FOREWORD FOREWORD No name is more synonymous with jazz poetry of the 1920s and 30s than Langston Hughes 1902 67 The Harlem Renaissance also known as the New Negro Movement included a number of emerging poets and writers such as Zora Neale Hurston Claude McKay and Countee Cullen but Hughes established a reputation for originality and racial pride the equal of any writer Hughes grew up in an abolitionist family in a series of small midwestern towns His father left the family moving first to Cuba and then to Mexico Raised in turn by his mother grandmother and family friends young Langston experienced a rather lonesome childhood which infused much of his most notable poetry All great poets lay claim to a few memorable lines or phrases Instantly recog nizable are Hughes’s a dream deferred black like me a raisin in the sun and I’ve known rivers In his shorter poems his diction form and rhythm are most closely akin to blues and jazz As one reviewer put it he heard America jiving Unashamedly black at a time when being black was considered by many to be a misfortune Hughes celebrated his African American identity and infused it with dignity He sought to portray black working-class life realistically through its joys and struggles Hughes’s great signature poem The Negro Speaks of Rivers appeared in his first book of poetry The Weary Blues 1926 which reviewers found stunning for its beauty strength and power Although some writers such as James Baldwin considered Hughes’s poetic achievement weak Langston ignored the critics and soldiered on He may not have appealed to the literary lions who searched in vain for com plexity and militancy in his work but the average black person loved Langston Hughes precisely because of his profound simplicity His stature in the American canon today seems more secure than any poet of his generation And yet his last ing literary achievement may be as a heroic exemplar for the many black American writers who followed him J Patrick Lewis United States Children’s Poet Laureate 2011-13
I TOO I too sing America I am the darker brother They send me to eat in the kitchen When company comes But I laugh And eat well And grow strong Tomorrow I’ll be at the table When company comes Nobody’ll dare Say to me Eat in the kitchen Then Besides They’ll see how beautiful I am And be ashamed I too am America From The Weary Blues 4
INTRODUCTION My seeking has been to explain and illuminate the Negro condition in America and obliquely that of all humankind When Langston Hughes wrote this state ment in 1967 he was explaining what he had tried to do over the course of his long writing career His explanation also reveals why he was one of the 20th century’s most respected and controversial writers Consciously setting out to write for and about black Americans Hughes cre ated a body of work poetry fiction jour nalism essays plays and song lyrics that both chronicled the black experience and enlightened white Americans about racial issues While decrying racism and the ineq uities it created for blacks and other minori ties Hughes called for cooperation among all races In doing so he crossed color barri ers to gain widespread popularity His personal compassion social aware ness and literary talent made him one of the most significant American writers in history Langston Hughes 5
