Kim Bui's List: POETRY CRAP

• February 1, 1902, in Joplin, Missouri
• His parents divorced when he was a small child, and his father moved to Mexico
• It was in Lincoln, Illinois, that Hughes began writing poetry
• first book of poetry, The Weary Blues, was published by Alfred A. Knopf in 1926
• 1930 his first novel, Not Without Laughter, won the Harmon gold medal for literature
• particularly known for his insightful, colorful portrayals of black life in America from the twenties through the sixties
• engagement with the world of jazz and the influence it had on his writing
• refused to differentiate between his personal experience and the common experience of black America. He wanted to tell the stories of his people in ways that reflected their actual culture, including both their suffering and their love of music, laughter, and language itself.

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• he uses the rhythms of African American music, particularly blues and jazz
• Later in the 1930s, Hughes's primary writing was for the theater
• Hughes meant to represent the race in his writing and he was, perhaps, the most original of all African American poets

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• talented Black writer would prefer to be considered a poet, not a Black poet,  which to Hughes meant he subconsciously wanted to write like a white poet.  Hughes argued, "no great poet has ever been afraid of being himself."
  
• Langston Hughes was a prolific writer