Langston Hughes

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Langston Hughes

• And the Harlem Renaissance

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Langston Hughes

• Most popular and versatile writer of the Harlem
  Renaissance
• Wanted to capture the traditions of Black culture
  in written form
• 1902-1967

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Early Life

• Raised by grandmother in family with long
  abolitionist tradition
• Mothersympathetic to writing
• Fatherbusinessman
• First published in anthologies

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Among First Poems Published

• The Negro Speaks of Rivers
• Published in The Crisis, the publication of the
  NAACP in 1921

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Reading his own work

• www.poets.org/viewmedia.php
• Web search result
• The Academy of American Poets
• Listening Booth

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The Negro Speaks of Rivers

• I've known rivers I've known rivers ancient as
  the world and older than the flow of human blood
  in human veins. My soul has grown deep like the
  rivers.

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The Negro Speaks of Rivers

• I bathed in the Euphrates when dawns were young.
  I built my hut near the Congo and it lulled me
  to sleep. I looked upon the Nile and raised the
  pyramids above it. I heard the singing of the
  Mississippi when Abe Lincoln went down to New
  Orleans, and I've seen its muddy bosom turn all
  golden in the sunset.

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The Negro Speaks of Rivers

• I've known rivers Ancient, dusky rivers. My
  soul has grown deep like the rivers.

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Mother to Son

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Writing Career 1920s

• Early works were poetry and essays
• Left Columbia U. traveled the world in the
  early 1920s
• Returned to college
• Accepted help from a patron
• Visited the South

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(No Transcript)
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Career and Interests 1930s 40s

• Drawn to American Communist Party
• Visited Soviet Union
• Reported in Spanish Civil War
• Created prose monologues on race

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Later Years

• First Book of Negroes 1952
• The First Book of Jazz 1955
• On FBI Security List until 1959
• Traveled internationally 1960s
• (Stamp issued 2-1-02 centennial)

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Langston Hughes

• Popular
• Versatile
• Harlem Renaissance