Langston Hughes

Born in Joplin, Missouri, Langston Hughes became a leading voice of the Harlem Renaissance, a cultural flowering of African American art and literature in the 1920s. His first published poem, "The Negro Speaks of Rivers," appeared in 1921, and his first poetry collection, The Weary Blues, followed in 1926. Hughes's work, including the novel Not Without Laughter (1930) and the play The Mule-Bone (1931, co-written with Zora Neale Hurston), explored the joys and struggles of ordinary Black people, often using blues and jazz forms. He also wrote for newspapers, creating the character Jesse B. Semple. Hughes's legacy endures through his accessible, humanistic verse and his commitment to depicting Black life with dignity and complexity, influencing generations of writers.