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Langston Hughes

Langston Hughes

Born: February 1, 1901
Died: May 22, 1967
in Joplin, Missouri, USA
An influential American writer from the early to mid 20th century. Beginning with the publication of "The Negro Speaks of Rivers" in 1921, Hughes first captured the public's imagination as a poet. A versatile writer, Hughes was also adept in writing short stories, novels, plays, and non-fiction. His work often focused on the lives of ordinary people and frequently employed humor, social commentary, and folk wisdom in his writing. In the late 1930s he began writing for Hollywood, but his time there was short lived due to a variety of factors, not least of which was the racism prevalent in the industry at that time. During his lifetime, he received one feature film credit for writing "Way Down South" (1939) with Clarence Muse. In the early 1960s, his play "Black Nativity" was produced for British television.

Movies for Langston Hughes...

Looking for Langston
Title: Looking for Langston
Character: Himself (archive footage)
Released: October 31, 1989
Type: Movie
Click for Details
A black and white, fantasy-like recreation of high-society gay men during the Harlem Renaissance, with archival footage and photographs intercut with a story. A wake is going on, with mourners gathered around a coffin. Downstairs is an elegant bar where tuxedoed men dance and talk. One of them has a dream in which he comes upon Beauty, who seems to reject him, although when he awakes, Beauty is sleeping beside him. His story and his visits to the jazz and dance club are framed by voices reading from the poetry and essays of Hughes and others. The text is rarely explicit, but the freedom of gay Black men in the 1920s in Harlem is suggested and celebrated visually.
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