#james mercer langston hughes

[moneeb0930]

Born in Joplin, Missouri February 1, 1901 James Mercer Langston Hughes had already spent two years in Paris working as a busboy in a Montmartre restaurant owned by WWI pilot Eugene Jacques Bullard. It was in that club he first heard the music of Black American jazz greats who fled to France following the war. One of the earliest innovators of “jazz poetry”, Hughes is best known as the Poet Lauréat of the Harlem Renaissance. Hughes died May 22, 1967 in NYC

[lboogie1906]

John Mercer Langston (December 14, 1829 – November 15, 1897) was an abolitionist, attorney, educator, activist, diplomat, and politician. He became the first dean of the law school at Howard University and helped create the department. He was the first president of what is now Virginia State University. in 1888 he was elected to Congress as the first representative of color from Virginia. In the Jim Crow era, he was one of five African Americans elected to Congress from the South before the former Confederate states passed constitutions and electoral rules from 1890 to 1908 that disenfranchised African Americans, excluding them from politics. After that, no African Americans would be elected from the South until 1973, after the federal Voting Rights Act of 1965 was passed to enforce their constitutional franchise rights. His early career was based in OH where, with his older brother Charles Henry Langston, he began his lifelong work for African-American freedom, education, equal rights, and suffrage. In 1855 he was one of the first African Americans in the US elected to public office when elected as a town clerk in OH. The brothers were the grandfather and great-uncle, respectively, of the renowned poet Langston Hughes. He earned a BA and a MA in theology from Oberlin College. Denied admission to law schools in NY and OH because of his race, he studied law as an apprentice under attorney and Republican congressman Philemon Bliss; he was admitted to the OH bar in 1854. In OH, he was associated with abolitionist lawyer Sherlock James Andrews. #africanhistory365 #africanexcellence https://www.instagram.com/p/CmJXrymrYtT/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[yoongi3]

james mercer langston hughes - richard siken - wallows - taylor swift - the magnetic fields - sufjan stevens - arcade fire - the magnetic fields - lorde - the doors - hippo campus

[penamonperks]

Langston Hughes

James Mercer Langston Hughes was an American poet, social activist, novelist, playwright, and columnist from Joplin, Missouri. One of the earliest innovators of the literary art form called jazz poetry, Hughes is best known as a leader of the Harlem Renaissance. 

[letstaintedloveus]

50-50

I’m all alone in this world, she said, Ain’t got nobody to share my bed, Ain’t got nobody to hold my hand— The truth of the matter’s I ain’t got no man. Big Boy opened his mouth and said, Trouble with you is You ain’t got no head! If you had a head and used your mind You could have me with you All the time. She answered, Babe, what must I do? He said, Share your bed— And your money, too.

-  James Mercer Langston Hughes. 

[silentambassadors]

Rest in peace, Langston Hughes.  It’s times like these that make this stamp enthusiast wonder what Our Poets would say, those who have already been memorialized on postage stamps.  Maybe something like this:

“Mother in Wartime”

As if it were some noble thing, She spoke of sons at war, As if freedom’s cause Were pled anew at some heroic bar, As if the weapons used today Killed with great élan, As if technicolor banners flew To honor modern man-- Believing everything she read In the daily news, (No in-between to choose) She thought that only One side won, Not that both Might lose.

Hughes died on this date in 1967 at the age of 65.

Stamp details: Issued on: February 1, 2002 From: New York, NY SC #3557

[dailyhistoryposts]

Langston Hughes

James Mercer Langston Hughes (1901-1967) was a Black jazz poet, activist, and a leader of the Harlem Renaissance.

Hughes was born in Joplin, Missouri and grew up moving between small Midwest towns before moving the New York City. He worked aboard a ship and travelled to West Africa and Europe, before returning to the States to receive his bachelor's degree from Lincoln University.

As a poet, Hughes' works were immensely popular in his lifetime. He was an early innovator in jazz poetry, a form of poetry that incorporated jazz and blues rhythms into poetry, which was a hallmark of the Harlem Renaissance.

Politically, Hughes was drawn to Communism, and travelled to the USSR and China. He supported Communist-affiliated initiatives and organizations, but never joined the Communist party. Nevertheless, it was certainly the political stance he felt the most affinity for.

Hughes never married, nor is there any evidence he was romantically or sexually interested in any women in his life. Academics and biographers debate over the specifics--he was almost certainly gay, but it's likely he was asexual as well. Some of his stories discuss the emotional impact of being an effeminate child, and he had a number of unpublished love poems that were likely intended for a man. However, there is less evidence of sexual, rather than romantic desire, and the historical records shows that other queer Black poets (Alain Locke and Countee Cullen) were interested in Hughes, but never slept with him.

This is a case where we cannot prescribe with certainty prescribe an identity onto a historical figure. Unlike other figures in the Harlem Renaissance (including Hughes' own social circle, who sometimes took him to drag clubs), Hughes never came out or had a single confirmed partner. His writings were more strongly romantic, devoid of the sexual aspect that was common for gay writings of the period. But at the end of the day, we do not know exactly how Hughes described himself then, and we certainly cannot know how he would describe himself if he were alive today.

[ancestorswatching]

James Mercer Langston Hughes, more widely known as Langston Hughes, was born today in 1902 in Joplin, Missouri.

He is perhaps the most famous poet of the Harlem Renaissance and also wrote short stories and plays as well. On his paternal side, he was the grandson of two enslaved Black grandmothers and two white slave owners. From his maternal side, he inherited African-American, French, English and Native American ancestry. His lasting sense of racial pride was instilled by his maternal grandmother, Mary Patterson Langston, and this was the influence that inspired him to write about downtrodden Black people all his life, and he glorified them in his work.

Some scholars believe that Hughes was homosexual or asexual, based on some of his work, both published and unpublished.

[black-paraphernalia]

Langston Hughes was an activist

James Mercer Langston Hughes (1902-1967)

He was an American poet, social activist, novelist, playwright, and columnist from Joplin, Missouri. One of the earliest innovators of the then-new literary art form called jazz poetry, Hughes is best known as a leader of the Harlem Renaissance. (excerpt from Wikipedia)

Langston Hughes was a central figure in the Harlem Renaissance, the flowering of black intellectual, literary, and artistic life that took place in the 1920s in a number of American cities, particularly Harlem.

 A major poet, Hughes also wrote novels, short stories, essays, and plays. He sought to honestly portray the joys and hardships of working-class black lives, avoiding both sentimental idealization and negative stereotypes. 

As he wrote in his essay “The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain,” “We younger Negro artists who create now intend to express our individual dark-skinned selves without fear or shame. If white people are pleased we are glad. If they are not, it doesn’t matter. We know we are beautiful. And ugly too.”

Above source from - Poetry Foundation to read the full article

[versey21]

18th July

To You by Langston Hughes

Langston Hughes is remembered as a pioneer of American ‘jazz poetry’, which is built on jazz-like movements in rhythm, phrasing and syncopation. This poem - with its clever use of dashes at the ends of lines - seems almost distracted.

James Langston Mercer Hughes: poet, writer, journalist and social activist (1901-1967)

To You

To sit and dream, to sit and read,

To sit and learn about the world

Outside our world of here and now -

Our problem world -

To dream of vast horizons of the soul

Through dreams made whole,

Unfettered, free - help me!

All you who are dreamers too,

Help me to make

Our world anew.

I reach out my dreams to you.

The great possibilities of dreams is a timeless poetic theme. If Hughes was unconsciously referencing Shakespeare’s Hamlet in this poem, who is to say John Lennon was not repurposing Hughes when he wrote Imagine?

[thegumbola]

Langston Hughes Feb 1, 1902 James Mercer Langston Hughes (Langston Hughes) was an American writer, poet and social activist. Born in Joplin, Missouri, Langston Hughes was one of the most important writers and thinkers of the Harlem Renaissance, which was the African American artistic movement in the 1920s that celebrated black life and culture. His literary works helped shape American literature and politics. ***************** Art: Langston Hughes (1902–1967) By Winold Reiss (1886–1953) / Pastel on illustration board, ca. 1925 /  30 1/16 x 21 5/8 in. (76.3 x 54.9 cm) /  National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; gift of W. Tjark Reiss, in memory of his father, Winold Reiss . . . . . #happybirthday #blackhistory #langstonhughes #art #artist #artwork #artoftheday #artlovers #artoninstagram #poet #poetry #africanamerican #movement #africanamericanart #1920s #harlemrenaissance #negro #webdubois #literature #novels #playa #politics #writer #blacklife #culture #winoldreiss #nationalportraitgallery #smithsonian thegumbola #lagumbo https://www.instagram.com/p/CKxPn6IjpLS/?igshid=139vp8r4r2btb

[lboogie1906]

James Mercer Langston Hughes (February 1, 1902 – May 22, 1967) was a poet, social activist, novelist, playwright, and columnist from Joplin, Missouri. He moved to NYC as a young man. One of the earliest innovators of the then-new literary art form called jazz poetry, he is known as a leader of the Harlem Renaissance. He wrote about the period that “the negro was in vogue”, which was paraphrased as “when Harlem was in vogue.”

He became a prolific writer at an early age. He graduated from high school in Cleveland and soon began his studies at Columbia University. He gained notice from New York publishers, first in The Crisis magazine, and book publishers, and became known in the creative community in Harlem. He graduated from Lincoln University. He wrote plays and short stories. He published several non-fiction works. As the civil rights movement was gaining traction, he wrote an in-depth weekly column (1942-62) in The Chicago Defender.

First published in The Crisis in 1921, “The Negro Speaks of Rivers,” which became his signature poem, was collected in his first book of poetry The Weary Blues (1926). His first and last published poems appeared in The Crisis; more of his poems were published in The Crisis than in any other journal. His life and work were influential during the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s, alongside those of his contemporaries, Zora Neale Hurston, Wallace Thurman, Claude McKay, Countee Cullen, Richard Bruce Nugent, and Aaron Douglas.

They criticized the men known as the midwives of the Harlem Renaissance: W. E. B. Du Bois, Jessie Redmon Fauset, and Alain LeRoy Locke, as being accommodating and assimilating Eurocentric values and culture to achieve social equality.

He and his fellows tried to depict the “low-life” in their art: that is, the real lives of African Americans in the lower socioeconomic strata. They criticized the divisions and prejudices based on skin color within the African American community. He wrote what would be considered their manifesto, “The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain,” published in The Nation in 1926: #africanhistory365 #africanexcellence #omegapsiphi

[uvmagazine]

James Mercer Langston Hughes was born on this day in 1902. Langston was a poet, social activist, novelist, playwright, and columnist from Joplin, Missouri. A graduate of Lincoln University and one of the earliest innovators of the then-new literary art form called jazz poetry, Hughes is best known as a leader of the Harlem Renaissance.

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#unheardvoicesmag #unheardvoicesmagazine #blackhistory #blackhistoryfacts #blackhistory365 #blackmedia #bhm #LangstonHughes #HarlemRenaissance #americanhistory

[africandiasporaphd]

#Repost @blackstudiesccny (@get_repost) ・・・ Happy Birthday, James Mercer Langston Hughes (February 1, 1902 (1?) - May 22, 1967). One can visit his final resting place, @schomburgcenter - his ashes are buried beneath the cosmogram in the lobby. https://ift.tt/2UiUdtk Follow #ADPhD on IG: @afrxdiasporaphd

[detroitlib]

James Mercer Langston Hughes (February 1, 1902 – May 22, 1967)

Portrait of author Langston Hughes. Handwritten on back: "Langston Hughes."

Courtesy of the E. Azalia Hackley Collection of African Americans in the Performing Arts, Detroit Public Library

[everythinggoodintheworldblog]

Langston Hughes

1902–1967

James Mercer Langston Hughes was born 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 traveled 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."