The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes


Book Description

Here, for the first time, is a complete collection of Langston Hughes's poetry - 860 poems that sound the heartbeat of black life in America during five turbulent decades, from the 1920s through the 1960s.




The Weary Blues


Book Description

Immediately celebrated as a tour de force upon its release, Langston Hughes's first published collection of poems still offers a powerful reflection of the Black experience. From "The Weary Blues" to "Dream Variation," Hughes writes clearly and colorfully, and his words remain prophetic.




Freedom's Plow


Book Description




I, Too, Am America


Book Description

Winner of the Coretta Scott King illustrator award, I, Too, Am America blends the poetic wisdom of Langston Hughes with visionary illustrations from Bryan Collier in this inspirational picture book that carries the promise of equality. 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. Langston Hughes was a courageous voice of his time, and his authentic call for equality still rings true today. Beautiful paintings from Barack Obama illustrator Bryan Collier accompany and reinvent the celebrated lines of the poem "I, Too," creating a breathtaking reminder to all Americans that we are united despite our differences. This picture book of Langston Hughes’s celebrated poem, "I, Too, Am America," is also a Common Core Text Exemplar for Poetry.




Vintage Hughes


Book Description

Presents selected works from "The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes," and "The Ways of White Folks."




Black Movie


Book Description

2014 Button Poetry Prize Winner "These harrowing poems make montage, make mirrors, make elegiac biopic, make 'a dope ass trailer with a hundred black children / smiling into the camera & the last shot is the wide mouth of a pistol.' That's no spoiler alert, but rather, Smith's way–saying & laying it beautifully bare. A way of desensitizing the reader from his own defenses each time this long, black movie repeats."–Marcus Wicker "Danez Smith's BLACK MOVIE is a cinematic tour-de-force that lets poetry vie with film for the honor of which medium can most effectively articulate the experience of Black America."–Rain Taxi




Let America Be America Again


Book Description

A collection of interviews, speeches, and essays by Langston Hughes. Let America Be America Again: Conversations with Langston Hughes is a record of a remarkable man talking. In texts ranging from early interviews in the 1920s, when he was a busboy and scribbling out poems on hotel napkins, to major speeches, such as his keynote address at the First World Festival of Negro Arts in Dakar, Senegal, in 1966, Hughes's words further amplify the international reputation he established over the course of five decades through more widely-published and well-known poems, stories, novels, and plays. In these interviews, speeches, and conversational essays, the writer referred to by admirers as the "Poet Laureate of the Negro Race" and the "Dean of Black Letters" articulated some of his most powerful critiques of fascism, economic and racial oppression, and compromised democracy. It was also through these genres that Hughes spoke of the responsibilities of the Black artist, documented the essential contributions of Black people to literature, music, and theatre, and chronicled the substantial challenges that Black artists face in gaining recognition, fair pay, and professional advancement. And it was through these pieces, too, that Hughes built on his celebrated work in other literary genres to craft an original, tragic-comic persona--a Blues poet in exile, forever yearning for and coming back to a home, a nation, that nevertheless continues to disappoint and harm him. A global traveler, Hughes's words, "Let America be America Again" were, throughout his career, always followed by a caveat: "America never was America to me."




The Darkness Around Us is Deep


Book Description

Poems deal with parents, Western landscapes, Native Americans, peace, childhood, nature, and the past.




Self-portrait as Wikipedia Entry


Book Description

Funny, intelligent, playful, inventive and engaging collection that subverts the norms of identity, authorship and audience.




Poetry for Young People: Langston Hughes (100th Anniversary Edition)


Book Description

Celebrate 100 years of Langston Hughes's powerful poetry. A Coretta Scott King Honor Award recipient, Poetry for Young People: Langston Hughes includes 26 of the poet's most influential pieces, including: "Mother to Son"; "My People"; "Words Like Freedom"; "I, Too"; and "The Negro Speaks of Rivers"--Hughes's first published piece, which was originally released in June 1921. This collection is curated and annotated by Arnold Rampersad and David Roessel, two leading poetry experts. It also features gallery-quality art by Benny Andrews and a new foreword by Renée Watson, a Newbery Honor Award recipient and founder of the I, Too Arts Collective.