Langston Hughes (1902-1967) Harlem, Same in Blues LINKS The Academy of American Poets - Poetry Exhibits: Langston Hughes http://www.poets.org/lit/POET/lhughes.htm This site contains a brief biography of Hughes, a selected bibliography, the texts of several of his poems, and a list of links. BIOGRAPHY Langston Hughes (1902–1967) Hughes was born in Joplin, Missouri. His father was a businessperson and lawyer, his mother a teacher. Hughes attended Columbia, graduated from Lincoln University in 1929, traveled throughout the world, and held many odd jobs as a young man. While Hughes had a long and prolific career as a writer in all genres, he is still remembered as the central figure of the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s, a movement which committed itself to the examination and celebration of black life in America and its African heritage. He was the Madrid correspondent for the Baltimore Afro-American (1937) and a columnist for the Chicago Defender (1943–1967) and the New York Post (1962–1967). His poems of racial affirmation and protest are often infused with the rhythms of blues and jazz music. He wrote over two dozen plays (many musicalized) and founded the Suitcase Theater (Harlem, 1938), the New Negro Theater (Los Angeles, 1939), and the Skyloft Players (Chicago, 1941). His works include The Weary Blues (1926), Montage of a Dream Deferred (1951), and The Panther and the Lash: Poems of Our Times (1969).