January 21, 2025 • 20 mins
In this episode of BLK LIT, Jacquees shares her journey of creating a community poetry event called Poetry in the Park, reflecting on the generational influence of poetry and the significance of art in the Black community. We delve into the life of Langston Hughes, exploring his relationships with women and the cultural dynamics of the 1920s, particularly in Paris and Harlem.
Learn More: The Black Archives of Mid-America
Read: Langston Hughes in the Classroom: "Do Nothin' till You Hear from Me"
My Dear Boy: Carrie Hughes Letters to Langston Hughes, 1926-1938
Not So Simple: The "Simple" Stories by Langston Hughes
Listen: Voices of Mississippi: Artists and Musicians Documented by William Ferris
Connect with the Host: Jacquees Thomas @_ThatsPeace
Join The Collective Writing Community BLKWritersRoom.com
A Black Effect Original Series
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
My name is Jacquees Thomas, and you're listening to Black Lit,
a podcast about black literature and the stories behind the storytellers.
When I was seventeen, I had an idea to create
an event combining two of my favorite things. I called
(00:22):
it sonnet and symphony, though everyone ended up calling it
Poetry in the Park because with my ambitious teenage marketing skills,
the words poetry in the Park were the most prominent
on the flyer, and honestly, that's exactly what it was,
a gathering of poetry and community in the heart of
(00:45):
the park, right by the gazebo. It was summertime, and
somehow I managed to convince the city of Patterson to
not only let me coordinate and produce an event, but
also to support it. My family was right there, so
when the city agreed, everybody pulled up. A friend who
(01:09):
owned a neighborhood restaurant jumped on board, and members of
the community, some came out as vendors to enjoy the barbecue,
listen to music, and share in the art of spoken word.
The day itself felt like something out of ice cubes.
It was a good day. No fights, no drama, no arguments,
(01:30):
just pure joy in the hood. In the park, everything
flowed smoothly. We had way too much food, but just
the right amount of performances. I mean that restaurant depot
card can get you like one thousand burghers. We had
too many poets one by one stepped into the gazebo
in the middle of the park under the trees while
(01:52):
the sun shine through, creating these patterns of shadows and
these cinematic light beams of spotlights that moved the ass
The park children played darting between the crowd as the
air laughter added a rhythmic backdrop to the verses being shared.
The poets were loud, loud enough for everyone to hear,
(02:14):
but not too loud that you couldn't hear the sounds
of July as the kids grew with excitement as the
ice cream truck came near. It was a perfect day.
Perfect I not only made an idea my mind come
to fruition, which was simply to hang out in the
(02:34):
park with poetry and my community, but it gave me
the chance to do something even more meaningful. That day,
I gave my grandmother a stage, and in that moment,
everyone in the park realized what I had always known
that she was a poet, and she studied poetry. She
(02:56):
could recite over a hundred poems from memory, so she claimed,
and I believed her. But whenever she had the chance,
she would perform. And that day, under the trees, in
the glow of the sun, she stood in front of
the crowd and delivered, if you.
Speaker 2 (03:18):
Can keep your head with all about you a losing
this and blaming it on you, If you could trust
yourself with all men doubt.
Speaker 3 (03:28):
You, but make allowance, but you're doubting too.
Speaker 4 (03:32):
If you could think and not make thoughts.
Speaker 1 (03:37):
If you could meet with trying your band, decester and
treat those two impostors.
Speaker 3 (03:42):
Just the same.
Speaker 1 (03:45):
She stole the show. She is what we call a
poet's poet. Those lines were from a poem written in
eighteen ninety five by Rudark entitled if She performed them
with a grace and passion that made you feel like
(04:06):
the words were written just for her to speak. Of
course I am biased, but her voice was so powerful.
That day wasn't just an event. It was a gift,
a celebration of creativity community, and it spoke directly to
(04:26):
the generational influence of art and how love and music
and poetry is passed down through the generations. I hadn't
thought about that day in a while, but when doctor
Dash read Langston's words from Africa's Daughters, it brought me
(04:47):
right back to that day, that day when poetry took
on another meeting.
Speaker 3 (04:53):
For me, it's a simple story called Africa's Daughters. You know, simple.
My wife kind of shook me up when she come
telling me this morning, US women is meeting in Africa
next spring. What women, I said, Colored women, said Joyce,
Us Africa's Daughters for what to discuss? Our problems? Said Joyce.
(05:19):
What problems have colored women's got that men's have? None?
Colored men, said Joyce, are our problem? No kidding, I kidded, jobs,
said Joyce. One of our problems also is jobs all
over the world. What kind of jobs are there for
colored women? The world must think we are all cooks, servants, babysitters.
(05:43):
Lots of white folks never heard of a colored stenographer, clerk, bookkeeper, woman, doctor, scientists.
Then they don't read ebony, I said. One of our
problems is to teach white people people to know, said Joyce. No,
what who we are? Said Joyce? But why meet in
(06:08):
Africa to do that. Africa is the fountainhead, said Joyce.
Africa is the new day. Africa will lead the way.
Ethiopia shall stretch forth her hand and not draw back.
A nub I said, anyhow, I agree with you, Joyce.
(06:30):
Africa is up and coming. Humming done, stop drumming. But Joyce,
exactly what is you talking about? However, I am talking
about going to Africa, said Joyce. If my club does
not send me, I might not be able to go
in the flesh, but I will be there in spirit.
(06:50):
An African conference of women black Jesse b like me
from all over the world where there are black women,
which is the USA, also Cuba, Haiti, Jamaica and Trinidad,
also Brazil where they are black and beautiful like in
(07:10):
that movie Black Orpheus and all the West Indies, not
to speak of Africa full of beautiful black women from everywhere.
The Sisters of Africa are coming together next spring to
meet to discuss how to get a good education for
every child of every black woman. Also how to be
(07:33):
sure husbands and fathers make a decent living anywhere in
the world. Also that no woman has to be beholding
to any man, white or black for her living, and
no woman needs to make her body a part of
her job like too many women have had to do
(07:55):
in the past. I belong to Me is the new
slogan for Black women. I shall be free the new
slogan for Black women. Equal jobs and equal rights for
men and women, black or white is our new slogan.
(08:17):
I'm glad you include equal rights for men's too. I grinned,
keep on laughing, said Joyce. But she who laughs last
is always a woman. I wipe that grin off my
face because I could see that Joyce was getting serious.
I would say, Africa's Daughters, which I had to find
(08:40):
in the binding key, is something that most people would
not have read by Hughes would be surprised that simple
is hearing that? And isn't that still appropriate? In twenty
twenty four, for women.
Speaker 1 (08:58):
And the swirling, crashing current of his autobiography, The Big
Sea Lengthton Hughes unwraps a collection of relationships, a vibrant
mosaic where the women in his life shimmered like pearls
beneath a restless tide. His journey spanning from the vibrant
(09:20):
heart of Harlem to the farthest reaches of the planet
often placed him into the company of some very remarkable women.
These bonds, intricate and multifaceted, were at times a source
of profound inspiration, at others a series of challenges. His
(09:43):
relationships rarely resulted in lasting commitment. He never married, no children.
If we look back at the instability of his childhood,
the constant moving and the distance between him and his
divorced parents, Lengthton's heart always seemed guarded.
Speaker 3 (10:02):
He had to travel because that's what his mother did.
His father had left when he was an infant, and
he lived with his mother and his grandmother. His mother
kept moving about. He got shifted from his grandmother's house
to a friend's house because his grandmother died. His mother
would travel, He would travel. Then he wanted to stay
(10:25):
in Cleveland. His mother wanted to leave. He said, I
want to finish high school here. He had to live
alone as a teenager, cooking his own hot dogs and rice.
That was all he knew how to cook, and that
lack of stability allowed him a freedom and a comfort
in change that maybe some other people don't have. But
(10:50):
it also I think caused him to turn inside and
become more of an individual, perhaps leading his own parents.
Unstable marital relation, not to mention his mother's second marriage
not lasting either, may have caused him not to feel
(11:11):
so comfortable with love.
Speaker 1 (11:14):
And his father didn't help, or did he.
Speaker 5 (11:17):
He rejected America an American racist. So he passed the bar,
but he couldn't get a license to practice law. So
that's when he went to work for the railroads, and
he was in Cuba for a while. Then he went
to Mexico and Carrie didn't want to go, and he
(11:38):
was going like, I can't be a clerk. I've got
a degree. I have a law degree, and we can
make some money here. And then he said, why would
you want to live like niggas and America or something
like that. So Langston when he learned that, I mean,
he was just a baby, and Carrie had been all
over and then they thought they would reconcile, and he
(11:58):
had bought a ranch in Mexico, and that Carrie takes
the baby Langston and her mom down to Mexico and
there was an earthquake and when the earthquake came, the
spiders were coming out of the wall and.
Speaker 4 (12:12):
She got scared and she said she did so she
took her baby in left, but his father paid child
support for him until he was in college, and he
would have continued to pay child support if Langston had
stayed in the engineering program. What's awful about that is
(12:33):
that Carrie never told Langstone that his father was paying
child support. So all this time that she is playing
pitiful and poor, his dad was sending him money every month.
Speaker 5 (12:45):
He was sending him money, and Langston didn't know that.
Langston is eating rice and popcorn because that's all he
could afford, and Carrie's getting a child sport check every month.
Speaker 1 (13:04):
Paris in the nineteen twenties was a city alive with
artistic energy, a haven for expats and a melding pot
for cultures. For lanth Saint Hughes, newly arrived from America,
it was a revelation in the Big Sea. He paints
a vivid picture of this transformative period when his path
(13:24):
intertwined with outstanding women who left a permanent mark on
his journey. His nights were spent in the heart of
Momont at a club called La Grand Duche. In the
chapters of Momont and Bohemia, he brings this place to life.
The air thick with jazz, the dance floor a swirl
(13:46):
of motion, and at the center of it all a
woman who reigns supreme, Ada Bricktop Smith.
Speaker 6 (13:56):
I used to hear the jazz band playing outside in
the cabaret park. Eventually they brought rick Top there as
the hostess. Well, while she was singing outside in the club,
I would be washing dishes in the kitchen and sometimes
singing out a poem, poems that the critics called Giles poems.
So my punty career is really all tied up with
(14:18):
dish washing in this little club called the Grand View.
Speaker 1 (14:23):
Brick Top the name itself conjures up images of strength
and charisma. She was the heart of Legrange. Duke Hughes
mentions her again and again throughout the Paris section of
his book, a testament to her influence. In the chapter,
he introduces her in a way to allow us to
(14:44):
see her as he did, as a force of nature,
a woman who created a space where artists and intellectuals thrived,
and so did she. During the night eighteen twenties, Harlem
pulsed with an electric energy where creativity and activism melds
(15:08):
it into a symphony of social change. We know that Langston,
with his quick wit and undeniable charm, became a figure
of captivating allure, drawing women into his orbit like moss
to a flame.
Speaker 5 (15:25):
Zora even says she loved him, and Zora had many men,
and we know from Langston's history that he had many women,
so there is no way for us to even imagine
that they would spend those many months together and didn't happen.
I think what happened was jealousy. Zora goes to see
Langston because he's supposed to be sick. Well, first, what
(15:49):
happened was they got together and they did mule Bone,
and Zora told the story, and Langston was supposed to
be putting it in play for him because that was
his bailiwick, and Louise Thompson was the typist. Well, then
Langston wants to give Louise one third the credit. So
Zori hits the roof, like whoever heard he given the
(16:09):
typeest credit for work? And so so she killed the right.
So Langston sends the play to New York to some
of his white buddies and they tells Zor, yeah, I
saw your play, and she's going like what, And that's
when she finds out well, she falls out with Langston
and goes off on him about Louise, and she even
(16:31):
tells him nobody pays the type ist with credit for
the work. It says, you won't use my talents, use
your own talents, and she meant in a sexual way
to pay her. And so Langston was going, no, no, no,
that's not it. Okay, we can do that, and I'm
through with Louise.
Speaker 4 (16:49):
It's over.
Speaker 5 (16:50):
Well, she goes to see him in Cleveland when he's
sick and she's walking down the sidewalk. Louise is waking up,
so she knows he lied, that he did not break
off all relationship ships with Louise, and so she goes in.
She essentially kills the blay. And that's why mule Bow
wasn't produced during either one of their lifetimes. And it
was jealousy, and his pure and simple jealousy.
Speaker 1 (17:13):
Each encounter, each conversation added a nuance and layers to
his understandings of love, connection and the very essence of
the human spirit.
Speaker 3 (17:27):
Hughes kind of gravitated toward Missus Mason as a surrogate mother,
made her proteges call her godmother, but Hughes had had
a rather distant relationship with both of his parents. His mother,
his own birth mother, was always greedy and wanting money.
(17:47):
Here was Mason very generous and always giving money. Later
in his life you see Hughes writing about I think
one of his short stories is called Patron of the Arts.
Can see how he has grown more distant, more if
you will, more hostile to the control that people with
(18:11):
money impose on people who need money.
Speaker 2 (18:17):
And about that time I began to think seriously about
the general cultural pattern of our lives, and how Negroes
were still because they had always been the step children
of the arts in America, and how the philanthropists and
the social minded were not interested in us as much
when we cried, oh, I want to create, as when
we did what white people wanted us to do. About
(18:40):
that time, my godmother was very rich and very old,
decided that she did not want me to write any
more books like Not Without Laughter. So I did not
have a godmother anymore.
Speaker 1 (18:58):
Mac That is a Black Effect original series in partnership
with iHeartMedia, is written and created by myself, Jack Queis
Thomas and executive produced alongside Dolly s Bishop Chanelle Collins
is the director of Production, Head of Talent Nicole Spence,
writer producer Jason Torres, Our researcher and producer is Jabari Davis,
(19:21):
and the mix and sound design is by the humble
Duane Crawford. Gratitude is an action, so I have to
give praise to those who took the time out to
write a review. Please keep sharing and we will promise
to bring more writers and greater episodes to you. Also,
(19:42):
if you're looking to become a writer or in search
of a supportive writing community, join me for a free
creative writing session on my website Black Writers' Room dot com,
BLK writer's Room dot com, or hit me up directly
for more details at Underscore for t h A T
S P E A c E.
Speaker 5 (20:04):
That's piece.
Speaker 3 (20:09):
Mhmm.
My name is Jacquees Thomas, and you're listening to Black Lit,
a podcast about black literature and the stories behind the storytellers.
When I was seventeen, I had an idea to create
an event combining two of my favorite things. I called
(00:22):
it sonnet and symphony, though everyone ended up calling it
Poetry in the Park because with my ambitious teenage marketing skills,
the words poetry in the Park were the most prominent
on the flyer, and honestly, that's exactly what it was,
a gathering of poetry and community in the heart of
(00:45):
the park, right by the gazebo. It was summertime, and
somehow I managed to convince the city of Patterson to
not only let me coordinate and produce an event, but
also to support it. My family was right there, so
when the city agreed, everybody pulled up. A friend who
(01:09):
owned a neighborhood restaurant jumped on board, and members of
the community, some came out as vendors to enjoy the barbecue,
listen to music, and share in the art of spoken word.
The day itself felt like something out of ice cubes.
It was a good day. No fights, no drama, no arguments,
(01:30):
just pure joy in the hood. In the park, everything
flowed smoothly. We had way too much food, but just
the right amount of performances. I mean that restaurant depot
card can get you like one thousand burghers. We had
too many poets one by one stepped into the gazebo
in the middle of the park under the trees while
(01:52):
the sun shine through, creating these patterns of shadows and
these cinematic light beams of spotlights that moved the ass
The park children played darting between the crowd as the
air laughter added a rhythmic backdrop to the verses being shared.
The poets were loud, loud enough for everyone to hear,
(02:14):
but not too loud that you couldn't hear the sounds
of July as the kids grew with excitement as the
ice cream truck came near. It was a perfect day.
Perfect I not only made an idea my mind come
to fruition, which was simply to hang out in the
(02:34):
park with poetry and my community, but it gave me
the chance to do something even more meaningful. That day,
I gave my grandmother a stage, and in that moment,
everyone in the park realized what I had always known
that she was a poet, and she studied poetry. She
(02:56):
could recite over a hundred poems from memory, so she claimed,
and I believed her. But whenever she had the chance,
she would perform. And that day, under the trees, in
the glow of the sun, she stood in front of
the crowd and delivered, if you.
Speaker 2 (03:18):
Can keep your head with all about you a losing
this and blaming it on you, If you could trust
yourself with all men doubt.
Speaker 3 (03:28):
You, but make allowance, but you're doubting too.
Speaker 4 (03:32):
If you could think and not make thoughts.
Speaker 1 (03:37):
If you could meet with trying your band, decester and
treat those two impostors.
Speaker 3 (03:42):
Just the same.
Speaker 1 (03:45):
She stole the show. She is what we call a
poet's poet. Those lines were from a poem written in
eighteen ninety five by Rudark entitled if She performed them
with a grace and passion that made you feel like
(04:06):
the words were written just for her to speak. Of
course I am biased, but her voice was so powerful.
That day wasn't just an event. It was a gift,
a celebration of creativity community, and it spoke directly to
(04:26):
the generational influence of art and how love and music
and poetry is passed down through the generations. I hadn't
thought about that day in a while, but when doctor
Dash read Langston's words from Africa's Daughters, it brought me
(04:47):
right back to that day, that day when poetry took
on another meeting.
Speaker 3 (04:53):
For me, it's a simple story called Africa's Daughters. You know, simple.
My wife kind of shook me up when she come
telling me this morning, US women is meeting in Africa
next spring. What women, I said, Colored women, said Joyce,
Us Africa's Daughters for what to discuss? Our problems? Said Joyce.
(05:19):
What problems have colored women's got that men's have? None?
Colored men, said Joyce, are our problem? No kidding, I kidded, jobs,
said Joyce. One of our problems also is jobs all
over the world. What kind of jobs are there for
colored women? The world must think we are all cooks, servants, babysitters.
(05:43):
Lots of white folks never heard of a colored stenographer, clerk, bookkeeper, woman, doctor, scientists.
Then they don't read ebony, I said. One of our
problems is to teach white people people to know, said Joyce. No,
what who we are? Said Joyce? But why meet in
(06:08):
Africa to do that. Africa is the fountainhead, said Joyce.
Africa is the new day. Africa will lead the way.
Ethiopia shall stretch forth her hand and not draw back.
A nub I said, anyhow, I agree with you, Joyce.
(06:30):
Africa is up and coming. Humming done, stop drumming. But Joyce,
exactly what is you talking about? However, I am talking
about going to Africa, said Joyce. If my club does
not send me, I might not be able to go
in the flesh, but I will be there in spirit.
(06:50):
An African conference of women black Jesse b like me
from all over the world where there are black women,
which is the USA, also Cuba, Haiti, Jamaica and Trinidad,
also Brazil where they are black and beautiful like in
(07:10):
that movie Black Orpheus and all the West Indies, not
to speak of Africa full of beautiful black women from everywhere.
The Sisters of Africa are coming together next spring to
meet to discuss how to get a good education for
every child of every black woman. Also how to be
(07:33):
sure husbands and fathers make a decent living anywhere in
the world. Also that no woman has to be beholding
to any man, white or black for her living, and
no woman needs to make her body a part of
her job like too many women have had to do
(07:55):
in the past. I belong to Me is the new
slogan for Black women. I shall be free the new
slogan for Black women. Equal jobs and equal rights for
men and women, black or white is our new slogan.
(08:17):
I'm glad you include equal rights for men's too. I grinned,
keep on laughing, said Joyce. But she who laughs last
is always a woman. I wipe that grin off my
face because I could see that Joyce was getting serious.
I would say, Africa's Daughters, which I had to find
(08:40):
in the binding key, is something that most people would
not have read by Hughes would be surprised that simple
is hearing that? And isn't that still appropriate? In twenty
twenty four, for women.
Speaker 1 (08:58):
And the swirling, crashing current of his autobiography, The Big
Sea Lengthton Hughes unwraps a collection of relationships, a vibrant
mosaic where the women in his life shimmered like pearls
beneath a restless tide. His journey spanning from the vibrant
(09:20):
heart of Harlem to the farthest reaches of the planet
often placed him into the company of some very remarkable women.
These bonds, intricate and multifaceted, were at times a source
of profound inspiration, at others a series of challenges. His
(09:43):
relationships rarely resulted in lasting commitment. He never married, no children.
If we look back at the instability of his childhood,
the constant moving and the distance between him and his
divorced parents, Lengthton's heart always seemed guarded.
Speaker 3 (10:02):
He had to travel because that's what his mother did.
His father had left when he was an infant, and
he lived with his mother and his grandmother. His mother
kept moving about. He got shifted from his grandmother's house
to a friend's house because his grandmother died. His mother
would travel, He would travel. Then he wanted to stay
(10:25):
in Cleveland. His mother wanted to leave. He said, I
want to finish high school here. He had to live
alone as a teenager, cooking his own hot dogs and rice.
That was all he knew how to cook, and that
lack of stability allowed him a freedom and a comfort
in change that maybe some other people don't have. But
(10:50):
it also I think caused him to turn inside and
become more of an individual, perhaps leading his own parents.
Unstable marital relation, not to mention his mother's second marriage
not lasting either, may have caused him not to feel
(11:11):
so comfortable with love.
Speaker 1 (11:14):
And his father didn't help, or did he.
Speaker 5 (11:17):
He rejected America an American racist. So he passed the bar,
but he couldn't get a license to practice law. So
that's when he went to work for the railroads, and
he was in Cuba for a while. Then he went
to Mexico and Carrie didn't want to go, and he
(11:38):
was going like, I can't be a clerk. I've got
a degree. I have a law degree, and we can
make some money here. And then he said, why would
you want to live like niggas and America or something
like that. So Langston when he learned that, I mean,
he was just a baby, and Carrie had been all
over and then they thought they would reconcile, and he
(11:58):
had bought a ranch in Mexico, and that Carrie takes
the baby Langston and her mom down to Mexico and
there was an earthquake and when the earthquake came, the
spiders were coming out of the wall and.
Speaker 4 (12:12):
She got scared and she said she did so she
took her baby in left, but his father paid child
support for him until he was in college, and he
would have continued to pay child support if Langston had
stayed in the engineering program. What's awful about that is
(12:33):
that Carrie never told Langstone that his father was paying
child support. So all this time that she is playing
pitiful and poor, his dad was sending him money every month.
Speaker 5 (12:45):
He was sending him money, and Langston didn't know that.
Langston is eating rice and popcorn because that's all he
could afford, and Carrie's getting a child sport check every month.
Speaker 1 (13:04):
Paris in the nineteen twenties was a city alive with
artistic energy, a haven for expats and a melding pot
for cultures. For lanth Saint Hughes, newly arrived from America,
it was a revelation in the Big Sea. He paints
a vivid picture of this transformative period when his path
(13:24):
intertwined with outstanding women who left a permanent mark on
his journey. His nights were spent in the heart of
Momont at a club called La Grand Duche. In the
chapters of Momont and Bohemia, he brings this place to life.
The air thick with jazz, the dance floor a swirl
(13:46):
of motion, and at the center of it all a
woman who reigns supreme, Ada Bricktop Smith.
Speaker 6 (13:56):
I used to hear the jazz band playing outside in
the cabaret park. Eventually they brought rick Top there as
the hostess. Well, while she was singing outside in the club,
I would be washing dishes in the kitchen and sometimes
singing out a poem, poems that the critics called Giles poems.
So my punty career is really all tied up with
(14:18):
dish washing in this little club called the Grand View.
Speaker 1 (14:23):
Brick Top the name itself conjures up images of strength
and charisma. She was the heart of Legrange. Duke Hughes
mentions her again and again throughout the Paris section of
his book, a testament to her influence. In the chapter,
he introduces her in a way to allow us to
(14:44):
see her as he did, as a force of nature,
a woman who created a space where artists and intellectuals thrived,
and so did she. During the night eighteen twenties, Harlem
pulsed with an electric energy where creativity and activism melds
(15:08):
it into a symphony of social change. We know that Langston,
with his quick wit and undeniable charm, became a figure
of captivating allure, drawing women into his orbit like moss
to a flame.
Speaker 5 (15:25):
Zora even says she loved him, and Zora had many men,
and we know from Langston's history that he had many women,
so there is no way for us to even imagine
that they would spend those many months together and didn't happen.
I think what happened was jealousy. Zora goes to see
Langston because he's supposed to be sick. Well, first, what
(15:49):
happened was they got together and they did mule Bone,
and Zora told the story, and Langston was supposed to
be putting it in play for him because that was
his bailiwick, and Louise Thompson was the typist. Well, then
Langston wants to give Louise one third the credit. So
Zori hits the roof, like whoever heard he given the
(16:09):
typeest credit for work? And so so she killed the right.
So Langston sends the play to New York to some
of his white buddies and they tells Zor, yeah, I
saw your play, and she's going like what, And that's
when she finds out well, she falls out with Langston
and goes off on him about Louise, and she even
(16:31):
tells him nobody pays the type ist with credit for
the work. It says, you won't use my talents, use
your own talents, and she meant in a sexual way
to pay her. And so Langston was going, no, no, no,
that's not it. Okay, we can do that, and I'm
through with Louise.
Speaker 4 (16:49):
It's over.
Speaker 5 (16:50):
Well, she goes to see him in Cleveland when he's
sick and she's walking down the sidewalk. Louise is waking up,
so she knows he lied, that he did not break
off all relationship ships with Louise, and so she goes in.
She essentially kills the blay. And that's why mule Bow
wasn't produced during either one of their lifetimes. And it
was jealousy, and his pure and simple jealousy.
Speaker 1 (17:13):
Each encounter, each conversation added a nuance and layers to
his understandings of love, connection and the very essence of
the human spirit.
Speaker 3 (17:27):
Hughes kind of gravitated toward Missus Mason as a surrogate mother,
made her proteges call her godmother, but Hughes had had
a rather distant relationship with both of his parents. His mother,
his own birth mother, was always greedy and wanting money.
(17:47):
Here was Mason very generous and always giving money. Later
in his life you see Hughes writing about I think
one of his short stories is called Patron of the Arts.
Can see how he has grown more distant, more if
you will, more hostile to the control that people with
(18:11):
money impose on people who need money.
Speaker 2 (18:17):
And about that time I began to think seriously about
the general cultural pattern of our lives, and how Negroes
were still because they had always been the step children
of the arts in America, and how the philanthropists and
the social minded were not interested in us as much
when we cried, oh, I want to create, as when
we did what white people wanted us to do. About
(18:40):
that time, my godmother was very rich and very old,
decided that she did not want me to write any
more books like Not Without Laughter. So I did not
have a godmother anymore.
Speaker 1 (18:58):
Mac That is a Black Effect original series in partnership
with iHeartMedia, is written and created by myself, Jack Queis
Thomas and executive produced alongside Dolly s Bishop Chanelle Collins
is the director of Production, Head of Talent Nicole Spence,
writer producer Jason Torres, Our researcher and producer is Jabari Davis,
(19:21):
and the mix and sound design is by the humble
Duane Crawford. Gratitude is an action, so I have to
give praise to those who took the time out to
write a review. Please keep sharing and we will promise
to bring more writers and greater episodes to you. Also,
(19:42):
if you're looking to become a writer or in search
of a supportive writing community, join me for a free
creative writing session on my website Black Writers' Room dot com,
BLK writer's Room dot com, or hit me up directly
for more details at Underscore for t h A T
S P E A c E.
Speaker 5 (20:04):
That's piece.
Speaker 3 (20:09):
Mhmm.
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