Langston Hughes

Langston Hughes was an innovator of Jazz poetry, a prolific writer and one of the principal voices of the Harlem Renaissance.

In 1921, his poem, “The Negro Speaks of Rivers,” was published in The Crisis.
In 1924 Hughes received an Opportunity award for first prize in poetry for “The Wary Blues.”
Carl Van Vechten was an American writer and artistic photographer who was a patron of the Harlem Renaissance.
Van Vechten was a lifelong friend of Hughes. He helped Hughes get published in Vanity Fair in 1925 and supported his work over many years.
By 1926, Hughes was the leader of the literary “new school” of the Harlem Renaissance.
Hughes experimented with several genres. His first novel, Not without Laughter (Knopf, 1930) won the Harrison Prize for Literature.
He had some success writing plays. Some of his poems were set to music, and during the 1940s he tried his hand at writing song lyrics.
In 1942, Hughes began writing a column for the Chicago Defender, which would run for twenty years.
In the 1930s, Hughes was attracted to the ideals of the Communist Party which offered an alternative to segregation and racism. After appearing before McCarthy’s subcommittee, Hughes’ productivity as a poet dwindled. However, he remained an editor and an influential figure in the African American community until his death.

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