“In all my life, I have never been free. I have never been able to do anything with freedom, except in the field of my writing.”(Hughes qtd. In 20). Imagine being in a late night smoky club, jazz and poetry everywhere, cool clothes and beautiful people laughing and smiling having a good time. No! This is not California this was the time of the Harlem Renaissance. The Harlem Renaissance was a remarkable period in time when poetry changed a nation of being an African -American to an incredible level. Harlem Renaissance was more than just a major party, it was a literary movement. All of these people at the party were writers and intellectuals. One of the writers was Langston Hughes.
James Mercer Langston Hughes was born on February 1, 1902, in
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His life work is important to all of us because it shaped the artistic of Harlem." My writing has been largely concerned with the depicting of Negro life in America."(Hughes qtd. In Brainly Quote) Unlike other notable black poets of in this period—Claude McKay, Jean Toomer, and Countee Cullen—Hughes refused to differentiate between his personal experience and the common experience of black Americans. He wanted to tell the stories of his people in ways that reflected their actual culture, including both their suffering and their love of music, laughter, and language itself. In Hughes 's poetry, he uses the rhythms of African American music, particularly blues and jazz. This sets his poetry apart from that of other writers, and it allowed him to experiment with a very rhythmic free verse. Hughes 's second volume of poetry, Fine Clothes to the Jew (1927), was not received well at that time of its publication because it was too experimental. However, many critics believe the volume to be among Hughes 's greatest