Langston hughes biography channel
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Langston Hughes
Who Was Langston Hughes?
Poet and writer Langston Hughes became a leading figure of the Harlem Renaissance after his first poem was published in His first book of poetry followed fem years later, in One of the first Black Americans to earn a living as a writer, Hughes went on to compose many more works of poetry, prose, and plays that center the 20th century African American experience and remain influential today. Some of his most famous poems are “Dreams,” “I, Too,” and “Harlem.” Additionally, he wrote a popular column for the Chicago Defender. In May , Hughes died in his mids from prostate cancer.
Quick Facts
FULL NAME: James handlar i textilier Langston Hughes
BORN: c. February 1,
DIED: May 22,
BIRTHPLACE: Joplin, Missouri
ASTROLOGICAL SIGN: Aquarius
Early Life
James Mercer Langston Hughes, better known as Langston Hughes, was born in Joplin, Missouri. His birth date—likely February 1, —is the subject of some debate. For decades, scholars believed his birth
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10 Essential Langston Hughes Poems, Including “Harlem” and “I, Too”
Five years after his first poem was published, Langston Hughes wrote in The Nation, “An artist must be free to choose what he does, certainly, but he must also never be afraid to do what he might choose.” He abided by these words throughout his career, centering everyday lives of Black people like himself, uncommon subject matter at a time when legal segregation reigned. Lyrical yet direct, Hughes’ poems made him a leading voice of the Harlem Renaissance and remain influential today.
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The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes
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His writing career began the year after he graduated from high school with the poem “The Negro Speaks of Rivers.” His first book of poetry, The Weary Blues, followed in Throughout his work, Hughes portrayed working-class African Americans in a range of common experiences, both positive and negative. The New York City transplant was among the first poets
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Langston Hughes (–) was a poet, social activist, novelist, playwright, columnist, and a significant figure of the Harlem Renaissance.
Born in Joplin, Missouri, Hughes was the descendant of enslaved African American women and white slave owners in Kentucky. He attended high school in Cleveland, Ohio, where he wrote his first poetry, short stories, and dramatic plays. After a short time in New York, he spent the early s traveling through West Africa and Europe, living in Paris and England.
Hughes returned to the United States in and to Harlem after graduating from Lincoln University in His first poem was published in in The Crisis and he published his first book of poetry, The Weary Blues in Hughes’s influential work focused on a racial consciousness devoid of hate. In , he published what would be considered a manifesto of the Harlem Renaissance in The Nation: “The younger Negro artists who create now intend to express our individual dark-skinned selves