Frieda Hughes

There have been numerous poets that have graced the Earth with their talents, providing humans with some of the simplest words; however, those simple words could have a deeper meaning than that of the ocean. One of these poets, Langston B. Hughes, was born in Joplin, Missouri. As an African-American, he faced many hardships in furthering his learning. While studying in New York during the Harlem Renaissance, he was inspired to write poetry. He had many works of poetry, “Theme for English B”…

There seems to be nothing more unnerving than carrying feelings of undesirability, isolation, struggle, and desolation. As early as the 1600’s African Americans have had to fight for their voices to be heard, for the definition of equality to be understood, and for the barrier between the oppressed and the oppressor to be shattered once and for all. Despite the plethora of adversities that African American people had to face during previous years, a motif was apparent, not giving up. In the…

In Joplin, Missouri, on February 1, 1902, James Mercer Langston Hughes was born to the parents of James N. Hughes and Caroline M. Hughes. Hughes parents decided it was best for them to separate shortly after his birth. Hughes father made the decision to leave The United States due to the racial discrimination in which African Americans endure, he later settled in Mexico. Hughes was mainly raised by his grandmother, Mary Patterson Langston until she passed away in his early teen years. He then…

1 Fences is a play written by the playwright August Wilson, who dedicated himself to writing plays capturing what it was like to be an African American in the United States during every decade of the 20th century. Fences was a play that was specifically written to provide an outlook into the lives of African Americans in America during the 1950s, during the process of demarginalization. Each character of the novel provides a unique perspective to capture different aspects of the “African…

Langston Hughes provides insight on the race relations between Whites and Blacks during his lifetime, in the poems, "I, Too" and "Theme for English B", In "I, Too", Hughes mentions that he is "…the darker brother", referencing his darker skin compared to the rest of America, and how he is sent to the kitchen to eat when company comes over. He feels as if he is being pushed aside when asked to eat in the kitchen like a second-class citizen, but he does not get angry. Instead of letting those…

D.E.B Dubois and Langston Hughes fight for Racial Equality Protest is a way of doing an act to be heard or acknowledged with something people disagree with. Throughout history many African American protested through literature. D.E.B Dubois and Langston Hughes are African American authors who have famous works that have gotten attention though the work of literature. These two authors have a lot of the same beliefs and has made a big impact of the African American culture. The two works I’m…

“Citizen: An American Lyric” is a book by Claudia Rankine it details various struggles and happenings happening to African American in the United States. The book is composed as poems in various chapters, while in others she details the struggles of certain people, and in lastly some are short little stories or tragedies that have happened to people in the African American community. The book in the end is just a collection of what Rankine deems important are issues happening to African…

The father of the Black Arts Movement is Amiri Baraka. He got this name because he wrote so many essays, poems, and plays about racial issues in Harlem. In the time there was a lot of racial injustice of African Americans civil rights. Baraka’s most known piece that he has written is his poem called “Black Art.” His works such as “Black Art” and many others have been centered around the lack of civil rights for black people. Baraka works can be interpreted in so many ways because it incites the…

Livesey Abar Perspective in Literature Ms. Apthorp 9 February 2018 Figurative and Musical Devices Developing Themes of Racial Inequality Countee Cullen’s expressive sonnet, From the Dark Tower, explores the emotion of the African-American experience during a time of systemic oppression through his use of vivid symbols and musical devices. In the opening symbol of planting and reaping, Cullen discusses inequitable relationships on the basis of race before transitioning to the stars and the sky…

perseverance are the eternal children of struggle, sculpted throughout the ages by poets, poets like Langston Hughes, who wrote “I, Too” and “Refugee in America” from the depths of black discrimination. “I, Too” describes an African American and his reaction towards black oppression, while “Refugee in America” speaks of the African American longing for true freedom. Eugenia W. Collier, like Hughes, captured the essence of black discrimination, through her poem “From the Dark Tower”. Taking a…