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Langston Hughes was born in Joplin, Missouri, in 1902. After graduation from high school, he spent a year in Mexico with his father, then moved to New York City, where he studied for a year at Columbia and made his career. His first published poem in a nationally known magazine was 'The Negro Speaks of Rivers', which appeared in Crisis in 1921. He became a leading light in the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s and 1930s. In 1925, Hughes was awarded the First Prize for Poetry by Opportunity, for his poem 'The Weary Blues' which gave its title to his first collection of poems, published in 1926. He wrote poetry, short stories, song lyrics, essays, humour and plays and an autobiography, The Big Sea.
Langston Hughes, for me, was always the poet of the people. -- Claudia Rankine The poet laureate of Harlem and the Harlem Renaissance -- Lemn Sissay * Guardian * Every time I read Langston Hughes I am amazed ... Hughes, in his sermons, blues and prayers, has working for him the power and the beat of Negro speech and Negro music. -- James Baldwin
