Street Scene Jul 18, 2008
With a book by Elmer Rice, based on his 1929 play, and lyrics by Langston Hughes, this is a work that offers a rich portrait of a community: in this case an ethnically mixed tenement on two sweltering New York summer days. Each family has its problems but the focus is on the mixed-up Maurrants. (Guardian Unlimited -- Arts)
Mystery, politics in historical context Jul 17, 2008
As he tries to piece together a patchwork of mysterious deaths, beatings, and coded messages, we see him, or Aurelia, engaged in business meetings, social engagements, and late-night chats with everyone from Langston Hughes and Adam Clayton Powell to J. Edgar Hoover, Joe Kennedy, and a surprisingly thoughtful Richard Nixon. Eddie is not only a man with a mission, but a lightning rod for the intellectual and political establishments. (Boston Globe)
Great Depth Of Characters Jul 17, 2008
"Richard Wright, James Baldwin, Langston Hughes . . . ". But the two bond through a mutual attraction and a love of music, with Alphine desperate for success and Claudie aspiring to be another Nina Simone. (New York Post -- Entertainment)
Hunt: Football returns to HBCU Lincoln Jul 13, 2008
" Founded in 1854, the school has produced a number of brilliant graduates such as Thurgood Marshall, the first African American justice of the United States Supreme Court, and internationally known poet and author Langston Hughes. In spite of Marshall and Hughes' high profile, Coleman is widely recognized as one of the school's most prestigious alumni. For the past six years, the alumni have hosted the annual Dr. Frank "Tick" Coleman Awards Luncheon. The event celebrates outstanding alumni... (ESPN -- College Sports)
Looking for stars during Players' Ring auditions Jul 6, 2008
He performs a Langston Hughes poem "Advertisement for the Waldorf-Astoria." When he's done director Billy Butler responds, "lookin' good man." But like them all, that's all he gets. No other indicators. (Seacoast New Hampshire)
Reclaiming America's promise Jul 3, 2008
As the African-American poet Langston Hughes ... African-American poet Langston Hughes. (Yahoo News)
He had higher calling - home Jul 3, 2008
He didn't look like a basketball player Tuesday night, either, in his geek-style black-frame glasses and a T-shirt that bore the name of poet Langston Hughes. The first two letters of the name were uppercase and circled together, LA.. (San Francisco Chronicle)
Principal at Metacomet for 20 years, Portia Mendez retires and remembers Jun 28, 2008
"I always loved to read," she remembers, "and when I was a little girl I'd collect younger friends and pretend to teach them to read." Asked about favorite books, she mentions "The Giving Tree" by Shel Silverstein and Langston Hughes poetry and stories. The best things about her job as principal. (Farmington Valley Post, CT)
Latest college-bound students honored Jun 27, 2008
"Life might not be a crystal staircase," she said, citing the famous Langston Hughes poem "Mother to Son." "But if you keep climbing, you'll reach that door of opportunity.". Matthew Purnell knows that feeling. (Laurel Leader, MD)
Dalton Trumbo and American evil Jun 26, 2008
(A random assortment: John Garfield, Dashiell Hammett, Judy Holliday, Langston Hughes, Gypsy Rose Lee, Arthur Miller, Zero Mostel, Dorothy Parker, Edward G. Robinson, Artie Shaw, Orson Welles, Josh White. In fact, as Askin's film makes clear, Trumbo was a witty, irascible, mule-stubborn individualist who grew up on Colorado rangeland and was a poor candidate for Marxist-Leninist groupthink. (Salon)
C. D. Wright's 'Rising, Falling, Hovering' Jun 20, 2008
Wright's emphasis on bearing witness, on counting and recounting victims, and calling the powerful to account, makes up one crucial aspect of her project, and calls to mind the work of 20th-century activist poets like Kenneth Fearing, Langston Hughes and Muriel Rukeyser. But the fragmentary forms and skittering attention of her poems suggest that 21st-century activist poetry may face some novel challenges, since it is obliged not only to bear witness to obvious evils but also to elucidate more... (International Herald Tribune -- Arts)
Davidson: Finding the poetry in doing nothing Jun 15, 2008
But I was a long way off from the likes of: e.e. cummings, Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Langston Hughes ... We have a few really great poetry books at home that sit on the living room tables like fixtures: A Family of Poems selected by Caroline Kennedy, Poetry for Young People by Langston Hughes, and A Child s Garden of Verses by Robert Louis Stevenson ... In Langston Hughes s Mother to Son, a mother tells her son that Life for me ain t been no crystal stair. (Melrose Free Press, MA)
Local art collector: Guy McRae Jun 14, 2008
The oil painting is based on a poem by Langston Hughes called "Negro Speaks of Rivers." McRae's grandmother knew Hughes, often read his poetry and made a bust of him, which McRae also has. Why he likes it: "I grew up listening to Langston Hughes and this is one of my favorite poems," McRae said. (Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
Continue reading Jun 12, 2008
"Hold fast to your dreams. I leave you with a poem from Langston Hughes: Hold fast to your dreams, for if dreams die, life is like a broken-winged bird that cannot fly. Hold fast to dreams, for when dreams go, life is a barren field frozen with snow." -Ana Mitchell. "Remember that when all else fails, you can always come back to this place. It may be small, but hey, it's home.". (Kingsburg Recorder, CA)
Will Big Media Look at Obama and His Leftwing Influences? Jun 10, 2008
For example, Langston Hughes and Richard Wright got involved in communist activities but then broke with the Communist Party because it had become an apologist for some horrible crimes not only committed by Stalin but by the Soviet system. Yet Frank Marshall Davis stayed with the party and wrote some infamous poems not only defending the Soviet Union but attacking the United States. (Townhall.com)
Charter schools rush to fill void in Big Easy Jun 9, 2008
Alford, 33, launched Langston Hughes Academy for kindergarten through sixth grade in a stately, yellow, peachy-red Mid-City school building that withstood eight feet of floodwater after the August 2005 hurricane. One day this spring, he strolled a third-floor corridor that had fresh paint, student work and college banners on the walls. (MSNBC -- Race)
Poet and Speaker May 29, 2008
Yet, when Langston Hughes writes, My old man is a white old man / And my old mother s black, readers may assume that Hughes had a white father and black mother ... In his poem, Cross, Langston Hughes explores the idea of how an individual of mixed race might feel. (Suite101.com)
The poetry-film connection May 26, 2008
A Raisin in the Sun : One of the African-American poet Langston Hughes' most famous works, Harlem, provided this searing image of hopes that shrivel and wither. The line became the title of Lorraine Hansberry's landmark play (and the later movie starring Sidney Poitier) about the black experience. (San Diego Union-Tribune)
Garden of gratitude May 25, 2008
His favorite poem is Dreams by Langston Hughes. My job is to tell kids they need to have a dream and a plan to make the dream come into fruition, Preyss said. (San Diego Union-Tribune)
Understanding Black Patriotism May 6, 2008
Poet Langston Hughes grieved in verse that "(America never was America to me) ... (There's never been equality for me,/ Nor freedom in this 'homeland of the free')." But his lament is couched in a poem whose title, like its author, yearns for acceptance: Let America Be America Again. Even Martin Luther King Jr. was branded a traitor to his country because he opposed the war in Vietnam. (Time.com)
A kaleidoscope of poetry and jazz May 2, 2008
Moses last accompanied a poet in the early 1960s, when the legendary Langston Hughes visited his high school and Moses was drafted to provide vibraphone backing. We recently sat down with Pinsky and Moses, who were meeting for the first time, as they tried out some ideas for the forthcoming concert with the able assistance of Urbina. (Boston Globe)
'Ghetto' labeling a vehicle for prejudice Apr 22, 2008
Poets and authors like Claude McKay, Langston Hughes and Countee Cullen often depicted the beauty and complexity of black life in the ghetto. Another question comes into play when you look at Kimberly's use of the phrase, "Be normal." What is normal. (Daily Collegian, PA)
A measured look at an extraordinary life Apr 9, 2008
Tonight at 9 on Channel 2, "Zora Neale Hurston: Jump at the Sun" recounts the life of a complex black writer who said, "I am not tragically colored." Hurston was a leader of the Harlem Renaissance in the 1920s, a literary movement that included Langston Hughes and Wallace Thurman. Later, though, as her writing career evolved and she was perceived as playing up to white mentors and white readers, she drifted from that scene. (Boston Globe)
POETRY WORTH 1,000 PICTURES Apr 6, 2008
" I read it anyway and also a few scraps from Langston Hughes' "Let America Be America Again. " The latter's refrain "America never was America to me," caused me to ad lib that this one could have been written by Michelle and Barack Obama! (Nice chuckle from the audience.) Magazine king Graydon Carter scored with Dorothy Parker's ode to the office, "A Hate Song," and Candace Bushnell, of "Sex and the City" fame, scored with the shortest skirt and highest heels ever seen in pubic. (I mean "in... (New York Post -- Gossip)
Beyond race consciousness to God Apr 5, 2008
We need to shed our bitterness and join hands to build an America where in the words of poet Langston Hughes, "O, let my land be a land where Liberty is crowned with no false patriotic wreath. But opportunity is real, and life is free. Equality is in the air we breathe.". Until we can come to the table of brotherhood with a standard of justice that reflects equality for all regardless of faith, gender and class, our humanity will never shine forth. (Florida Times-Union)
Author and actor Maya Angelou celebrates 80 years of pain, joy Mar 27, 2008
Two poets: Angelou with poet, novelist and playwright Langston Hughes in the late 1950s. ANGELOU'S JOURNEY. (USA Today)
All the Best Mar 6, 2008
The title comes from the opening line of Harlem, a poem by Langston Hughes. Prices: Individual adult tickets are $20, seniors (65-plus) and students are $17. (Woodlands Villager, TX)
U.S. Jones celebrates Black History Month Feb 28, 2008
The program also touched on some important black poets: Langston Hughes, Gwendolyn Brooks, Lucille Clinton, Countee Cullen, Henry Dumas and Paul Lawrence Dunbar. Black History Month was established as Negro History Week in 1926 by Dr. Carter G. Woodson. (Demopolis Times, AL)
Is 'Raisin' still relevant today? Feb 27, 2008
The title comes from the opening lines of Harlem , a poem by Langston Hughes: What happens to a dream deferred. Does it dry up / like a raisin in the sun. (Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
Continuereading Feb 27, 2008
HW: Tell me, how does Langston Hughes' poem A Dream Deferred resonate with you ... HW: How does the line resonate with you from Langston Hughes "What happens to a dream deferred, does it dry up like a raisin in the sun...". (Hanford Sentinal, CA)
Man's quest to document black history Feb 24, 2008
His continual collecting and research helped him become an expert on the Underground Railroad; he wrote several books, lectured around the world and met historical figures including Rosa Parks, Langston Hughes and Malcolm X.. Blockson worked as a teacher beginning in 1970. (MSNBC -- Race)
Mexico takes in persecuted writers Feb 24, 2008
In Mexico City, a refuge for world's writers. In Mexico City, a refuge for world's writers. (AZCentral)
Writing Imitation Poems Feb 21, 2008
For example, take April Rain Song by Langston Hughes. Let the rain kiss you. (Suite101.com)
One Man's vision, one historic event Feb 19, 2008
Last year's Black History event featured Art Songs and unique arrangements of spirituals by Black composers, centered on the poetry of Langston Hughes, which was read by the CU-Theatre Department's own Jarvis Fuller. But Fred wanted to do something bigger and better for the year that followed, so he decided not only to produce another concert, but educate the masses on the influence and historical significance of Black performers in classical music. (Boulder Colorado Daily, CO)
Happy Valentine’s Day Feb 16, 2008
Rosa Parks, the seamstress, who refused her seat for a white man, which ignited the civil rights movement in 1955 with the Birmingham Bus Boycott, Ronald Raegan, the actor-turned president, Norman Rockwell, the American painter who painted the common person in common activities and situations, Langston Hughes, the Harlem Renaissance writer in the 1920s and 1930s, Thomas Edison, the famous inventor and Susan B. Anthony, the Woman s Suffrage leader and the lady on the Dollar coin all have... (Stuttgart Daily Leader, AR)
Foundation spurs young writers Feb 15, 2008
Bayeza led them in connecting the Harlem Renaissance to hip hop along a river of colorful history and later worked out sounds and rhythms for rap takes on a Bessie Smith blues tune or a Langston Hughes poem. "You've got a hook for them, then you've got them," Colley-Lee says. (The Clarion-Ledger)
Remaking New Orleans Feb 15, 2008
I visited the Langston Hughes Charter Academy, whose principal and founder, John Alford, is a recent Harvard MBA graduate who has sacrificed making big money. He and the school's students are African-Americans, as are nearly all the city's public school students. (Human Events Online)
Black literature Feb 9, 2008
There was a time when the term "African-American literature" referred to the work of literary giants such as Langston Hughes, James Baldwin, Ralph Ellison, Toni Morrison, Alice Walker and Zora Neale Hurston. Today, it includes Desperate Hoodwives by a pair who go by the pen names Meesha Mink and De'nesha Diamond. (The Palm Beach Post)
Who says D.C. is dull? Feb 8, 2008
Busboys and Poets is an homage to Langston Hughes, who rose to prominence in D.C. while working as a busboy. The area of Adams Morgan has been undergoing its own renaissance. (CNN -- Travel)
Black history, center stage Feb 5, 2008
That event involved CU-College of Music Students performing art songs and arrangements of spirituals by African-American composers, centered on the poetry of Langston Hughes, which was read by the CU-Theatre Department's Jarvis Fuller. Upon completion of that concert, Associate Dean, Steven Bruns remarked, This should become an annual event. (Boulder Colorado Daily, CO)
Celebrating Black History Month Feb 4, 2008
It was founded by the artist Charles Alston at 306 W. 141st St. in Harlem and served as a studio and meeting place for some of the century's most prominent black artists, including poet Langston Hughes, sculptor Augusta Savage, painter Jacob Lawrence and artist Romare Bearden. (From. (Orangeburg Times and Democrat, SC)
Today's culture not justAmerican -- it's African-American Feb 3, 2008
Langston Hughes, 1902-1967; poet and important figure of the Harlem Renaissance in the 1920s. His poetry included "The Weary Blues" and "Shakespeare in Harlem." He also wrote plays, children's stories and novels. (Daytona Beach News Journal)
Borough Hosts Black History Events Feb 1, 2008
Urban Stages on Tour will offer a story of the Little Rock Nine, Warriors Don t Cry, at 3 p.m. Saturday at the Corona Library, 100-01 Northern Blvd., named for black poet laureate Langston Hughes. Corona also will host an award-winning Laurelton author, Bessie Blake, Monday, Feb. 4, at 6 p.m. Blake recently won a national book award for her first novel: Speak to the Mountain. (Queens Chronicle, NY)
A Who's Who of the Federal Reserve policymakers who hold power over your pocketbook Jan 30, 2008
A voracious reader, Fisher's favorite authors include Shakespeare, Charles Dickens, Langston Hughes, P.G. Wodehouse and Evelyn Waugh. Recent reads include The Shadow of the Wind, The Secret Life of Lobsters, and A Thousand Splendid Suns. (San Diego Union-Tribune -- Business)
Sarah Smith selected to perform with Missouri Symphony Society Children’s Choir Jan 26, 2008
Johnson said that is accomplished by employing various non-traditional techniques, such as singing foreign language songs, including tunes of Hebrew, Korean, and French origin; and performances based on texts, such as a Langston Hughes poem. The choir itself generally performs unaccompanied, but sometimes is joined by award-winning piano player Jimmy Tucker, as well as an occasional harpist. (Mexico Ledger, MO)
Diddy premieres his latest role at Sundance Jan 25, 2008
The story, first written by Lorraine Hansberry borrowing a line from a Langston Hughes poem What becomes of a dream deferred. Does it dry up/Like a raisin in the sun. (MSNBC -- News)
And every man is free Jan 24, 2008
Mariama Alexis Akosua Camara, 8, reads poetry during a presentation given by her parents the Reverend Imani-Sheila Newsome-Camara and Kantigi Kwabena Camara Monday night at Town Hall in observance of the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.. Thu Jan 24, 2008, 08:13 AM EST. (Arlington Advocate, MA)
HAROLD JACKSON: Obama restores ideal of America Jan 23, 2008
Some on the list were innovators, inventors or athletes whose success inspired blacks, including George Washington Carver, Langston Hughes, Charles Drew, James Weldon Johnson, Percy Julian, Jesse Owens, Louis Armstrong. Obama is different from all of them. (Fresno Bee -- Opinion)
Columnist: Honor Dr. King's dream through service Jan 22, 2008
Harlem by Langston Hughes ... Much like the quizzical poem by Langston Hughes, "A Dream Deferred," we must ask ourselves what's happened, and what continues to happen, to this dream deferred. (Daily Collegian, PA)
Read on... Jan 22, 2008
Three books that mean a lot to me: "The Children" by David HalberstamA collection of Langston Hughes poemsThe Chip Hilton sports book I read as a child. What book would you like to see brought to the bigscreen and what book do you hope never gets adapted. (Variety)
Andrés Henestrosa Morales, 101; writer promoted Zapotec Indian culture Jan 14, 2008
s Henestrosa Morales, a prolific poet, essayist and journalist whose lyrical writings helped raise the cultural profile of Mexico's indigenous people, particularly the Zapotec Indians of southern Oaxaca state, and whose wide circle of friendships and intellectual partnerships included Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo and Langston Hughes, died Thursday at his Mexico City home after a months-long battle with pneumonia. He was 101, the same age attained by his Zapotec mother, who was the subject of one of... (Los Angeles Times)
Native of Moberly featured in movie Jan 12, 2008
Langston Hughes, the famous poet, playwright and novelist, said of Tolson: But Tolson is no highbrow; students revere him and love him. Kids from the cottonfields like him. (Moberly Monitor-Index, MO)
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Jan 12, 2008
" Major black writers such as W..E..B. Dubois, Langston Hughes and Ralph Ellison, fans of the novel all, saw this clearly: Huck is unlearning received teachings. Remember too that Twain was the first important novelist from west of the Mississippi, the first to use the American vernacular in his work miraculously, at least seven distinct idioms and the first to challenge the idea of what constituted "literary" fiction. By the time he wrote Huckleberry Finn (published in 1885 in the United... (Globe and Mail)
Giving voice to 'The People' Jan 9, 2008
In words and script, Mother Jones, Eugene Debs, Martin Luther King Jr., Marian Wright Edelman, and Langston Hughes were all on stage as the taping began of "The People Speak," the miniseries based on BU professor Howard Zinn's book "A People's History of the United States.". Their words were given voice by a collection of left-leaning Hollywood heavies, including Danny Glover, Viggo Mortensen, David Strathairn, Josh Brolin, and Marisa Tomei. (Boston Globe)
Obama continues call for change Jan 9, 2008
With oratory that echoed poet Langston Hughes and Martin Luther King, he urged an audience of 700 to help speed him toward the Democratic nomination. "We're prepared to take this race to South Carolina and beyond," said Suffolk County Legis. (Atlanta Journal-Constitution -- World)
French connection Dec 30, 2007
They chose the full-day option, 129 per person for a trek zigzagging through offbeat areas like the Parc Monceau, where poet Langston Hughes once lived in maid's chambers, or a bustling, working-class area that Stevenson dubs Little Africa. Stevenson, an Oklahoma native and former TV journalist, has more than enough material to work with: Even after an information-packed tour lasting nine hours, I couldn't help thinking we had only scratched the surface. (DeKalb Daily Chronicle, IL)
The real Harlem Dec 28, 2007
The house where poet Langston Hughes lived (20 E. 127th St., ) is now a performance space. It hosts open mic events on the first and third Thursday of the month and other programs. (CNN -- Travel)
'The Great Debaters' is a winning proposition Dec 25, 2007
Professor Tolson extols the poetry of Langston Hughes and Gwendolyn Bennett. He writes the word "revolution" on his chalkboard before explaining the Harlem Renaissance to his students. (Boston Globe)
War Of Words Dec 25, 2007
Despite the hardships they've all faced, Tolson cuts the team no slack, telling the kids that debating is a "blood sport." He vigorously recites Langston Hughes' "I, Too, Sing America." He is aggressive and relentless. He never lets the team know how lofty his goals are, but they do get a hint when he takes them to Oklahoma to debate whites - which was unheard of at the time. (San Francisco Chronicle -- Entertainment)
Christmas at the cineplex Dec 25, 2007
He strides into the room, leaps up onto a table and recites the first few "I am the darker brother" lines from Langston Hughes' "I, Too, Sing America." In period clothes and hairdo, Washington not only looks the academic part, he brings an intriguing air of danger to the role of a firebrand who is determined to advance social justice in both the classroom and society at large. Tolson is especially passionate about debate, which he considers to be "blood sport." He's fussy about whom he picks for... (Los Angeles Times)
The Great Debaters ** Dec 24, 2007
Washington first appears breaking up a razor fight at a house party, and then, the next day in the classroom, standing on a chair to declaim a Langston Hughes poem to his class. With his aggressive questioning style and pipe-sucking superiority, Tolson seems intended to embody the intellectual tough love these students need. (Globe and Mail -- Entertainment)
Alice Walker's papers going to Emory library Dec 19, 2007
At Emory's Manuscript, Archive and Rare Book Library, Walker's papers will join those of author Salman Rushdie, the late British poet laureate Ted Hughes and Nobel laureate Seamus Heaney as well as significant collections related to Harlem Renaissance novelists and poets Langston Hughes and James Weldon Johnson. Walker, 63, was flying to Mexico for a vacation Tuesday and couldn't be reached for comment. (Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
Documentary maker focused on blacks Dec 19, 2007
Black men who define themselves from an Afrocentric point of view fascinate me, he said in 1999 By Dennis McLellan, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer December 19, 2007 St. Clair Bourne, a prominent independent documentary filmmaker whose work focused largely on African American social and political issues and cultural figures such as Paul Robeson and Langston Hughes, has died. He was 64. (Los Angeles Times)
Today in the arts Dec 16, 2007
"BLACK NATIVITY" - Long Wharf Theatre Langston Hughes' re-telling of the classic Nativity story with gospel music featuring singers from the greater New Haven area. 7 p.m. $25-$35. (Greenwich Time)
The Last Word Dec 13, 2007
Giovanni was awarded the Langston Hughes Medal for poetry. Her children's picture book Rosa, about the civil rights legend Rosa Parks, became a Caldecott Honors Book in 2006. (Ithaca Times, NY)
