Mary discusses jazz poetry and one of its leading pioneers, Ohioan Langston Hughes. Hughes spends his early impressionable years in Cleveland.
Class Discussion Questions:
1) What is jazz-poetry?
2) Know Ohio Challenge: Does your school have a newspaper or magazine? We challenge you to submit an article, poem, or story.
Read the Script:
[Mary] You've probably heard of jazz music and jazz hands, but have you ever heard of jazz poetry? It's a style of poetry that was influenced by jazz music, and one of its leading pioneers was a poet with roots in Cleveland, Ohio. His name, Langston Hughes.
Langston was born in 1902, and he moved around quite a bit in his life. He lived most of his adult life in Harlem in New York City, but he spent his formative high school years in Cleveland. Formative means something that has a strong influence on the rest of someone's life.
During high school, he lived alone in the attic of this house on the east side of Cleveland. His mom and stepdad had moved to Chicago for work, so Langston had to fend for himself. He once wrote this about that time in his life.
"The only thing I knew how to cook myself in the kitchen of the house where I roomed was rice which I boiled to a paste. Rice and hot dogs, rice and hot dogs, every night for dinner. Then I read myself to sleep."
It was during this lonely time that he really started to get serious about writing. Langston attended Central High School, which isn't around anymore, but at the time young Langston felt impressed to attend the same school that the millionaire J.D. Rockefeller had graduated from about 60 years before.
The school had a very good literary magazine, but Langston noticed that there were no pieces in it written by African-American students. He had been brought up to be proud of his African heritage, and he wanted African-Americans to have the same opportunities as everyone else. So he began submitting poems to the magazine, and that's where his first works were printed.
Langston went on to write many volumes of poetry and also plays, stories, children's books, autobiographies, even an opera. His work often focused on the life experiences of African-Americans. He wrote about the challenges they face because of prejudice and discrimination. But in his writing he also celebrated black achievements and culture.
That's where jazz poetry comes in. Hughes' poetry is known for having a jazz-like rhythm, and sometimes he would even read his poems accompanied by music. Here he is performing his poem "The Weary Blues".
[Langston] Down on Lenox Avenue the other night, by the pale dull pallor of a one-bulb light, he did a lazy sway, He did a lazy sway, to the tune of those weary blues.
[Mary] Even though Langston Hughes is most closely associated with Harlem, he returned to Cleveland regularly as an adult. He worked out several of his plays at the Karamu House Theatre Company. Here they sometimes still perform his holiday play "Black Nativity", a retelling of the Christmas story with an entirely African-American cast, performed with gospel music.
You can find other evidence of Langston's legacy around Cleveland such as the Langston Hughes branch of the Cleveland Public Library and the Langston Hughes Community Health and Education Center at the Cleveland Clinic. Both of which are not far from the home where he once lived.