Life Of Langston Hughes

Langston Hughes – Harlem in Vogue: The Poetry and Jazz of Langston Hughes

As with many innovators, Langston Hughes’ legacy has largely gone neglected, overshadowed by the political heavyweights of the civil rights movement, but his contributions to jazz, as well as his shedding of light on life in 1920s Harlem, are finally getting some renewed, and well-deserved, attention. With a voice suited for radio drama and a dryly sardonic outlook on life that brims with wit and strength, he brings Harlem to vivid, if sometimes harsh, life.

This collection not only provides an illuminating collection of his poetry but also pairs him with two of jazz’s true heavyweights. Leonard Feather opts for a narrative approach, subdued horns and vivacious swing acting in tandem with Hughes’ turns of emotion, while Charles Mingus instead relies on his own innate sense of timing and groove to act as unpredictable travelling companion. While not the easiest listen, as a historical artefact it’s something to be treasured.

Freedom versus Liberty

Of July, the holiday of liberty in this, our beloved country. It is a time of celebration of the ole’ red, white, and blue. Flags will be hoisted and raised high; kids will be eating apple pie. There will be festivals at the Eno (for all of you Durhamites out there). Songs of patriotism will be sung. Some will get a little extra R & R in this weekend. Some will perhaps take in a movie (my daughter really wants to see “The Green Lantern”—OK ,OK, and so do I!). Others will fire up the grill (“Green Lantern” or not, this is definitely in the weekend plans!). And what would fourth of July weekend be if it didn’t involve lighting a firecracker or a sparkler or two or maybe even going to a local fireworks display, all in commemoration of what this nation stands for, right—in a word, liberty?

Well, I recently came across a poem that is quite fitting for this national holiday and helps us reframe its meaning. The poem is in the tradition of Frederick Douglass famous speech, “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?”, which about a year ago I blogged about . This poem has been rolling around in my mind for weeks now, since I first read it.

In fact, I had just read it and then found myself in a Durham bookstore when I bump into one of my favorite grad students—they’re all my favorites! I hadn’t seen her in a few weeks. We spoke for a while. Did a little catching up. I asked her what she had been reading and how her work was coming along. She in turn asked the same of me. “How’s the book you’re working on going, Dr. Carter? And that essay on theological anthropology?” Etc. Etc. I said a little about these projects, but then couldn’t help myself. I immediately unleashed this poem on her and started to comment on its significance for our current social and political and religious and theological moment.

The poet who has seized my attention is none other than Langston Hughes, often called the poet laureate of African American verse. The poem? A pithy but socially perceptive though deceptively incisive little work called Words Like Freedom

Zeroing in on two crucial keywords of our times, Hughes’ verse points to a phenomenon well worth of meditating on this weekend as songs and elations of freedom and liberty ring out across this land. His verse dinstinguishes between freedom and liberty.