February 6, 1949

Noted Poet Speaks Today At Library

   Langston Hughes, poet and writer of international fame, will be presented by the "Friends of the Library" of the Horton Branch of Cornegie [sic] Public Library from 4 to 7 p.m. today at an informal "at home" in the library, 216 East Sixth Street.

    Mr. Hughes will read his poems several different times during the evening, giving a number of individuals and groups an opportunity to hear and meet him personally.

    An added attraction for the evening will be a "Book Fair," which will feature exhibits arranged in several specific groupings the physical make-up of a book, including book binding, block printing and various types of printing; books the library has to offer in various fields of interests; how to use the library, and a collection of Mr. Hughes['] works sent to the library by his publisher, Alfred Knopf of New York.

Poems Set to Music

    Three of Mr. Hughes' poems set to music will be sung by local talent under the direction of Mrs. Vivien King Bright. One of the numbers will be "The Negro Speaks of Rivers," which appeared in "The Crisis" in 1921. It will be sung by William Warren.

    Mr. Hughes, who began to write at Central High School in Cleveland, has received may prizes and honors. His first prize for poetry was received in 1925 from the magazine Opportunity. In 1927, while a student at Lincoln University, he received the Palms Intercollegiate Poetry Award and in 1931, the Harmon Gould Award for Literature. On Oct. 24, 1935, his first play, "Mulatto," was produced on Broadway at the Vanderbilt Theatre. That year he received a Guggenheim Fellowship and in 1940 a Rosenwald Fellowship. During the Summers of 1942 anad 1943, he was in residence at Yaddo.

    The New York Times has called his work "a vivid sensation of the Negro spirit." The Princeton Literary Observer has termed it "the expression of a people." And the Kappa Alpha Psi Journal writes, "Here is the poetry of Negro life as we live it."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Langston Hughes Reads Poems Before Large Audience Here

    Langston Hughes, Negro poet, author and playwright, read poetry and talked to several hundred people yesterday at an informal program at Horton Branch of Carnegie Public Library. He told of his youth, how he started writing poems, his trip to Africa, and his past and current works.

    Until he was 13, he said, he had never thought of writing poems. He had always wanted to be a streetcar conductor, "because my family traveled around so much."

    Then, in the eighth grade, he was elected class poet, and wrote a 16-verse poem for graduation. The class liked it, so he kept it up.

First Influence

    His first influence, he said, was Negro poet Paul Lawrence Dunbar. By the time he was in High school, he liked Carl Sandburg, Edna St. Vincent Millay and Amy Lowell. He started writing blank verse, including one called "When Suzanna Jones Wears Red." "That wasn't her real name," he said, "but she was a real girl."

    The last line of the poem is "Sweet silver trumpets, Jesus," he said, "and that's the way I felt about that girl."

    Most of his early poems were about girls. To him, the Negro girls were the most beautiful in the world, and unlike most authors of works with non-sociological implications, Mr. Hughes plays up the differences in skin tones and colors.

    In one of his poems, "Harlem Sweeties," he compares the girls of Harlem by their colors to things to eat, ranging from chocolate ice cream to coffee and cream, and even Virginia Dare wine.

Trip to Africa

    Mr. Hughes took a trip to Africa as a seaman once, "to meet my people." When he returned, he wrote a poem about them, called "My People."

The night is beautiful

So the faces of my people

The stars are beautiful

So the eyes of my people

Beautiful, also, is the sun,

Beautiful, also, the souls of my people."

    Mr. Hughes has not changed entirely from lyric poetry to blank verse. He uses both now. Since he began to sell his poems, he has written a novel, an autobiography, several plays and several books of poems, "One Way Ticket," "Shakespeare in Harlem," "Fields of Wonder," "The Dream Keeper," "Freedom's Plow," "The Ways of White Folks," and "The Weary Blues."

    In spite of his poems about women, and his youthful love affairs, he never got married, he said.

Several Projects

    Now, he has several projects in mind. One is a book-length poem about Harlem in Be-bop, a musical show to be finished this Spring and produced in the Fall, he hopes, and then a play. His published theatrical works include "Mulatto," which ran for a year, and the lyrics for "Street Scene."

    One of the most encouraging developments in recent years in literature and art, he said, is the trend of Negro writers not to confine themselves to writing about Negroes.

    "The racial barriers," he said, "are probably lower in the arts and letters than in any other field. I hope more Negroes take advantage of them."

    His appearance here was part of the observance of Negro History Week, celebrated during the second week in February.