Langston Hughes

1
Langston Hughes

• Incorporated jazz, blues, an spirituals into
  literature.

2
Early Life

• Born
• Father
• Mother
• Grandmother

• February 1, 1902 in Jopin, Missouri
• A businessman who went first to Cuba then to
  Mexico to seek work
• Worked in various low-paying jobs
• Lived with her for most of his childhood in
  Kansas

3
Childhood

• Lonely
• She told me long,beautiful stories about people
  who wanted to make the Negros free

• Books and grandmothers stories for entertainment
• Inspiration for Aunt Sues Stories

4
After High school

• Mother wanted him to get a good job instead of
  education
• Spent a year with his father in Mexico
• Went to NYC in 1921 to enroll at Columbia
  University

• They clashed on their feelings about their own
  race
• This is where he first saw Harlem, but he left
  after a year

5
Experiences

• Dining hall worker on a ship sailing to Africa
• Kitchen of a Paris nightclub
• Busboy in Wasington,D.C.

• 1st trip in 1923 threw all the books he had
  with him into the sea (in favor of the oral and
  musical traditions of the black culture)

6

• Sought his material in the world around him
• Made up blues songs in his head, but
• Harlem Renaissance

• I tried to write poems like the songs they sang
  on South Street
• He couldnt carry a tune
• Vibrant group of writers and artists transformed
  black culture

7

• Published The Weary Blues it won 1st prize in
  a poetry contest
• When Sue Wears Red
• Enrollls at Lincoln University in PA
• Graduates

• 1925
• Used elements of spirituals
• 1926
• 1929

8

• 2nd book of poems published in 1927
• 1930s Great Depression
• 1932

• Response was hostile from the black community
• Political beliefs grew radical
• Traveled to Moscow to work on a film that was
  never finished, but he stayed there for a year
  he was impressed by the lack of prejudice

9

• 1930s
• 1932
• 1935
• 1940s

• 9 plays
• Childrens story Popo and Fifina
• Mulatto play appeared on Broadway
• Moved to Harlem for the rest of his life

10

• Dies

• May, 1967