The search for self

Langston Hughes wrote the book “Selected Poems” in which he seeks his ancestral identity. In this book, he wrote Afro-American Fragment to bridge the present black person with their past. Langston writes “Not even memories alive save those that history books create,” alluding to the black struggle in North American. He continues “There comes a this song I do not understand...of bitter yearnings lost,” describing the desire of Black Americans once wanted to return to Africa but had even that desire take away in colonialism. The poem Afro-American Fragment really captures the feeling of the “Doors of no return.” Langston Hughes shows his poetic mastery in this poem, which illustrates his poetic style of writing on reality rather than fantasy. 

The Negro Speaks of Rivers is another poem found within the book “Selected Poems.” Langston Hughes writes “I’ve known rivers...My soul has grown deep like the rivers,” in this metaphor Hughes is capturing the wholeness of a person. He is comparing identity to that of a river to create the image that a person is tied to their experiences and to the depth of history in their culture. The poem has the element of yearning, almost a desire to know who one is in the vastness of the collective human experience. Langston does a great job of capturing the duality between being strong with experience and yet almost weak with vast identity. I also appreciate how Hughes makes a connection again here to nature by associating a river to a person. He is indicating to the reader that from nature we came and to nature we will return. 

Langston Hughes mentions Lenox Avenue in New York City in the poem “Could Be.” He describes his experience in the city as weary and dreary. He is missing his watch that was pawned and a person he feels a great connection too. In this poem, he seeks for his identity in the things, people, and places he has been. He uses repetition with the words ‘Could be” and it creates an emoting of both hopelessness and hopeful. He is dancing with a duality again, showing the reader that life experiences are multifaceted and it plays out in a person's identity as well. The poem also speaks to sadness and dependency on familiarity when he writes “Might be that you’ll come back, like as not you won’t.” Who is this person to Langston and if it’s not a person is he speaking about a version of himself? 

Langston writes an entire collection of poems in “Selected Poems” trying to capture that search for self. It is a journey through time and experience. He does a great job of showing the reader ways to explore one's identity. It is a process of struggle as one reconciles their standing in the world through the past and present moment and broad topics. How do you give yourself identity or focus in on what makes you, you?    

(Reference: Hughes, Langston. Selected Poems. Vintage Books, 1990.)

Literacy: Bread, Butter, and Power

In the book “The Panther & the Lash” by Langston Hughes, Hughes writes a poem named Harlem. The poem is about the personification of Harlem and it’s struggling for economic opportunity. He writes “And can’t have now Because we’re colored (pg 4).” Langston is bringing up the topic of segregation, oppression, and induced economic hardship on black Americans by the restriction of employment. He is reminding the Black American that “So we stand here,” standing and doing nothing is keeping them “Here on the edge of hell.” Langston Hughes in this quote is trying to awaken his people by having them remember a better time, remember the promises never kept, and he calls out for them to wonder. It is such a subtle message in this poem wrapped in two words “And wonder.” Langston wants better for his people, but first, they must realize what they are facing and dream to create better times. There is irony in that his father James Hughes wanted better for Langston and now like his father is sharing the value with his people. The value to be treated better. However, Langston Hughes had a vision and I believe he considered those around his family and wanted to bring them together as Langston Hughes grew up without unity in his family. He was drawn to his people and in the poem “The Backlash Blues,” he writes “And it’s full of folks like me who are Black, Yellow, Beige, and Brown (pg. 9).” Langston in the quote above is referring to the world and that there is a “Great big world” outside the “...white backlash (pg. 8).” This book is very much intended for a black audience and I can only see the white audience feeling alienated and perhaps angered by blacks wanting to live freely. The ideology that Langston is trying to convey is to seek power. Langston Hughes also wrote the poem on page 14 “Dream Deferred” which invokes fear in the reader if they prolong their dream for they will never obtain it. 

Langston wants Blacks to rise in power. I wonder what percentage of people at that time were able to read his writings and get inspired. Panther & the lash is such a motivating book and psychologically insightful as Langston stitches truth and reality through his poetry. What truths are you hidden from and how would you have sought empowerment during the great depression in a society that has you oppressed?     

(Reference: Hughes, Langston. The Panther and the Lash: Poems of Our Times. Vintage Books, 1992.)

Segregation and Identity

In the biography “Always Moving’ On” by James S. Haskins, the life of Langston Hughes is summarized into moments that help the reader understand the experiences that lead Langston Hughes into poetry and social activism. The book begins by giving insight into Langston Hughes's parents. Haskins on page one writes “ But the Hughes were Black, and because he was Black James Hughes could not take the law exam in his home state and start a practice.” Haskins is making the reader aware that the Hughes were living in a time of segregation where the Black identity was experiencing oppression in many different fronts. James Hughes was frugal and “was convinced that there was no city in the racially segregated United States where he could find opportunity (Haskins, pg 2). Langston from an early age would come to live away from his parents. His father moved away to Mexico and left Langston and his mother behind in the states (pg. 2). Haskins lets the reader infer that segregation heavily affected Langston's upbringing. Langston would grow up moving from place to place and without his mother until she found financial stability (pg.5) Lack of financial opportunity due to racism and segregation affected the family dynamic for Langston Hughes. 

It is not until we are out in the world for ourselves that we realize the influences that affected our parents' decisions. Langston Hughes’s father realized that in the United States he was not going to live the life he wanted and he left the country. He was unable to live a life where he wasn’t “other,” where his skin color didn’t equate to less, and where he couldn’t progress into owning a business. Haskins writes “He felt sick to his stomach just thinking about his father’s constant criticism of their own people (pg. 19).” Haskins is telling us that Langston didn’t like certain views that his father expressed. Langston Hughes ended up expressing a different sentiment than his father regarding the opinion of their people. Langston Hughes would later fall in love with his people as they became a subject of his writings. Langston Hughes was exposed to a father that gave up on American society and probably criticized his own people for living in a society where they are treated as second class citizens. Langston never went off to live with his father because his father didn’t approve of him being a writer (pg 21.) His father wanted him to be a mining engineer (pg 21). I believe that Langston’s father wanted Langston to give up on America because he wanted to send Langston away to Switzerland for his studies. 

In today’s political climate it’s red versus blue. America still has racial issues and it’s identity still doesn’t reflect the minority. Segregation drove away James Langston and in the process alienated his son Langston Hughes. The dynamic of James Hughes finding his identity away from the United States and Langston Hughes finding his identity within the United States speaks volumes to the changing times that would lead to the Harlem Renaissance in the 1920s. In today’s America should the recipients of DACA reject the United States as did Langston Hughes or accept it? Langston Hughes took a very difficult path by elevating the black identity in a time where oppression through segregation was a norm. He struggled for financial stability, but pushing back on oppression through writing gave him the means to succeed. Is that the identity that we wish to earn in the United States as a minor or a consequence of claiming a free identity in the United States? 

(Reference: Haskins, James. Always Movin on: the Life of Langston Hughes. Africa World Press, 1993.)

First post: Framing Identity: A Black Poet in New York City

     The great society in the United States has yet to directly observe itself from within the structures it operates. On whose platform do we brave the discussion of the infected blindness of justice, the recital of entertainment rather than the democratic voice of our executive branch, and failure of the people’s representation in congress. How do we capture the living American experience and upgrade our policies for our evolving society? I present these questions to frame the mindset that if we value individualism then individually we must take upon the responsibility of being American. Looking to the recent history of social progress in our country Langston Hughes exemplifies what it means to be American, to be a citizen in an imperfect society, and to honor the American voice by giving voice to people under oppression. We are all granted an identity in this country and Langston Hughes by way of his poetry elevates the American identity by taking upon individual responsibility through poetry. These blog series will be on three books; I present a review and highlight their value not just for black identity, but for the collective American identity. Tell me how does your culture and society create who you are? How are you able to bridge the two and if you are bi-cultural do you feel pressure to conform to one culture?

Langston Hughes’s genial, generous, and guarded persona was self-protective. Photograph by Carl Van Vechten / Carl Van Vechten Trust / Beinecke  Library, Yale