Rhythmic Connections - Langston Hughes

Art is an expression of innermost emotions and feelings. Musicians, artists and writers during the Harlem Renaissance were inspired by rhythm so that one is able to see the rhythm in their paintings and hear it in their poetry.

Langston Hughes is widely recognized as a writer whose works reflect the spirit of the Harlem Renaissance. In his poetry one can hear a beat and imagine that the words are a song. "I tried to put the syncopated rhythms of jazz into my poetry…….."(Langston Hughes)

Black artists, musicians and writers were inspired by their struggle to find a voice in a white society. Their art forms also expressed their roots and their ancestors' bitter struggle for freedom from the evils of slavery. In Harlem at age 19, Langston Hughes published one of his most famous poems "The Negro speaks of Rivers" which he wrote on his first trip to Africa, the homeland of thousands of people forced into slavery and brought to America.

Listen to and watch the video of Langston Hughes reading his first great poem "The Negro speaks of Rivers" which he published in Harlem at age 19. He wrote it on his first trip to North Africa, the homeland of thousands of people forced into slavery and brought to America.

Click on the following images which portray literary figures and events associated with the Harlem Renaissance and slavery.

* click on image for larger view
A ride for liberty: the fugitive slaves Eastman Johnson. Circa 1862.	Zora Neale Hurston
Phyllis Wheatley	Alice Walker