Langston Hughes

The recording career of this great American writer includes not only his own spoken word collections for Smithsonian-Folkways, but many instances where his texts are utilized by other artists, sometimes in direct collaboration with Hughes, and at other times after the fact. While heavily associated with Black jazz and blues, the writings of Hughes have not shown up exclusively in these genres. Rather, if there is a similarity in the type of performers incorporating Hughes' writing, it would be those expressing discontent with the racial and political status quo. The beatnik sc...