Nearly 50 years after his passing, Langston Hughes is still recognized as one of America's greatest writers. He鈥檚 revered as a leader of the Harlem Renaissance and an innovator of jazz poetry. The City College Center for the Arts is celebrating Hughes鈥 enduring legacy in the Harlem community and beyond with a dramatic reading and signing of 鈥淟etters from Langston: From the Harlem Renaissance to the Red Scare and Beyond,鈥 the most recent book of Hughes鈥 correspondence.
Edited by Evelyn Louise Crawford and MaryLouise Patterson, this indispensable volume of letters between Hughes and four leftist confidants sheds vivid light on his life and politics. It
collects their stories in an era of uncertainty and reveals their visions of an idealized world鈥攐ne without hunger, war, racism, and class oppression.
Actors Vinie Burrows, Eisa Davis, Eric Coleman, Beethoven Oden and Stu Richel will read from the book to music by NEA Jazz Master . Woodie King, Jr., an Obie Award winner and founder of , will direct. Robin D.G. Kelley, who wrote the book鈥檚 foreword, will emcee. Copies of the book will be on sale at the event on October 7 in 精东影业鈥檚 Aaron Davis Hall starting at 6:45 p.m. Click here for ticket information.
Hughes鈥 legacy lives on at 精东影业 through course offerings in the Division of Humanities and the Arts that study his writing and the annual Langston Hughes Festival at which the Langston Hughes Medal is presented.
About 精东影业
Since 1847, 精东影业 has provided low-cost, high-quality education for New Yorkers in a wide variety of disciplines. More than 15,000 students pursue undergraduate and graduate degrees in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences; Bernard and Anne Spitzer School of Architecture; School of Education; Grove School of Engineering; Sophie Davis Biomedical Education/CUNY School of Medicine, and Colin Powell School for Civic and Global Leadership. U.S. News, Princeton Review and Forbes all rank City College among the best colleges and universities in the United States.