Langston Hughes: Biography and Background

Few writers are as synonymous with a specific literary movement as who?

Langston Hughes

What movement is Langston Hughes synonymous with?

The Harlem Renaissance

What was Langston Hughes known as?

The “Shakespeare of Harlem” and the “Poet Laureate of the Negro Race”

What movements was Hughes a monumental figure in?

The Harlem Renaissance and the New NEgro Movement

Where was Hughes born?

Joplin Missouri

When did Hughes arrive in Harlem New York?

1922

What is Hughes credited with upon first arriving in Harlem New York?

Shaping the emerging aesthetic of what came to be known as the Harlem Renaissance

What was Hughes first collection of poetry?

The Weary Blues

When was The Weary Blues published?

1926

How old was Hughes when he published The Weary Blues?

24

What did Hughes produce throughout his career?

Volumes of poetry, autobiographies, a novel, several collections of short fictions, numerous plays, librettos, essays, liner notes, stories and histories for children

How many autobiographies did Hughes write?

2

What is Hughes writing focused on?

Everyday people

For Hughes the project of poetry and art in general was to do what?

Amplify Black voices in particular, as well as voices of those who he described were sent “to eat in the kitchen/when company comes

In what poem did Hughes describe people who were sent “to eat in the kitchen/when company comes”

I, Too"

What is Hughes also associated as being?

A political activist, and world traveler

Who did Hughes forage connections between?

Writers and thinkers interested in racial justice across the globe

Hughes early travels to Mexico inspired what poems?

In a Mexican City and Mexican Market Woman

In Mexican Market Woman what does Hughes challenge readers to do?

See beyond their prejudices about common people

As Hughes grew older and more famous, what did he become especially interested in?

Traveling to countries that differed from the U.S in their approach to racial justice

What does Phillip Kaisary call Hughes travels?

“an internation odyssey that coincided with a leftward shift in his political consciousness”

Where did Hughes travel?

Haiti, Cuba, the Soviet Union and West Africa

What did Hughes encounter on his journey?

Radical forms of social solidarity

The radical forms of social solidarity that Hughes experienced during his travels inspired him how?

Politically, and energized him creatively

By the end of Hughes life what was he known as?

A widely respected elder statesman

What did Hughes serve as?

A mentor and leader to new generations of writers that despite clashes about artistic or political strategies, viewed him as invaluable due to his global perspective

What is Hughes widely credited with?

Popularizing the use of blues and azz structures in writing

True or False: Hughes was the first poet to include musical forms in his poetry?

False

Hughes felt that musical forms provided him with what?

New formal structures that afforded innovative artistic approaches

Hughes viewed these musical idioms as crucial tools for what?

Grounding Black artistic expression in the everyday experience of average Black citizens

What was music to Hughes?

A language everyone spoke

Hughes essay The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain argues what?

That only by incorporating the sounds and geres that people experienced every day, could art truly make an impact on the world

When was the essay The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain published?

1926

What does Hughes popularity testify?

How successful he was at finding ways to make his poetry accessible and resonant to a wide range of readers