"We younger Negro artist who creat now intend to express our individual dark-skinned selves without fear or shame. If white people are pleased we are glad. If they are not, 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, strong as we know how, and we stand on top of the mountain, free within ourselves."
-Langston Hughes
"The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain"
|
Langston Hughes was one of the most versital and prolific writers ever. Born in 1902 on February 1, in Joplin, Missouri, he started his career with work published in Brownies' Book and The Crisis in 1921. The latter magazine published one of his most famous poems "The Negro Speaks of Rivers". Hughes left Columbia University in 1922 after one year of successful studies. He traveled as a ship's assistant cook and then worked as a cook in Paris. After his return to America in 1924 he was successful in several contests. His first poetry collection The Weary Blueswas published in 1926, the same year he entered Lincoln University. By the time he graduated in 1929 another volume had been published. Hughes went on to become a literary leader during the Harlem Renaissance and afterwards. In addition to his poetry Hughes wrote drama, short stories, novels and articles. He died on May 22, 1967. His ashes are entombed under the floor of the Schomburg Center in Harlem. |