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Game Changers Presentation

Langston Hughes was an influential African American poet and writer who helped shape the Harlem Renaissance. He was born in 1902 in Missouri and lived in various places as a child, including Mexico. Hughes began writing poetry in high school and published his first poems in the early 1920s while attending Columbia University. He went on to publish two poetry collections in the mid-1920s that helped establish his career. Hughes worked in multiple genres and published extensively throughout the rest of his life, dying in 1967. He was a pioneering jazz poet who incorporated African American folk forms and blues rhythms into his writing.

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72 views8 pages

Game Changers Presentation

Langston Hughes was an influential African American poet and writer who helped shape the Harlem Renaissance. He was born in 1902 in Missouri and lived in various places as a child, including Mexico. Hughes began writing poetry in high school and published his first poems in the early 1920s while attending Columbia University. He went on to publish two poetry collections in the mid-1920s that helped establish his career. Hughes worked in multiple genres and published extensively throughout the rest of his life, dying in 1967. He was a pioneering jazz poet who incorporated African American folk forms and blues rhythms into his writing.

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We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Langston Hughes: How One Man

Shaped a Renaissance
By Eve Doolittle
Early Life
● Born in Joplin, Missouri in 1902
● Lived with his grandmother, mother, and briefly
with his father in Mexico in 1919
● Enrolled in Columbia University in 1921
● Left Columbia in 1922 to travel
● Returned to U.S. in 1924 and worked various jobs
● Won a scholarship to attend Lincoln University in 1925
Early Literary Career
● Began writing poetry in high school
● Published “The Negro Speaks of Rivers” in 1921
● Involved in Harlem’s cultural movement while at Columbia
● Published “The Weary Blues” in 1925
● Two poetry volumes:
○ The Weary Blues (1926)
○ Fine Clothes to the Jew (1927)
● Not Without Laughter published after graduation from
Lincoln University
○ Decided he could make a living as a writer
Work and Later Life
● Worked in multiple genres
● Published The Big Sea in 1940
● Contributed to the Chicago Defender
● Published The Poetry of the Negro in 1949
● Countless works during ‘50s and ‘60s
● Died on May 22, 1967
Distinctive Writing Style
● Jazz poetry
○ African-American folk forms
○ Jazz and blues rhythms
○ First true jazz poet
● Repetition
● Open verse
○ Reflected oral/improvisational performance
● Rejected classical forms
○ Sonnet, rondeau, etc.
● Portrayed blackness positively
“The Negro Speaks of Rivers” (1921)

Above: Hughes recites his


poem “The Negro Speaks of
Rivers”
“The Weary Blues” (1925)

Above: Hughes recites his poem “The Weary Blues” to jazz


accompaniment (1958)
Hughes and Black Culture
● “The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain”
● Dual consciousness
○ Being black vs. being American
● Asserted beauty of being black
● Expressed feelings of the black community
● Influenced by the people around him
● Strong messages surrounding racial/political issues
○ “Harlem”
● Folk forms - derived from black life/culture
○ Spirituals, gospel songs, the sermon

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