughes, and at the bottom are a whole bunch of good links for you to go read some poems. Sorry.

Langston Hughes is probably one of the most popular poets on the internet. He is the most searched for poet at the Academy of American Poets and he tops the list of popular poets at Famous Poets and Poems. Why is he so popular? Is it the jazz and blues inspired rhythm and imagery in many of his poems? Is it the honest depiction of the "negro" experience in the early 20th century? Is it the leftist politics and anti-segregation views that marked so much of his later verse? I don't have the answer, but I suspect all of these things have kept his work alive and kept it in the hands and hearts of readers.

Here is some biography from the Academy of American Poets:

James Langston Hughes was born February 1, 1902, in Joplin, Missouri. His parents divorced when he was a small 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, Illinois, that Hughes began writing poetry. Following graduation, he spent a year in Mexico and a year at Columbia University. During these years, he held odd jobs as an assistant cook, launderer, and a busboy, and 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, 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, 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 "Montage of a Dream Deferred." 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.

Langston Hughes died of complications from prostate cancer in May 22, 1967, in New York. In his memory, his residence at 20 East 127th Street in Harlem, New York City, has been given landmark status by the New York City Preservation Commission, and East 127th Street has been renamed "Langston Hughes Place."

I didn't get to read much of Hughes in college, although one of my American lit classes did have a short section, maybe two days, on Harlem Renaissance poetry. We read some Hughes, Countee Cullen, Paul Laurence Dunbar, Jean Toomer, and Arna Bontemps. We followed that with some work by Gwendolyn Brooks, Amiri Baraka, Etheridge Knight, and Ishmael Reed. Later on, in my own reading, I discovered Jayne Cortez, Nikki Giovanni, and Ntozake Shange.

People of color -- any color -- are still highly under-represented in the poetry market, which tends to favor academics with access to the lit mags and publishers. These folks tend to be white. However, some of the most vital poetry in the country is being read at poetry slams, which reached their greatest popularity in the late 1990s as a result of some MTV coverage, but are still happening with ever greater prize money. Hip-hop and rap influenced poetry does well in the slam environment, which is as much about presentation and performance as it is about literary forms. Langston Hughes would have rocked the slam world.

Langston Hughes on the web:
Modern American Poetry: Great collection of criticism, explication, and writings about Hughes.
Academy of American Poets: Biography, poems, and links.
Famous Poems and Poets: 29 poems.
Perspectives in American Literature: Great bibliography of Hughes' works.
Voices and Visions: Some good links.
PoemHunter: 47 poems.

Technorati Tags: Langston Hughes, Poetry, Jazz, Blues, Harlem Renaissance, A Dream Deferred, Negritude Movement