Langston Hughes (1902-1967)

Background:

Langston Hughes was born in Joplin Missouri, grew up in Kansas and Illinois, and went to high school in Cleveland, Ohio. He was descended from a distinguished family and both of his grandfather's were white men. He spent a year at Columbia University, but as he really went to see Harlem and not for the University, he was never comfortable there as a student.

Hughes was influenced in his poetry by Walt Whitman and Carl Sandburg, whom he called "my guiding star". He aspired to be Claude McKay because he was racially competent and cosmopolitan in his eyes. Hughes was set on writing about the lower classes in black culture and to experiment with jazz and blues music, even though it was not the part of his work that won praise. He received criticism for his collection Fine Clothes to the Jew (1927) from black magazines and newspapers that believed he has revealed too much about lower-class black culture and some parts of the collection were too erotic. It was called "trash" by one critic and no book of American poetry other than Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass had ever received such a array harsh criticism.

Hughes' career long outlived the Harlem Renaissance, which was a rarity for many poets and artists who had their beginnings in Harlem. He went on to write autobiographies, more collections of African American poetry, as well as shows and lyrics for the theater. He eventually purchased a house in Harlem where he lived out the rest of his life.

(Course Reader, pg. 1251-1254)

Poetry/Jazz:

Hughes seemed to be fixated on the point where music and poetry came together to create an almost entirely new art form. His writings all distinctly have a musical rhythm that is clear even to a reader who is sitting in silence. In his poem Motto, Hughes uses short words and phrasing to drive a point home that resembles the sharp peaks of saxophone music, especially on the words "jive, alive, dig" and "dug".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2VQ-3mOxrM

In The Weary Blues, there seems to be a melody that we as readers hear even as we picture they pianist playing. Hughes' use of phrases such as "he did a lazy sway" to slow doen the tempo of the piece so the language flows together rather than stands out as independent entities as in Motto. Hughes description of the musician paints a picture of an old man who has weathered the world and is worn down and tired by what he has experienced.

In a deep song voice with a melancholy tone

I heard that Negro sing, that old piano moan--

"Ain't got nobody in all this world,

Ain't got nobody but ma self.

The musician's voice is melancholy and he is putting the melodic sorrows of what he feels into the words because we cannot hear the music that Hughes wants us to hear. This particular poem is an excellent example of how the old spirituals influenced the jazz and blues music that inspired Hughes so much.

“The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain”

This piece of prose is begun with Hughes explaining that a poet who wants to just be a poet and not a "Negro poet" means that they want to write like a white poet, which means that they want to be a white poet, which in turn means they probably want to be white, which means failure. A successful poet is never afraid of being himself.

It is interesting to see how being white was (and is) the virtue in so many homes in America, even those that are not white. Children in many black homes grew up understanding that white was what they wanted and needed to be and that there was something inherently wrong with black culture and therefore with them for being black.

Hughes praises the other side of black culture, the church goers that sing and dance and those that do not care what others think, for they are his inspiration. Because of their individuality in a society with such a standard, Hughes believes they "furnish a wealth of colorful, distinctive material for any artist".

The concept of "racial individuality" is that part of a person that can be devoted to writing and creating art about the relationship between the races, and all of the nuances that shape that relationship. The background, experiences, and "heritage of rhythm and warmth" all contribute to the compilation that becomes "laughter mixed with tears" in the work of the Negro artist.

Questions:

What is the significance of race being grouped with occupation – namely in the phrase “Negro poet”?

Do you agree with his interpretation that not wanting to be a “Negro poet” is an obscured desire to be white?

Is it really a rejection of his “own racial world”?

What is the significance of jazz for Hughes? Do you feel that Hurston would agree?