Langston Hughes Centennial, 1902-1967: The beat goes on

New Crisis, The, Jan/Feb 2002 by Graham, Maryemma

This extraordinary canon includes his extensive work as an edifor and translator, cultural historian, folklorist and humorist. When the University of Missouri Press completes the publication of the 17 volumes of his complete works, it will be the largest single collection in print of any African American literary figure.

There is a remarkable consistency about the literary criticism regarding Hughes' work, but not in the usual sense. The reasons given for dismissing Hughes 50 years ago have become the very reasons for unqualified praise today. What seems clear is that in his disdain for things middle class he kept a certain distance, maintaining himself as a people's poet.

"He gave America a fluent, variant idiom; as a poet, he doesn't let you rest because you don't know where it's going," says Robert Pinsky, former U.S. poet laureate. The vernacular idiom was Hughes's poetic home; he taught us how to recognize it, how to make it art. It is for this reason that today's writers and critics think of Hughes as the most "American" of poets.

American, yes, but Hughes also opened up a different kind of dialogue about what it means to be part of a world community. Hughes' vision was international, embracing Africa and the Spanish-speaking and French-speaking worlds. His translations of writers he had grown to admire - Frederico Garcia Lorca, Nicolas Guillen, Jacques Roumain and Leopold Senghor - helped bring their poetry to American readers.

For contemporary cultural criticism, Hughes' most significant contribution remains his persistent incorporation of vernacular forms. Race-conscious critics committed to full inclusion of African Americans into the larger society repudiated him for exposing the more unpleasant side of Black life. But Hughes' innovations took race as a point of departure in presenting a message open to all.

Hughes created a distinct "art of resistance" for working people by giving them a literature of their own. What was hidden, Hughes spoke aloud; what was embarrassing, Hughes signified upon. He translated the raw stuff of life into readable, speakable texts without losing the rhythms of the source. In his Simple sketches, Hughes brought the most shameful aspects of humanity to task, without regard for race, color or creed. Simply put, Hughes turned ordinary language into poetry for the people.

Langston Hughes was entertaining, remembers Alice Walker recalling, in her book The Way Forward Is with a Broken Heart, the last time she saw Hughes in New York. "He'd given everything, been history... [always] telling wonderful stories."

Maryemma Graham is a professor of English at the University of Kansas where she directs the Langston Hughes Poetry Project.