Langston Hughes was a key figure in the Harlem Renaissance. He was influenced by the Bible, W.E.B Dubois, and Walt Whitman. Hughes was responsible for exposing the reality and voice of his contemporary African Americans. Hughes not only helped to shape the Harlem scene of the 20s and 30s with is poetry he was also a novelist, columnist, playwright, and essayist. All of his writings including his poems were impacted by his world travels. Langston Hughes became the second African American to earn a living as a writer. Yet some of his African American contemporaries didn't agree with his use of dialect, interpretation of blues and jazz or his sensitive portrayals of the worker class. I believe Hughes said it best in his essay The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain(1926), "That black artists intend to express themselves freely, no matter what the black or white public thought." Contrary to the other black poets of his time Hughes wanted to produce works that highlighted the black people's actual culture. Their triumphs, misfortunes, their loves of music, life and language. Hughes collaborated with another Renaissance artist named Zora Neale Hurston on many projects. Neale was not only a novelist but also a folklorist as well. He also influenced writer Carl Van Vechten who wrote the very racey novel Nigger Heaven (1926) by recommending the title to Vechten. Langston Hughes created the magazine Fire with Zora Neale Hurston, Wallace Thurman, Claude McKay, Countee Cullen, Richard Bruce Nugent, and Aaron Douglas. The aforementioned were all very influential Harlem Renaissance artists.
“The Negro Speaks of Rivers”
By Langston Hughes
I've known rivers ancient as the world and older than the
flow of human blood in human veins.
My soul has grown deep like the rivers.
I bathed in the Euphrates when dawns were young.
I built my hut near the Congo and it lulled me to sleep.
I looked upon the Nile and raised the pyramids above it.
I heard the singing of the Mississippi when Abe Lincoln
went down to New Orleans, and I've seen its muddy
bosom turn all golden in the sunset.
I've known rivers:
Ancient, dusky rivers.
My soul has grown deep like the rivers.
Article written by:
Elliot Gilbert
University of Texas at Arlington
US History 1312
Feb 20, 2011
To Hear this poem read by Hughes himself, please visit:
