Black History Month Celebration #1 – 2021 Feb 1 in honor of Poet Laureate Langston Hughes. This series will cover current and historical Black Figures, events, activities, plus and of course music related if possible. We should remember and not lose what we accomplished. Enjoy Black History Month
Snippets of Love and Adoration Over Time for Langston Hughes.
South Orange Feb 13, 2020 Marjorie Clarke, Darryl Clark in a Langston Hughes Tribute in Jazzy Nights
Remembering Darry Clark and Marjorie Clarke who bought a wonderful Black History Month Program to our Jazzy Nights Black History Month Celebration in South Orange. NJ at The Fox and Falcon Restaurant.
A most fitting tribute. Thank You Marjorie Clarke and Darryl Clark B(RIP Good Buddy)
Black History Month Presentation -in Jazzy Nights in South Orange New Jersey as played in the 4th Annual 24 Hours of Music Jamboree. Marjorie Clarke Vocals and Darryl Clark Bass
Jan 2021 Another great project – The Maplewood Black Lives Matter Poetry Project by Maplewood Arts and Culture
Very nice to see the town honoring Langston Hughes on the Maplewood Hilton Library

The Maplewood Black Lives Matter Poetry project displays 38 poems by Black authors throughout Maplewood, NJ. These poets range from the internationally known to the local; they span a wide breadth of experience, age, and sensibility. Many are living, while others speak to us from other eras. All of the pieces invite readers to engage with the power of language, and explore their relationship to all over town. the people and places in our community.
A really wonderful project that’ is all around town. Learn more about this project at http://www.maplewoodartsandculture.org/blm-poetry-project
New York Amsterdam News
Feb 1 8:20 21Tribute

Langston Hughes was born on this day in 1902. The poet and playwright played a significant role in the Harlem Renaissance. A graduate of Lincoln University, Hughes was known for chronicling the Black experience.
Langston Hughes, in full James Mercer Langston Hughes,
While working as a busboy in a hotel in Washington, D.C., in late 1925, Hughes put three of his own poems beside the plate of Vachel Lindsay in the dining room. The next day, newspapers around the country reported that Lindsay, among the most popular white poets of the day, had “discovered” an African American busboy poet, which earned Hughes broader notice. Hughes received a scholarship to, and began attending, Lincoln University in Pennsylvania in early 1926. That same year, he received the Witter Bynner Undergraduate Poetry Award, and he published “The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain” in The Nation, a manifesto in which he called for a confident, uniquely Black literature:
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Langston-Hughes
The battle to save Langston Hughes’ $3 million home
Heather Long | 8/19/2016, 11:03 a.m.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — Ivy still grows on the front of Langston Hughes’ home in Harlem. There aren’t many houses like it left in New York City. Real estate agents estimate it’s worth over $3 million.
And that’s before anyone talks about the fact that one of America’s great writers — a hero of the Harlem Renaissance — lived there for much of the 1950s and 60s, until he passed away. His typewriter is still on a shelf.
Pressure to sell “Hughes House” is escalating. The current owner listed it for a mere $1 million a few years ago, but it didn’t sell. For now, the home sits empty. The owner doesn’t live there. No one does. Paint is chipping off the front steps.
A Man of many facets …….
2019 MUSIC OF THE HARLEM RENAISSANCE TO TAKE PLACE AT THE VALENTINE THEATRE
All that jazz: Harlem Renaissance focus of Toledo Jazz Orchestra concert

The Toledo Jazz Orchestra is giving a special nod this Saturday to the Harlem Renaissance, one of the more loosely defined yet highly influential eras of American music, dance, poetry, prose, artwork, and other creative endeavors.
Songs long associated with some of the most famous musicians of that era, such as ones featuring Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Billie Holiday, Art Tatum, Louis Armstrong, King Oliver, Bessie Smith, Dizzy Gillespie, Jelly Roll Morton, Cab Calloway, and Charlie Parker, will be performed.
Alain Locke, a Harvard-educated writer, critic, and teacher who became known as the “dean” of the Harlem Renaissance, described that era as a “spiritual coming of age” in which African Americans transformed “social disillusionment to race pride,” the article also states.
Poet-author Langston Hughes was another major figure during the Harlem Renaissance. According to biography.com, Hughes “made his mark in this artistic movement by breaking boundaries with his poetry” and “drew on international experiences, found kindred spirits amongst his fellow artists, took a stand for the possibilities of black art, and influenced how the Harlem Renaissance would be remembered.”
Hughes was honored by the U.S. Postal Service in 2002, when it issued a commemorative 34-cent stamp bearing his likeness as part of its Black Heritage Series.
“I think the Harlem Renaissance might have been ignored if not for the writings of Langston Hughes,” Mr. Kischuk said. “He was making sure it was part of fabric of America.”
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Langston-Hughes
And of course his spirit lives on:
2021 The Langston Hughes Society

Today is a moment of both celebration and remembrance for #TheLangstonHughesSociety and for readers all across the globe. #OnThisDay in 1902, one of the world’s leading literary lights–#LangstonHughes–was born in Joplin, Missouri–the beginning of a life truly inspired.
Throughout his career as a writer, activist, and social critic, Hughes used the power of the written word to not only condemn the systems of #racism and #oppression that impacted the Black community but also to celebrate the uniqueness and the vivacity of Black #culture. This dual focus in his work ultimately helped to cement Hughes’ place in the American literary canon, for works such as “Let America Be America Again” and “I, Too” have become staples in classrooms for his image of Black #resilience in the face of #democracy unfulfilled. And because of Hughes’ insistence, we are more informed today about the work still ahead to ensure that #equality does not remain a dream deferred for those still marginalized and oppressed. And we are more aware of the strength that it is going to take.
At the same time, Hughes’ work played an integral role in unearthing the image of a #NewNegro central to the #HarlemRenaissance and beyond. After all, to Hughes, #Black was beautiful in all of its varied forms–a vision that helped reshape the U.S. cultural imagination. The tom-tom singing in the distance, Langston Hughes challenged the image of #Black as #inferior and Black as #Brute–dangerous #stereotypes that had a stranglehold over the United States as so many sought ways to justify racial #violence and preserve the hierarchy in place.
So now, in 2021, as The Langston Hughes Society celebrates the fortieth anniversary of its founding, we work to honor the life and legacy of Langston Hughes each and every day, recognizing the force of his words, the power of his example, and the potency of his cultural vision. Happy birthday, our dear friend, Langston. Rest in power and in peace.
#BHM #BlackHistoryMonth #LangstonHughes #TheNewBlackView #BLM #lovenothate #gregoryburrusaroundtown #southorange #aroundsouthorange #gregoryburrusproductions
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