1
00:00:00,840 --> 00:00:05,359
Speaker 1: My name is Jacquees Thomas, and you're listening to Black Lit,

2
00:00:05,680 --> 00:00:10,680
Speaker 1: a podcast about black literature and the stories behind the

3
00:00:10,760 --> 00:00:17,360
Speaker 1: storytellers length and Hughes. Now that's a name that might

4
00:00:17,440 --> 00:00:22,200
Speaker 1: conjure up some images of the Harlem Renaissance, powerful poetry

5
00:00:22,640 --> 00:00:27,240
Speaker 1: and a voice that spoke to a whole generation. But

6
00:00:27,360 --> 00:00:32,320
Speaker 1: before the accolades, before the iconic lines, there was a

7
00:00:32,360 --> 00:00:36,479
Speaker 1: young man with a powerful dream, a man who was

8
00:00:36,560 --> 00:00:40,240
Speaker 1: set out on a journey as rich and as complex

9
00:00:41,000 --> 00:00:42,519
Speaker 1: as the poetry he penned.

10
00:00:45,720 --> 00:00:46,920
Speaker 2: I Too.

11
00:00:48,720 --> 00:00:52,239
Speaker 3: Am America, who wrote that.

12
00:00:53,600 --> 00:00:57,840
Speaker 1: What you just heard was a quote from The Great Debaters,

13
00:00:57,880 --> 00:01:02,280
Speaker 1: the award winning two thousand and seven directed by Denzel Washington,

14
00:01:03,200 --> 00:01:08,200
Speaker 1: where Denzel delivers a line inspired by Lanson Hughes, I

15
00:01:08,959 --> 00:01:16,319
Speaker 1: Too am America. That single phrase, drawn from Hughes' iconic

16
00:01:16,400 --> 00:01:21,319
Speaker 1: poem I Too, published in nineteen twenty six, still resonates

17
00:01:21,360 --> 00:01:26,760
Speaker 1: today as both a declaration and a form of defiance.

18
00:01:28,160 --> 00:01:32,640
Speaker 1: It's a statement of belonging, one that bridges the divide

19
00:01:32,800 --> 00:01:39,399
Speaker 1: between exclusion and inclusion. It is a black man claiming

20
00:01:39,720 --> 00:01:43,559
Speaker 1: his rightful place in a nation that often tried to

21
00:01:43,600 --> 00:01:48,360
Speaker 1: deny him. I Too was written during the height of

22
00:01:48,400 --> 00:01:53,400
Speaker 1: the Harlem Renaissance. The poem describes a plague that is racism.

23
00:01:53,800 --> 00:01:57,720
Speaker 1: It is a poetic protest expressing how he, as a

24
00:01:57,760 --> 00:02:04,040
Speaker 1: black man, experiences this outright discrimination, and how despite not

25
00:02:04,120 --> 00:02:07,560
Speaker 1: being offered a seat at the quote unquote table, he

26
00:02:07,600 --> 00:02:12,400
Speaker 1: does not fret, for he knows how beautiful he is

27
00:02:13,200 --> 00:02:17,880
Speaker 1: and how such a beauty cannot be ignored forever. The

28
00:02:17,919 --> 00:02:24,520
Speaker 1: line tomorrow, I'll be at the table reinforces this belief

29
00:02:24,919 --> 00:02:34,560
Speaker 1: that there is hope for America because he too is American. Oh,

30
00:02:34,639 --> 00:02:38,639
Speaker 1: let America be America again, the land that never has

31
00:02:38,720 --> 00:02:42,120
Speaker 1: been yet but yet must be, the land where every

32
00:02:42,240 --> 00:02:45,520
Speaker 1: man is free, the land that's mine the poor man.

33
00:02:46,040 --> 00:02:48,720
Speaker 3: Let it be the dream it used to be. America

34
00:02:48,840 --> 00:02:50,000
Speaker 3: was never America to me.

35
00:02:50,639 --> 00:02:54,600
Speaker 1: Today, Hughes is celebrated as one of the most significant

36
00:02:54,639 --> 00:02:58,800
Speaker 1: voices of the Harlem Renaissance, a poet of the people

37
00:02:59,200 --> 00:03:03,640
Speaker 1: and a cultural architect and icon. But who exactly was

38
00:03:03,720 --> 00:03:09,160
Speaker 1: Lenggston Hughes? What experiences did he encounter? What was it

39
00:03:09,360 --> 00:03:13,480
Speaker 1: like being born an only child in Joplin, Missouri, in

40
00:03:13,560 --> 00:03:19,360
Speaker 1: the early nineteen hundreds to divorce parents, His childhood was fractured.

41
00:03:20,160 --> 00:03:25,160
Speaker 1: His father, a man who had dreams. He he just

42
00:03:25,200 --> 00:03:28,480
Speaker 1: didn't believe he could reach here in America, so he

43
00:03:28,720 --> 00:03:33,880
Speaker 1: escaped to Mexico, abandoning Langston and his mother.

44
00:03:35,000 --> 00:03:39,680
Speaker 2: Well, my father was very anti Negro, although he was negroing.

45
00:03:40,400 --> 00:03:43,800
Speaker 1: And to add to that feeling of rejection, his mother,

46
00:03:43,960 --> 00:03:47,600
Speaker 1: who was often absent in his life, left him to

47
00:03:47,680 --> 00:03:52,160
Speaker 1: be raised mostly by his grandmother in a near destitute

48
00:03:52,280 --> 00:03:54,040
Speaker 1: upbringing in.

49
00:03:53,960 --> 00:03:58,240
Speaker 2: This great, big, lonesome town. I might starve for a year,

50
00:03:58,680 --> 00:04:01,080
Speaker 2: but that extra day would get me down.

51
00:04:04,680 --> 00:04:09,240
Speaker 4: In nineteen twenty five, Hughes was bussing tables in a Washington,

52
00:04:09,320 --> 00:04:13,120
Speaker 4: DC hotel and he slipped a few poems to the

53
00:04:13,160 --> 00:04:15,040
Speaker 4: famous poet Rachel Lindsay.

54
00:04:16,600 --> 00:04:20,080
Speaker 1: Lengthy. News was a hustler. He wasn't just a poet.

55
00:04:20,320 --> 00:04:24,680
Speaker 1: He was a busboy, a seaman, a cook, anything that

56
00:04:24,839 --> 00:04:29,559
Speaker 1: allowed him to survive while pursuing his craft. He wrote

57
00:04:29,600 --> 00:04:33,400
Speaker 1: between shifts and during long nights, determined to make his

58
00:04:33,480 --> 00:04:37,599
Speaker 1: voice heard. His life was a patchwork of odd jobs,

59
00:04:38,000 --> 00:04:43,400
Speaker 1: stitched together by a relentless passion for storytelling. But it

60
00:04:43,520 --> 00:04:48,640
Speaker 1: wasn't just about survival. That hustle, that grit is what

61
00:04:48,839 --> 00:04:53,520
Speaker 1: makes his story so powerful. It's why his work filled

62
00:04:53,560 --> 00:04:59,320
Speaker 1: with themes of identity, resilience, and chasing your dreams, finds

63
00:04:59,360 --> 00:05:04,440
Speaker 1: its way into classrooms across the country till this day.

64
00:05:05,320 --> 00:05:07,960
Speaker 1: But how does a hustling poet who spent his night

65
00:05:08,120 --> 00:05:11,800
Speaker 1: scribbling down on napkins and diners become one of the

66
00:05:11,839 --> 00:05:16,520
Speaker 1: most taught poets in American classrooms? How did Langston Hughes,

67
00:05:16,640 --> 00:05:21,960
Speaker 1: the seamen, the cook, the bus boy transform into the

68
00:05:22,120 --> 00:05:28,040
Speaker 1: Langston Hughes that we know today, the voice of dreams, struggles,

69
00:05:28,040 --> 00:05:33,680
Speaker 1: and resilience for students everywhere. Langston had an incredible gift

70
00:05:33,960 --> 00:05:38,240
Speaker 1: of seeing the beauty and the pain of life and

71
00:05:38,320 --> 00:05:42,120
Speaker 1: putting it into words. His poetry captured not just his

72
00:05:42,240 --> 00:05:47,760
Speaker 1: own experiences, but the posts of a people. When he

73
00:05:47,800 --> 00:05:51,359
Speaker 1: wrote about the rivers in Mississippi, or the Congo or

74
00:05:51,400 --> 00:05:55,240
Speaker 1: the Nile, it wasn't just as locations, but as the

75
00:05:55,400 --> 00:06:01,800
Speaker 1: history of black resilience. Dream defers doesn't just ask questions,

76
00:06:02,200 --> 00:06:06,159
Speaker 1: it demands that you confront it. Mother to son is

77
00:06:06,279 --> 00:06:11,000
Speaker 1: like a warm, encouraging arm around your shoulder, telling you

78
00:06:11,120 --> 00:06:16,240
Speaker 1: to keep climbing. And that's why, decades later, teachers bring

79
00:06:16,320 --> 00:06:20,880
Speaker 1: him into classrooms. Hughes was a bridge to history and literature.

80
00:06:21,320 --> 00:06:25,960
Speaker 1: But also to empathy and understanding. His work wasn't just beautiful,

81
00:06:26,800 --> 00:06:32,200
Speaker 1: it was teachable and relatable, perfect for young minds learning

82
00:06:32,240 --> 00:06:38,239
Speaker 1: about America's diversity and struggles, about dreams and justice, about

83
00:06:38,279 --> 00:06:43,520
Speaker 1: what it means to fight and hope and build. The

84
00:06:43,600 --> 00:06:48,840
Speaker 1: language is rhythmic and clear. His ideas are timeless, but

85
00:06:48,880 --> 00:06:52,680
Speaker 1: the words are simple enough to reach a middle schooler.

86
00:06:52,880 --> 00:06:58,080
Speaker 1: He wrote, hold fast to your dreams, for without them,

87
00:06:58,640 --> 00:07:03,520
Speaker 1: life is a broken winged bird that cannot fly. You

88
00:07:03,560 --> 00:07:06,400
Speaker 1: don't need a dictionary for that, because you can feel

89
00:07:06,440 --> 00:07:11,400
Speaker 1: it in your soul. As we explore the life and

90
00:07:11,560 --> 00:07:15,560
Speaker 1: legacy of Langston Hughes, we had the privilege of speaking

91
00:07:15,600 --> 00:07:20,880
Speaker 1: with doctor Carmeletta Williams, the current CEO of the Black

92
00:07:21,120 --> 00:07:25,040
Speaker 1: Archives of Mid America and a scholar with three decades

93
00:07:25,080 --> 00:07:30,120
Speaker 1: of experience and a passion for Hughes's work. She shared

94
00:07:30,280 --> 00:07:34,800
Speaker 1: a deep understanding of his life and gave historical contacts

95
00:07:34,840 --> 00:07:39,680
Speaker 1: and insight into what made his voice so revered. Her

96
00:07:39,720 --> 00:07:43,800
Speaker 1: ability to connect Langston's work to the broader Black experience

97
00:07:44,320 --> 00:07:50,360
Speaker 1: and contemporary conversations made her an extraordinary resource, and we

98
00:07:50,360 --> 00:07:54,560
Speaker 1: were truly honored to have her with us and to

99
00:07:54,640 --> 00:07:56,920
Speaker 1: share this conversation with you.

100
00:07:58,360 --> 00:08:02,160
Speaker 5: When he was telling stories than the blues genre, and

101
00:08:02,720 --> 00:08:07,120
Speaker 5: he was telling the story that the people who made.

102
00:08:06,960 --> 00:08:08,800
Speaker 2: Him famous that they were living.

103
00:08:09,520 --> 00:08:13,080
Speaker 5: So he was with the folks he hung out and

104
00:08:13,280 --> 00:08:17,520
Speaker 5: churches and as well as in bars, so absorbing all

105
00:08:17,680 --> 00:08:18,920
Speaker 5: aspects of the culture.

106
00:08:19,160 --> 00:08:23,600
Speaker 2: And that's what he wrote about. The Negro Mother is powerful.

107
00:08:23,160 --> 00:08:26,760
Speaker 5: Because it hit so many people and they're like, yeah,

108
00:08:26,800 --> 00:08:29,760
Speaker 5: my mother's story is a little bit different, but basically

109
00:08:29,800 --> 00:08:30,920
Speaker 5: this is her tale too.

110
00:08:31,840 --> 00:08:38,079
Speaker 3: Now through my children, young and free, I realized the blessings.

111
00:08:37,600 --> 00:08:38,440
Speaker 2: Deny to me.

112
00:08:39,720 --> 00:08:45,400
Speaker 5: Of course my mother was Bangstern's generation are after. But

113
00:08:46,200 --> 00:08:51,400
Speaker 5: I saw those stairs, I saw that journey life for

114
00:08:51,520 --> 00:08:55,880
Speaker 5: me ain't been no crystal statics, had tax in it, boards,

115
00:08:56,000 --> 00:08:59,840
Speaker 5: throwing up places with no carpet on the floor.

116
00:09:00,120 --> 00:09:00,360
Speaker 2: Fair.

117
00:09:01,080 --> 00:09:04,280
Speaker 5: So I think that he wrote about real life and

118
00:09:04,320 --> 00:09:08,040
Speaker 5: that people didn't imagine. Plus he was in the time

119
00:09:09,000 --> 00:09:12,040
Speaker 5: he didn't want to take the art so far. I

120
00:09:12,160 --> 00:09:16,719
Speaker 5: feel that the regular folk, the common folks, the what

121
00:09:16,840 --> 00:09:20,640
Speaker 5: Langston called the negro lois down so that they could

122
00:09:20,679 --> 00:09:24,240
Speaker 5: feel it, they could accept that, and then that was

123
00:09:24,280 --> 00:09:27,640
Speaker 5: what made him famous. Now also we know about his

124
00:09:27,720 --> 00:09:30,920
Speaker 5: relationship with white folks, is that he.

125
00:09:30,920 --> 00:09:33,480
Speaker 2: Didn't cater to them.

126
00:09:34,320 --> 00:09:38,480
Speaker 5: Is even though he depended on people like the god

127
00:09:38,559 --> 00:09:42,680
Speaker 5: Mother to give him finances and to get him published

128
00:09:42,720 --> 00:09:45,280
Speaker 5: and to you know, and he stayed in their homes,

129
00:09:45,520 --> 00:09:49,040
Speaker 5: he still wrote his art and he still told about

130
00:09:49,160 --> 00:09:53,400
Speaker 5: those lives. And so he bifurcated in a means that

131
00:09:54,080 --> 00:09:57,600
Speaker 5: he could operate moviesily in both worlds. And that's been

132
00:09:57,720 --> 00:10:00,120
Speaker 5: said of zor two, so we can get to that

133
00:10:00,160 --> 00:10:03,640
Speaker 5: they moved easily through all kinds of cultures, but they

134
00:10:03,679 --> 00:10:07,480
Speaker 5: stay true to who they were, to their blackness, to

135
00:10:07,520 --> 00:10:09,160
Speaker 5: their history, to their people.

136
00:10:09,440 --> 00:10:12,000
Speaker 2: And those are the stories that he wrote about.

137
00:10:13,200 --> 00:10:17,239
Speaker 1: Hughes said, I want to write so that everyone can understand,

138
00:10:17,960 --> 00:10:20,960
Speaker 1: and he did. That's why you find him in the

139
00:10:21,000 --> 00:10:27,360
Speaker 1: pages of school books, inspiring kids to dream big, to

140
00:10:27,480 --> 00:10:30,719
Speaker 1: ask questions, to see the world for what it is

141
00:10:31,480 --> 00:10:36,240
Speaker 1: and for what it could be. He was an artist

142
00:10:36,559 --> 00:10:41,679
Speaker 1: who refused to separate black culture from his art. To him,

143
00:10:42,160 --> 00:10:45,880
Speaker 1: jazz and blues weren't just background music. They wore the

144
00:10:45,920 --> 00:10:50,800
Speaker 1: heartbeat and soul of his poetry. And that's what makes

145
00:10:50,880 --> 00:10:56,520
Speaker 1: Langston Hughes so revolutionary and enduring. He wasn't writing to

146
00:10:56,679 --> 00:11:01,800
Speaker 1: impress an exclusive elite. He was writing to connect, to

147
00:11:01,840 --> 00:11:05,160
Speaker 1: give voice to the hustlers, to the dreamers, and the

148
00:11:05,240 --> 00:11:10,080
Speaker 1: preachers who might otherwise go unheard. His words carry the

149
00:11:10,160 --> 00:11:14,440
Speaker 1: rhythm of the streets, the posts of jazz, and the

150
00:11:14,480 --> 00:11:18,360
Speaker 1: soul of the everyday person trying to carve out a

151
00:11:18,480 --> 00:11:25,160
Speaker 1: piece of the world. Langston understood that poetry wasn't just

152
00:11:25,200 --> 00:11:28,760
Speaker 1: for libraries or lecture halls. It was for the people.

153
00:11:29,640 --> 00:11:32,680
Speaker 1: It was for the mother humming blues while she cooked,

154
00:11:33,120 --> 00:11:35,800
Speaker 1: for the busker playing a saxophone on a Harlem corner,

155
00:11:36,559 --> 00:11:40,480
Speaker 1: for the worker coming home late, dreaming of a better tomorrow.

156
00:11:41,600 --> 00:11:46,160
Speaker 1: Hughes speaks directly to the human condition, raw, real, and

157
00:11:46,240 --> 00:11:51,960
Speaker 1: most importantly accessible, breaking down the barriers between high art

158
00:11:52,320 --> 00:11:53,480
Speaker 1: and popular culture.

159
00:11:54,640 --> 00:11:56,920
Speaker 5: We know where he came from. We know that he

160
00:11:57,040 --> 00:12:01,560
Speaker 5: came from spare and meager beginnings. I tear up every

161
00:12:01,600 --> 00:12:05,160
Speaker 5: time I read about him having to put newspaper in

162
00:12:05,240 --> 00:12:08,400
Speaker 5: his shoes, which were usually women's shoes that they had

163
00:12:08,440 --> 00:12:11,559
Speaker 5: gotten someplace in the winter time because they didn't have

164
00:12:11,600 --> 00:12:14,920
Speaker 5: any money, having to live with Auntie and uncle because

165
00:12:14,960 --> 00:12:18,280
Speaker 5: they didn't have any money. And he didn't just say, okay,

166
00:12:18,280 --> 00:12:21,600
Speaker 5: I'm above this now. Langston took care of his mother

167
00:12:21,800 --> 00:12:26,320
Speaker 5: till she died, and in many places along that road

168
00:12:26,840 --> 00:12:29,680
Speaker 5: he had to do it out to take care of her.

169
00:12:30,160 --> 00:12:32,440
Speaker 5: He's a man who searched his whole life for a

170
00:12:32,440 --> 00:12:36,360
Speaker 5: close relationship with his brother and died without actually having

171
00:12:36,480 --> 00:12:37,080
Speaker 5: achieved that.

172
00:12:38,200 --> 00:12:41,600
Speaker 2: So he knew what life was like.

173
00:12:41,840 --> 00:12:45,840
Speaker 5: He knew what people were really going through, and he

174
00:12:45,880 --> 00:12:49,480
Speaker 5: didn't discard it. It's like, yeah, I'm writing in limousines

175
00:12:49,520 --> 00:12:52,520
Speaker 5: to the met now, So he didn't live that being

176
00:12:52,520 --> 00:12:55,520
Speaker 5: the controlling factor. It was always who he was at

177
00:12:55,520 --> 00:12:58,800
Speaker 5: that time, where he came from, and who the people were.

178
00:12:58,880 --> 00:12:59,960
Speaker 2: When it's not a miss.

179
00:13:00,440 --> 00:13:04,520
Speaker 5: I don't think that when he left and moved to

180
00:13:04,760 --> 00:13:07,320
Speaker 5: New York. He moved to Harlem, you know, and he

181
00:13:07,400 --> 00:13:10,439
Speaker 5: was right next door to the YMCA. When he died,

182
00:13:10,480 --> 00:13:13,240
Speaker 5: he lived right next door to the YMCA, So that

183
00:13:13,600 --> 00:13:18,640
Speaker 5: wasn't an accidental cycle. I think that was always his

184
00:13:18,800 --> 00:13:22,080
Speaker 5: plan was to be with the people, and he talked

185
00:13:22,080 --> 00:13:25,000
Speaker 5: about being with his people and what he could do

186
00:13:25,080 --> 00:13:28,240
Speaker 5: for them. So I think that we remember him now,

187
00:13:28,360 --> 00:13:31,520
Speaker 5: we read him now because we still see ourselves in

188
00:13:31,559 --> 00:13:34,880
Speaker 5: his work. We see our lives, we see our history,

189
00:13:34,920 --> 00:13:37,679
Speaker 5: we see our families, we see our neighbors in what

190
00:13:37,800 --> 00:13:41,200
Speaker 5: he wrote, because that's what he did. He took those

191
00:13:41,400 --> 00:13:44,119
Speaker 5: ordinary people and made wonderful stories.

192
00:13:44,480 --> 00:13:47,280
Speaker 2: He told their stories, he made up stories about them.

193
00:13:47,640 --> 00:13:49,680
Speaker 5: And that's why I think it lasts so long, and

194
00:13:49,760 --> 00:13:51,120
Speaker 5: it's still lasting now.

195
00:13:52,160 --> 00:13:54,160
Speaker 2: Beautiful also is a son.

196
00:13:54,920 --> 00:13:58,080
Speaker 5: Beautiful also are the souls of my people?

197
00:13:58,440 --> 00:14:01,280
Speaker 2: Are my people.

198
00:14:07,080 --> 00:14:11,680
Speaker 1: This universality is why his poetry seamlessly transitions into music,

199
00:14:12,320 --> 00:14:16,600
Speaker 1: influencing not only jazz and blues, but laying the groundwork

200
00:14:16,640 --> 00:14:20,880
Speaker 1: for hip hop. Hugh's rhythms, cadences, and themes can be

201
00:14:20,960 --> 00:14:25,119
Speaker 1: compared to the verses of nineties conscious rappers like Nas

202
00:14:25,120 --> 00:14:30,400
Speaker 1: Common and Toothpop, who, like Hughes, spoke to the struggles

203
00:14:30,400 --> 00:14:34,800
Speaker 1: and dreams of their communities. His poems are the spiritual

204
00:14:34,880 --> 00:14:40,880
Speaker 1: ancestors of rap lyrics, the original anthems of resilience and pride.

205
00:14:41,520 --> 00:14:46,080
Speaker 1: Lanxon Hughes made art for the people, for his people,

206
00:14:46,640 --> 00:14:50,320
Speaker 1: and that's why his influence indoors. His poetry doesn't just

207
00:14:50,360 --> 00:14:54,080
Speaker 1: sit on a page. It moves, It sings, it marches.

208
00:14:54,640 --> 00:14:56,920
Speaker 1: It's very much alive today as it was in a

209
00:14:56,960 --> 00:15:06,240
Speaker 1: Harlem Renaissance, proving that the rhythm of the streets is timeless,

210
00:15:07,920 --> 00:15:14,720
Speaker 1: you are listening to black lids. To truly grasp the

211
00:15:14,760 --> 00:15:18,360
Speaker 1: depth of Langston Hughes's insight, we must look back to

212
00:15:18,400 --> 00:15:21,680
Speaker 1: a defining moment in his young life, a moment that

213
00:15:21,880 --> 00:15:25,400
Speaker 1: shaped the lens through which he would view the world.

214
00:15:26,040 --> 00:15:30,040
Speaker 1: Envision a young Langston now living with his godfaring aunt

215
00:15:30,200 --> 00:15:33,600
Speaker 1: and pipe laying uncle after the passing of his grandmother.

216
00:15:34,320 --> 00:15:37,560
Speaker 1: Although he loved his aunt and uncle, he was just

217
00:15:37,680 --> 00:15:40,480
Speaker 1: thirteen when his aunt brought him to church to get saved.

218
00:15:41,360 --> 00:15:50,280
Speaker 1: He sat nervously in a church in his hometown in Lawrence, Kansas, waiting, waiting.

219
00:15:50,320 --> 00:15:55,400
Speaker 1: It was supposed to be a moment of salvation, waiting, waiting,

220
00:15:56,000 --> 00:16:00,560
Speaker 1: a rite of passage into faith. The congregation full of

221
00:16:00,640 --> 00:16:07,040
Speaker 1: fervor and hope, waiting waiting for Langston to join the

222
00:16:07,120 --> 00:16:12,200
Speaker 1: procession of young souls saved by God, and his aunt

223
00:16:12,240 --> 00:16:14,560
Speaker 1: desperately awaiting to affirm her hope.

224
00:16:15,080 --> 00:16:17,600
Speaker 2: Waiting, waiting, waiting.

225
00:16:21,960 --> 00:16:30,360
Speaker 1: Lengthen set palm, sweating, waiting, waity, searching. He wanted to

226
00:16:30,400 --> 00:16:34,200
Speaker 1: feel something, anything, that would affirm the presence of a

227
00:16:34,280 --> 00:16:40,920
Speaker 1: higher power, but that moment never came. Eventually, under immense pressure,

228
00:16:41,080 --> 00:16:45,440
Speaker 1: he walked to the altar not out of faith, but

229
00:16:45,560 --> 00:16:50,440
Speaker 1: to fulfill his aunt's expectations and to end the spectacle.

230
00:16:52,760 --> 00:16:57,280
Speaker 1: That night, alone in his room, Lengthton cried not tears

231
00:16:57,320 --> 00:17:03,320
Speaker 1: of joy, but of profound disillusionment. He had been searching

232
00:17:03,360 --> 00:17:08,000
Speaker 1: for God and instead found the weight of expectation and pretense.

233
00:17:10,040 --> 00:17:13,240
Speaker 1: The walls were thin, and his aunt heard his tears

234
00:17:13,280 --> 00:17:17,679
Speaker 1: and assumed they were of glory. This was a moment

235
00:17:17,720 --> 00:17:21,879
Speaker 1: that would stay with him, shaping his understanding of faith

236
00:17:23,040 --> 00:17:28,600
Speaker 1: community in the gap between societal norms and individual truth.

237
00:17:31,720 --> 00:17:36,400
Speaker 5: We know that story because he's hearing and he's hearing,

238
00:17:36,520 --> 00:17:40,280
Speaker 5: and he's hearing that all of these children are all

239
00:17:40,320 --> 00:17:43,080
Speaker 5: going to be saved, and he knows some of them

240
00:17:43,080 --> 00:17:45,720
Speaker 5: are faking it because they talk about it. And then

241
00:17:45,760 --> 00:17:48,119
Speaker 5: when it comes to the point where he's last kid's

242
00:17:48,160 --> 00:17:50,920
Speaker 5: city and this service is not going to end if

243
00:17:50,960 --> 00:17:55,840
Speaker 5: he doesn't, then he goes to the altar and he

244
00:17:55,920 --> 00:18:02,040
Speaker 5: pretends to have seen Jesus. And that night, well, you know,

245
00:18:02,080 --> 00:18:06,240
Speaker 5: when he goes home, he hears his auntie and Oglerie

246
00:18:06,359 --> 00:18:09,800
Speaker 5: talking and she talks about how proud she is of

247
00:18:09,920 --> 00:18:12,520
Speaker 5: him for having found God, and chal Ree doesn't care

248
00:18:12,560 --> 00:18:12,920
Speaker 5: at all.

249
00:18:13,560 --> 00:18:15,359
Speaker 2: You know, he's not that religious person.

250
00:18:15,400 --> 00:18:18,960
Speaker 5: But then he feels guilt because he had lied to

251
00:18:19,119 --> 00:18:22,199
Speaker 5: people who had been so good to him. And I

252
00:18:22,200 --> 00:18:25,639
Speaker 5: think that's the reason that when he needed God, he

253
00:18:25,680 --> 00:18:29,480
Speaker 5: didn't come to He wasn't there, he didn't come to him.

254
00:18:29,680 --> 00:18:33,800
Speaker 5: So I think that's why we see this mixture of

255
00:18:33,920 --> 00:18:37,680
Speaker 5: emotions when it comes to religion in his work, because

256
00:18:37,680 --> 00:18:40,560
Speaker 5: we see those women that he writes about who actually

257
00:18:40,560 --> 00:18:44,440
Speaker 5: retreat to the church because their lives, their personal lives

258
00:18:44,480 --> 00:18:47,440
Speaker 5: are so heavy and they can't deal with themselves.

259
00:18:47,440 --> 00:18:49,840
Speaker 2: They go to the church. They retreat to the church.

260
00:18:50,200 --> 00:18:51,440
Speaker 2: But we also see.

261
00:18:51,280 --> 00:18:54,399
Speaker 5: Him going to church, and he has a good time

262
00:18:54,680 --> 00:18:56,840
Speaker 5: when he goes, but he goes to listen to the

263
00:18:56,960 --> 00:19:00,840
Speaker 5: music and listen to the people, not necessarily to connected God.

264
00:19:01,560 --> 00:19:06,920
Speaker 5: So we have then this split, this bifurcation of this

265
00:19:07,000 --> 00:19:10,600
Speaker 5: guy who was raised in the people that the person

266
00:19:10,640 --> 00:19:14,439
Speaker 5: that he loved most anti read, who took care of

267
00:19:14,520 --> 00:19:18,120
Speaker 5: him and took care of his grandmother, wanted to embed

268
00:19:18,240 --> 00:19:22,119
Speaker 5: this religion in him, and then him thinking as a

269
00:19:22,240 --> 00:19:26,080
Speaker 5: child that God didn't become when I needed it. So

270
00:19:27,200 --> 00:19:30,920
Speaker 5: what does he do with that? Well, he keeps going

271
00:19:30,920 --> 00:19:34,720
Speaker 5: to church in different churches, and somehow, I think at

272
00:19:34,760 --> 00:19:37,240
Speaker 5: times he was pretending just to be going for the

273
00:19:37,359 --> 00:19:41,159
Speaker 5: music because he got hurt of music other places, but

274
00:19:41,440 --> 00:19:44,280
Speaker 5: he also wanted to be in that community of blackness.

275
00:19:48,200 --> 00:19:53,159
Speaker 1: This pivotal experience would later ring throughout Hughes's work. His

276
00:19:53,240 --> 00:19:58,160
Speaker 1: poetry often wrestled with the tension between belief and skepticism,

277
00:19:59,400 --> 00:20:04,080
Speaker 1: hope and despair. In poems like The Negro Speaks of

278
00:20:04,240 --> 00:20:09,399
Speaker 1: Rivers and Goodbye Christ, he grapples with the spiritual and

279
00:20:09,600 --> 00:20:14,639
Speaker 1: existential questions that define not just his life, but the

280
00:20:14,680 --> 00:20:19,159
Speaker 1: lives of many. He understood the beauty and the power

281
00:20:19,240 --> 00:20:22,600
Speaker 1: of faith, but he also saw how it could be

282
00:20:22,640 --> 00:20:30,800
Speaker 1: weaponized or hollowed out by human failings. This experience marks

283
00:20:30,880 --> 00:20:38,679
Speaker 1: a consistent conflict that shows up throughout Langston's work. Later on,

284
00:20:38,840 --> 00:20:45,960
Speaker 1: after visiting the Soviet Union and seeing socialism working. Here

285
00:20:46,000 --> 00:20:50,720
Speaker 1: are a few words from the poem Goodbye Christ, where

286
00:20:50,800 --> 00:20:57,600
Speaker 1: Hughes calls for a rethinking of dominant American beliefs. Listen, Christ,

287
00:20:58,560 --> 00:21:01,280
Speaker 1: you did all right in your day, I reckon, but

288
00:21:01,400 --> 00:21:05,119
Speaker 1: that day's gone now. They ghosted you up A swell

289
00:21:05,200 --> 00:21:09,879
Speaker 1: story too, called it Bible, but it's dead now. The

290
00:21:09,920 --> 00:21:13,119
Speaker 1: popes and the preachers have made much money from him.

291
00:21:15,080 --> 00:21:18,639
Speaker 1: Linx and Hughes' search for truth beginning at that church.

292
00:21:18,720 --> 00:21:23,600
Speaker 1: Fuel was never about easy answers. It was about embracing

293
00:21:23,960 --> 00:21:30,400
Speaker 1: the complexity of life, the struggles and contradictions that make

294
00:21:30,600 --> 00:21:35,040
Speaker 1: us human. And in doing so, he became the unchallenged

295
00:21:35,040 --> 00:21:37,080
Speaker 1: spokesman of the black experience.

296
00:21:39,960 --> 00:21:42,560
Speaker 5: He wanted to be with those black folks in the church.

297
00:21:42,640 --> 00:21:45,399
Speaker 5: You wanted to share their life stories. You wanted to

298
00:21:45,440 --> 00:21:48,520
Speaker 5: hear their testimonies, and he wanted them to sing that

299
00:21:48,720 --> 00:21:52,440
Speaker 5: story out so that he could absorb that. And then

300
00:21:52,520 --> 00:21:56,000
Speaker 5: on the other hand, you know when he talks about music,

301
00:21:56,040 --> 00:21:59,040
Speaker 5: he talks a lot about the blues, and the blues

302
00:21:59,080 --> 00:22:02,159
Speaker 5: he says of this stories of those people that starts

303
00:22:02,200 --> 00:22:06,399
Speaker 5: in their gut and tells their stories. And when he

304
00:22:06,480 --> 00:22:10,280
Speaker 5: needed help, it was the people. And when he wanted

305
00:22:10,320 --> 00:22:11,680
Speaker 5: to fill hole, he went.

306
00:22:11,680 --> 00:22:12,760
Speaker 2: To the people.

307
00:22:13,520 --> 00:22:18,160
Speaker 5: It was the folk that helped Bangston. The folks stayed there,

308
00:22:18,720 --> 00:22:21,359
Speaker 5: the folk who helped him to reach his goals and

309
00:22:21,440 --> 00:22:28,320
Speaker 5: realize its dreams. So for me, I think Blangston's religion

310
00:22:29,119 --> 00:22:31,119
Speaker 5: and his non religion.

311
00:22:31,080 --> 00:22:34,399
Speaker 2: We're all a totally merchant into black life.

312
00:22:34,480 --> 00:22:37,800
Speaker 5: This is what it feels to be black and he

313
00:22:37,880 --> 00:22:39,640
Speaker 5: wants to feel all aspects of it.

314
00:22:41,320 --> 00:22:44,960
Speaker 1: Chocolate Darling out of a dream, born uns into the

315
00:22:45,040 --> 00:22:48,480
Speaker 1: Coco Brown whom pomegranate lived, pride of the town.

316
00:22:49,720 --> 00:22:52,000
Speaker 2: Lazy Hughes and the Death Poet.

317
00:22:53,480 --> 00:22:56,520
Speaker 1: What you just heard was Yassin Bay, the artist known

318
00:22:56,640 --> 00:23:01,240
Speaker 1: as most Death, reciting Hughes's Harlem Sweeties on an episode

319
00:23:01,280 --> 00:23:05,679
Speaker 1: of HBO's Deaf Poetry Jam. It's a powerful connection between

320
00:23:05,720 --> 00:23:10,520
Speaker 1: two eras, but also transcends time, where poetry becomes music,

321
00:23:11,160 --> 00:23:16,040
Speaker 1: becomes culture, becomes life itself. Hughes wasn't just a writer,

322
00:23:16,880 --> 00:23:20,919
Speaker 1: he was a witness. He documented the Black experience and

323
00:23:21,040 --> 00:23:26,280
Speaker 1: all its complexity, the pain and the perseverance, but also

324
00:23:26,359 --> 00:23:31,359
Speaker 1: the beauty. And then, like Harlem Sweeties, he celebrates the

325
00:23:31,400 --> 00:23:38,040
Speaker 1: beauty of Black women, the laughter and the loss. He

326
00:23:38,119 --> 00:23:42,720
Speaker 1: gave dignity to lives ignored, carving out spaces for those

327
00:23:42,720 --> 00:23:43,960
Speaker 1: stories to be heard.

328
00:23:44,760 --> 00:23:47,840
Speaker 5: Many of my poems are poems about the problems of

329
00:23:47,880 --> 00:23:50,880
Speaker 5: American democracy in general, as applied to race.

330
00:23:51,680 --> 00:23:54,520
Speaker 2: Leston Hughes is one of the greatest poets to ever exist.

331
00:23:55,160 --> 00:23:57,160
Speaker 2: I am fed up with Jim crow Laws.

332
00:23:57,400 --> 00:23:58,439
Speaker 1: People are cruel.

333
00:23:58,600 --> 00:24:01,000
Speaker 2: I'm afraid who ron.

334
00:24:01,480 --> 00:24:04,639
Speaker 3: Zyon the Weapon the Lord formed against those I prefer

335
00:24:04,680 --> 00:24:05,840
Speaker 3: the Lord mathematics.

336
00:24:05,840 --> 00:24:09,680
Speaker 2: Sob Jim Crows a poet like Blaxton Hughes and can't lose.

337
00:24:10,960 --> 00:24:14,200
Speaker 1: The very roots of hip hop are in Langston Hughes's work,

338
00:24:14,880 --> 00:24:18,280
Speaker 1: the flow of his words, the raw honesty of his storytelling.

339
00:24:18,840 --> 00:24:22,840
Speaker 1: They formed the blueprint for artists like Kendrick Andre three thousand,

340
00:24:23,440 --> 00:24:29,280
Speaker 1: Black Thought, Most Death. They embodied Hughes' core sensibility to

341
00:24:29,359 --> 00:24:33,240
Speaker 1: take the everyday struggles and triumphs of black life and

342
00:24:33,320 --> 00:24:36,800
Speaker 1: turn them into art. Leanthon Hughes was a poet of truth.

343
00:24:37,480 --> 00:24:40,320
Speaker 1: He didn't shy away from the tension between faith and doubt,

344
00:24:40,840 --> 00:24:45,520
Speaker 1: between family and interdependence. In fact, his work often peeled

345
00:24:45,560 --> 00:24:49,080
Speaker 1: back the layers of social norms to reveal what lies

346
00:24:49,119 --> 00:24:55,399
Speaker 1: beneath humanity. Lengthton didn't just write about the world, He

347
00:24:55,520 --> 00:24:58,720
Speaker 1: changed how we see it. He turned the Harlem streets

348
00:24:58,760 --> 00:25:03,640
Speaker 1: into poetry, transformed jazz and blues into structure, and made

349
00:25:03,640 --> 00:25:07,520
Speaker 1: a legacy that flows like the mighty River from the

350
00:25:07,520 --> 00:25:12,800
Speaker 1: Harlem Renaissance to the beats of hip hop. But before

351
00:25:12,840 --> 00:25:19,439
Speaker 1: the poet, before the legacy, there was the revival, a

352
00:25:19,520 --> 00:25:25,160
Speaker 1: moment of silence, a moment doubt and the moment when

353
00:25:25,200 --> 00:25:29,159
Speaker 1: Lens and Hughes began to discover his truth. It was

354
00:25:29,200 --> 00:25:33,800
Speaker 1: the birth of a vision, not bound but what should be,

355
00:25:35,440 --> 00:25:37,080
Speaker 1: but by what is?

356
00:25:40,400 --> 00:25:42,240
Speaker 3: You had to risk it all, you had to go.

357
00:25:42,400 --> 00:25:42,560
Speaker 2: Bro.

358
00:25:43,040 --> 00:25:45,560
Speaker 3: Now, I what I would have likes to what I

359
00:25:45,560 --> 00:25:47,920
Speaker 3: would have w duvoir, what I would have Fredrick Douglass.

360
00:25:49,960 --> 00:25:53,240
Speaker 1: As my team and I were wrapping up the edit

361
00:25:54,119 --> 00:26:00,199
Speaker 1: and final selects for this episode, we received word of

362
00:26:00,280 --> 00:26:06,000
Speaker 1: Nikki Giovanni's passing, so in honor of her, we end

363
00:26:07,320 --> 00:26:12,440
Speaker 1: on a poem she wrote, for links and heres, rest

364
00:26:12,480 --> 00:26:19,600
Speaker 1: and peace to you both. Thank you for your literature,

365
00:26:20,680 --> 00:26:31,920
Speaker 1: your art, your words, your poetry, and for your ancestral mentorship.

366
00:26:33,640 --> 00:26:34,920
Speaker 1: We are grateful.

367
00:26:36,000 --> 00:26:38,800
Speaker 3: If I took a rainbow ride, I could be there

368
00:26:38,920 --> 00:26:42,920
Speaker 3: by your side. Metaphor has its point of view, illusion

369
00:26:43,000 --> 00:26:47,679
Speaker 3: and illusion to meter verse, classical free poems, or what

370
00:26:47,800 --> 00:26:48,399
Speaker 3: you do to Me?

371
00:26:51,680 --> 00:26:54,480
Speaker 1: Join us next week as we explore more of Linkston's

372
00:26:54,520 --> 00:27:02,800
Speaker 1: life and work. Black Lit is a Black Effect original

373
00:27:02,840 --> 00:27:07,800
Speaker 1: series in partnership with iHeartMedia. Is written and created by myself,

374
00:27:07,960 --> 00:27:12,680
Speaker 1: Jack Queis Thomas and executive produce alongside Dolly s Bishop.

375
00:27:12,880 --> 00:27:16,600
Speaker 1: Chanelle Collins is the Director of Production, Head of Talent

376
00:27:16,880 --> 00:27:21,320
Speaker 1: Nicole Spence, writer producer Jason Torres, Our researcher and producer

377
00:27:21,440 --> 00:27:25,240
Speaker 1: is Jabari Davis, and the mix and sound design is

378
00:27:25,320 --> 00:27:30,040
Speaker 1: by the Humble Duane Crawford Special thanks to doctor CROMLETTA.

379
00:27:30,080 --> 00:27:30,679
Speaker 2: Williams.

380
00:27:30,800 --> 00:27:33,399
Speaker 1: Gratitude is an action, so I have to give praise

381
00:27:33,440 --> 00:27:35,679
Speaker 1: to those who took the time out to write a review.

382
00:27:35,880 --> 00:27:39,240
Speaker 1: Please keep sharing and we will promise to bring more

383
00:27:39,320 --> 00:27:45,160
Speaker 1: writers and greater episodes to you. Also, if you're looking

384
00:27:45,200 --> 00:27:48,119
Speaker 1: to become a writer or in search of a supportive

385
00:27:48,160 --> 00:27:52,200
Speaker 1: writing community, join me for a free creative writing session

386
00:27:52,359 --> 00:27:56,680
Speaker 1: on my website black writers Room dot com, BLK writer's

387
00:27:56,800 --> 00:28:00,240
Speaker 1: Room dot com, or hit me up directly from more

388
00:28:00,280 --> 00:28:05,119
Speaker 1: details at Underscore t h A T S P E

389
00:28:05,400 --> 00:28:05,920
Speaker 1: A c E.

390
00:28:06,720 --> 00:28:07,920
Speaker 2: That's piece