Langston Hughes

Trackimage Playbut Trackname Playbut Trackname
I Have Known Rivers 00:00 Tools
The Weary Blues 00:00 Tools
The Negro Speaks of Rivers 00:00 Tools
I Too 00:00 Tools
Ballad Of The Gypsy 00:00 Tools
Sylvester's Dying Bed 00:00 Tools
Mother to Son 00:00 Tools
Dreams 00:00 Tools
Still Here 00:00 Tools
Mulatto 00:00 Tools
In My Poetry (Commentary) 00:00 Tools
The Story of the Blues 00:00 Tools
Portraits of Langston: V. Jazz Band in a Parisian Cabaret 00:00 Tools
Blues Montage 00:00 Tools
Homesick Blues 00:00 Tools
Lincoln Monument; Washington; Aunt Sue's Stories 00:00 Tools
We Are the American Heartbreak (Commentary) 00:00 Tools
Feet Live Their Own Life 00:00 Tools
Life Is Fine 00:00 Tools
Mama and Daughter 00:00 Tools
Ma Lord 00:00 Tools
Night and Morn 00:00 Tools
I, Too 00:00 Tools
Blues At Dawn 00:00 Tools
Rhythms of the World 00:00 Tools
Morning After 00:00 Tools
The Weary Blues; Wide River; Homesick Blues; Night and Morn 00:00 Tools
Trumpet Player 00:00 Tools
As I Go 00:00 Tools
As I Grew Older; I, Too 00:00 Tools
Negro Speaks of Rivers 00:00 Tools
The Struggle 00:00 Tools
Six-Bits Blues 00:00 Tools
Hey (Night) Too Blue Ballad of the Fortune Teller 00:00 Tools
Note On the Commercial Theatre 00:00 Tools
Merry-Go-Round 00:00 Tools
"Dreams" And "Youth" 00:00 Tools
Simple Prayers a Prayer 00:00 Tools
One Way Ticket 00:00 Tools
Puzzled 00:00 Tools
I'm Gonna Testify 00:00 Tools
Consider Me 00:00 Tools
I Went to Columbia (Commentary) 00:00 Tools
Dressed Up; When Sue Wears Red; April Rain Song 00:00 Tools
Could Be / Bad Luck Card / Bad Man 00:00 Tools
Ku-Klux-Klan 00:00 Tools
Weary Blues 00:00 Tools
African Dance; Dream Variation; The Negro Speaks of Rivers 00:00 Tools
Cultural Exchange 00:00 Tools
Baby; Mother to Son; Dreams; Youth 00:00 Tools
Introduction to the Negro Speaks of Rivers 00:00 Tools
Testament 00:00 Tools
Hey Hey (Morn) 00:00 Tools
Kid Sleepy 00:00 Tools
Out of Work 00:00 Tools
Dinner Guest Me 00:00 Tools
Simple - Intro 00:00 Tools
The Very First Poem That I Sold (Commentary) 00:00 Tools
Dream Variations 00:00 Tools
Good Morning / Harlem 00:00 Tools
Motto / Dead in There 00:00 Tools
Parisian Beggar Woman; Mexican Market Woman 00:00 Tools
The South 00:00 Tools
Southern Mammy Songs 00:00 Tools
The Dream Keeper: Dreams; Water-Front Street; Long Trip 00:00 Tools
Tell Me 00:00 Tools
Warning: Augmented 00:00 Tools
Negro 00:00 Tools
Migrant 00:00 Tools
Same In Blues / Comment on Curb 00:00 Tools
Seascape; Sailor 00:00 Tools
Eventually I Found Work (Commentary) 00:00 Tools
Boogie: 1 a.m. 00:00 Tools
Bed Time 00:00 Tools
The Explanation of Our Times 00:00 Tools
Daybreak 00:00 Tools
Feet O'Jesus; Prayer; Prayer Meeting; Ma Lord 00:00 Tools
Intern at Provident Hospital 00:00 Tools
Sunday Morning Prophecy 00:00 Tools
Too Blue 00:00 Tools
I Sort of Went Backwards (Commentary) 00:00 Tools
There Are Certain Disadvantages (Commentary) 00:00 Tools
Simple Prays a Prayer 00:00 Tools
Democracy / Island 00:00 Tools
Simple-Intro 00:00 Tools
Madam and the Census Taker 00:00 Tools
Wooing the Muse 00:00 Tools
The Weary Blues Wide River Homesick Blues 00:00 Tools
Night And Morn rom Jazz Canto 00:00 Tools
Daybreak In Alabama from Jazz Canto 00:00 Tools
Part I - The Struggle: Negroes With the Spanish Explorers 00:00 Tools
Introduction, (from "Simple Speaks His Mind") 00:00 Tools
As I Grew Older 00:00 Tools
Moon-Faced, Starry-Eyed 00:00 Tools
The Dream Keeper 00:00 Tools
Fire 00:00 Tools
Minstrel Man - Spoken;Unaccompanied;2008 Remastered Version 00:00 Tools
Three Poems 00:00 Tools
Long Trip 00:00 Tools
When Sue Wears Red 00:00 Tools
My People 00:00 Tools
Langston Hughes Showcase 00:00 Tools
Langston Hughes - The Negro Speaks Of Rivers 00:00 Tools
Dreams and Youth 00:00 Tools
Elevator Boy 00:00 Tools
Dreams / Youth (medley) 00:00 Tools
Negro Dancers 00:00 Tools
Part I - The Struggle: Phyllis Wheatley 00:00 Tools
Could Be 00:00 Tools
Note on Commercial Theatre 00:00 Tools
Hey! - Too Blue - Ballad of the Fortune Teller 00:00 Tools
'Dreams' and 'Youth' 00:00 Tools
Blues Montage (edit) 00:00 Tools
The Negro Speaks Of Rivers (Intro) 00:00 Tools
Negro Speaks Of Rivers (Intro) 00:00 Tools
Langston Hughes - Negro 00:00 Tools
Feet o' Jesus 00:00 Tools
Langston Hughes - Merry-Go-Round 00:00 Tools
Aunt Sue's Stories 00:00 Tools
Wide River 00:00 Tools
Wake 00:00 Tools
Water-Front Streets 00:00 Tools
Juke Box Love Song 00:00 Tools
Democracy 00:00 Tools
Genius Child 00:00 Tools
One-Way Ticket 00:00 Tools
Part I - The Struggle: Sojourner Truth 00:00 Tools
Dream Deferred 00:00 Tools
Graduation 00:00 Tools
I’m Gonna Testify 00:00 Tools
Part Ii: The Glory: The Glory: Walt Whitman 00:00 Tools
Portraits of Langston: I. Prelude. Helen Keller 00:00 Tools
Hey (Night) / Too Blue / Ballad of the Fortune Teller 00:00 Tools
Dream Boogie 00:00 Tools
Part I - The Struggle: Old Riley 00:00 Tools
Langston Hughes - Cultural Exchange 00:00 Tools
Afro-American Fragment 00:00 Tools
Dream Montage Tell Me Good Morning Harlem/Same In Blues Comment On Curb 00:00 Tools
Mississippi Levee 00:00 Tools
Dressed Up 00:00 Tools
Part I - The Struggle: Harriet Tubman 00:00 Tools
Reverie on the Harlem River 00:00 Tools
Little Old Letter 00:00 Tools
Midnight Raffle 00:00 Tools
Testimonial - Judgment Day 00:00 Tools
To Captain Mulzac 00:00 Tools
Love Song For Lucinda 00:00 Tools
Harlem 00:00 Tools
Blues Montage (with Leonard Feather) 00:00 Tools
Dressed Up / When Sue Wears Red / April Rain Song 00:00 Tools
Part I - The Struggle: Harriet Tubman, Pt. 2 00:00 Tools
Part Ii: The Glory: World War I 00:00 Tools
Part Ii: The Glory: Booker T. Washington 00:00 Tools
Projection 00:00 Tools
African Dance / Dream Variation / The Negro Speaks of Rivers 00:00 Tools
Part I - The Struggle: Frederick Douglass 00:00 Tools
Mystery 00:00 Tools
As I Grew Older / I, Too 00:00 Tools
Song For A Dark Girl 00:00 Tools
Part II - The Glory: Ralph Bunche 00:00 Tools
Harlem Sweeties 00:00 Tools
Hey! Hey! 00:00 Tools
Portraits of Langston: Introduction No. 2 "Danse africaine" 00:00 Tools
Silhouette 00:00 Tools
Part Ii: the Glory: George Washington Carver 00:00 Tools
Part Ii: The Glory: Mary Mcleod Bethune 00:00 Tools
Part I - The Struggle: Abraham Lincoln 00:00 Tools
In Time Of Silver Rain 00:00 Tools
Roland Hayes Beaten 00:00 Tools
Dream Montage (Excerpt) 00:00 Tools
Virooneh 00:00 Tools
Taraneh 00:00 Tools
Opening Blues / Blues Montage / Commercial Theatre / Morning After / Could Be / Testament 00:00 Tools
Bound No'Th Blues 00:00 Tools
Dream Montage 00:00 Tools
Portraits of Langston: Introduction No. 4 "In Time of Silver Rain" 00:00 Tools
Ballad of the Landlord 00:00 Tools
Part Ii: The Glory: NAACP Founding and Activities 00:00 Tools
Baby / Mother to Son / Dreams / Youth 00:00 Tools
Judgement Day 00:00 Tools
Flatted Fifths 00:00 Tools
The Blues 00:00 Tools
Could Be - Bad Luck Card - Bad Man 00:00 Tools
The Weary Blues / Wide River / Homesick Blues / Night and Morn 00:00 Tools
The Dream Keeper: Dreams / Water-Front Street / Long Trip 00:00 Tools
Oppression 00:00 Tools
Explanation Of The Times 00:00 Tools
Democracy / Island / extract from Warning: Augmented / Jump Monk 00:00 Tools
Cross 00:00 Tools
Langston Hughes 00:00 Tools
Home Sick Blues 00:00 Tools
The Kids in School With Me (Poem) 00:00 Tools
Big Buddy 00:00 Tools
Parisian Beggar Woman / Mexican Market Woman 00:00 Tools
Landladies 00:00 Tools
Lincoln Monument / Washington / Aunt Sue's Stories 00:00 Tools
Seascape / Sailor 00:00 Tools
Merry-Go-Round (A Colored Child at Carnival) 00:00 Tools
Parisian Beggar Woman / Mexican Market Woman 00:00 Tools
Landladies 00:00 Tools
Lincoln Monument / Washington / Aunt Sue's Stories 00:00 Tools
Seascape / Sailor 00:00 Tools
Daybreak in Alabama 00:00 Tools
Judgment Day 00:00 Tools
April Rain Song 00:00 Tools
Miss Blues'es Child 00:00 Tools
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(February 1, 1902 - May 22, 1967) Born in Joplin, Missouri, James Langston Hughes was a member of an abolitionist family. He was the great-great-grandson of Charles Henry Langston, brother of John Mercer Langston, who was the first Black American to be elected to public office, in 1855. Hughes attended Central High School in Cleveland, Ohio, but began writing poetry in the eighth grade, and was selected as Class Poet. His father didn't think he would be able to make a living at writing, and encouraged him to pursue a more practical career. He paid his son's tuition to Columbia University on the grounds he study engineering. After a short time, Langston dropped out of the program with a B+ average; all the while he continued writing poetry. His first published poem was also one of his most famous, "The Negro Speaks of Rivers", and it appeared in Brownie's Book. Later, his poems, short plays, essays and short stories appeared in the NAACP publication Crisis Magazine and in Opportunity Magazine and other publications. One of Hughes' finest essays appeared in the Nation in 1926, entitled "The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain". It spoke of Black writers and poets, "who would surrender racial pride in the name of a false integration," where a talented Black writer would prefer to be considered a poet, not a Black poet, which to Hughes meant he subconsciously wanted to write like a white poet. Hughes argued, "no great poet has ever been afraid of being himself." He wrote in this essay, "We younger Negro artists now intend to express our individual dark-skinned selves without fear or shame. If white people are pleased we are glad. If they aren't, it doesn't matter. We know we are beautiful. And ugly too... If colored people are pleased we are glad. If they are not, their displeasure doesn't matter either. We build our temples for tomorrow, as strong as we know how and we stand on the top of the mountain, free within ourselves." In 1923, Hughes traveled abroad on a freighter to the Senegal, Nigeria, the Cameroons, Belgium Congo, Angola, and Guinea in Africa, and later to Italy and France, Russia and Spain. One of his favorite pastimes whether abroad or in Washington, D.C. or Harlem, New York was sitting in the clubs listening to blues, jazz and writing poetry. Through these experiences a new rhythm emerged in his writing, and a series of poems such as "The Weary Blues" were penned. He returned to Harlem, in 1924, the period known as the Harlem Renaissance. During this period, his work was frequently published and his writing flourished. In 1925 he moved to Washington, D.C., still spending more time in blues and jazz clubs. He said, "I tried to write poems like the songs they sang on Seventh Street...(these songs) had the pulse beat of the people who keep on going." At this same time, Hughes accepted a job with Dr. Carter G. Woodson, editor of the Journal of Negro Life and History and founder of Black History Week in 1926. He returned to his beloved Harlem later that year. Langston Hughes received a scholarship to Lincoln University, in Pennsylvania, where he received his B.A. degree in 1929. In 1943, he was awarded an honorary Lit.D by his alma mater; a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1935 and a Rosenwald Fellowship in 1940. Based on a conversation with a man he knew in a Harlem bar, he created a character know as My Simple Minded Friend in a series of essays in the form of a dialogue. In 1950, he named this lovable character Jess B. Simple, and authored a series of books on him. Langston Hughes was a prolific writer. In the forty-odd years between his first book in 1926 and his death in 1967, he devoted his life to writing and lecturing. He wrote sixteen books of poems, two novels, three collections of short stories, four volumes of "editorial" and "documentary" fiction, twenty plays, children's poetry, musicals and operas, three autobiographies, a dozen radio and television scripts and dozens of magazine articles. In addition, he edited seven anthologies. The long and distinguished list of Hughes' works includes: Not Without Laughter (1930); The Big Sea (1940); I Wonder As I Wander" (1956), his autobiographies. His collections of poetry include: The Weary Blues (1926); The Negro Mother and other Dramatic Recitations (1931); The Dream Keeper (1932); Shakespeare In Harlem (1942); Fields of Wonder (1947); One Way Ticket (1947); The First Book of Jazz (1955); Tambourines To Glory (1958); and Selected Poems (1959); The Best of Simple (1961). He edited several anthologies in an attempt to popularize black authors and their works. Some of these are: An African Treasury (1960); Poems from Black Africa (1963); New Negro Poets: USA (1964) and The Best Short Stories by Negro Writers (1967). Published posthumously were: Five Plays By Langston Hughes (1968); The Panther and The Lash: Poems of Our Times (1969) and Good Morning Revolution: Uncollected Writings of Social Protest (1973); The Sweet Flypaper of Life with Roy DeCarava (1984). Langston Hughes died of cancer on May 22, 1967. His residence at 20 East 127th Street in Harlem, New York has been given landmark status by the New York City Preservation Commission. His block of East 127th Street was renamed "Langston Hughes Place" . By: Andrew P. Jackson (Sekou Molefi Baako) Langston Hughes a biography by Milton Meltzer 1968 Langston Hughes and Gwendolyn Brooks: A Reference Guide by R. Baxter Miller 1979 Langston Hughes, American Poet by Alice Walker 1974 Langston Hughes in the Hispanic World and Haiti by Edward J. Mullen 1977 The World of Langston Hughes Music: A Bibliography of Musical Settings of Langston Hughes' Works with Recordings and Other Listings by Kenneth Neilson 1982 Langston Hughes: Before and Beyond Harlem by Faith Berry 1983 Langston Hughes and the Blues by Steven C. Tracy 1988 Langston Hughes: Black Genius, A Critical Evaluation edited by Therman B. O'Daniel 1977 The Life of Langston Hughes: Vol. I 1902-194, Too, Sing America and Vol. II 1941-1967 Dream A World by Arnold Rampersad 1986 From http://www.redhotjazz.com/hughes.html Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.