Langston Hughe1

Langston Hughes Brief Background • • • • • • • • •

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Thought of as the "Poet Laureate of Harlem" in the 1920s, Langston Hughes was one of the first African Americans to earn a living solely as a writer. Hughes was known mainly for his poetry. He wrote plays, novels, a wealth of nonfiction pieces, and even an opera. The Harlem Renaissance, or the New Negro Movement, centered in the Harlem neighborhood of New York City, the movement impacted urban centers throughout the United States in matters of literature, culture, music, social impact, etc. He wanted to challenge racism. He celebrated black dignity and creativity. He explores the identity of black Americans, celebrating the black culture that had emerged out of slavery and their cultural ties to Africa. His poetry has been banned in schools. In his explorations of race, social justice, and African-American culture and art, Hughes' writing vividly captures the political, social, and artistic climates of Harlem in the 1920s and 1930s. Langston Hughes combined black vernacular speech with blues rhythms, breaking from traditional literary forms. In Langston Hughes’s landmark essay, “The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain,” first published in The Nation in 1926, he writes, “An artist must be free to choose what he does, certainly, but he must also never be afraid to do what he must choose.” Freedom of creative expression He has been called “the architect” of the black poetic tradition. He was the voice of black America in the 1920s He expressed a direct and sometimes even pessimistic approach to race relations. Hughes tells next generation of poets to write about race, and gives them the responsibility of writing about race. His poems are about music, politics, America, race, love, the blues, and dreams.