LANGSTON HUGHES -

WHY?

Justification and Significance of this Artistic Archive

Cary Nelson wrote in his introduction to Langston Hughes in his Anthology of Modern American Poetry (2000) that “Hughes was probably the most widely and successfully illustrated of modern American poets" (502).  However, when we interact with his work today we are often experiencing it without these images despite the fact that current technology gives us more than adequate tools for reuniting the two.

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Scholars such as George Bornstein have explored the consequences of publications of poetry and, more specifically, how re-publications lose valuable pieces of themselves over time: “studying texts only in our contemporary reprintings erases the original historicized meanings of the poems and renders even readings that aspire toward the historic or political only a back-projection of an illusory politics fantasized in the present” (Bornstein 56). This parallels itself to the impacts of revision that we see with Hughes’s work, as Christopher Metress explores with “‘Mississippi-1955’: A Note on Revisions and an Appeal for Reconsideration.” As Hughes’s pieces have been revised and reprinted through the years, we have seen changes in language, form, style, and the removal of the images that often paired themselves with his work. While a majority of this scholarship has focused on changes with the written word, we see the same issues arising with the removal of images and illustrations.

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It can be argued that we are experiencing broken pieces of literature when we have the visual element removed. What is lost when we do not have the visuals that Hughes himself saw with his words? Is his written word better for this lacking, or is it worse? Additionally, and more significantly, it is worthy to consider how these visuals made his writing more accessible - and thus digestible for a larger, more generalized audience. How does the audience narrow with the visuals removed?

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In considering the justification for this product and the sources utilized, this website can act not only as an archive, but also as a resource and guide for students and teachers by providing visual aids and an easily accessible collection of visual and cultural artifacts. This accessibility of materials also aims to increase the availability and accessibility of representation of the Black community beyond the confines of paper and ink.

Furthermore, in pairing visual media with Hughes, the art pieces provide a further grounding of Hughes’s ideas, words, and language to a specific time, place, culture, and people. Postcards reveal art that demonstrates Hughes as a collector, consumer, and tourist - while also demonstrating concrete examples of art that he valued and surrounded himself with. Literary art pieces, those that were created to align themselves with Hughes’s written word or were often utilized for that purpose, can reveal further meaning in Hughes’s poetry or aid in illuminating elements that we would not notice otherwise. The work of Jean-Michel Basquiat can serve as an extension beyond the literary lifetime of Hughes; depicting a projection of possible and probable associations.

Collectively, these artifacts explore the effect of having Hughes’s literature paired with art, as well as how we can still connect Hughes’s written word to the visual arts today. These pieces light the match in illuminating implications for future understandings of Hughes's work, and even Hughes himself. Finally, this project aims to explore how visual art can serve to complement or challenge Hughes’s work, and vice versa. Thus, this archive strives to return a sense of originality with his work in restoring the visual media component of his work that we are often left without. This aligns itself with Bornstein’s mission: “Indeed, the literary work might be said to exist not it any one version, but in an archive that brings all the versions put together” (29-30).