Montage of a Dream Montage of a Dream The Art and Life of Langston Hughes Edited by John Edgar Tidwell and Cheryl R. Ragar with a foreword byArnold Rampersad University of Missouri Press Columbia and London Copyright © 2007 by The Curators of the University of Missouri University of Missouri Press, Columbia, Missouri 65201 Printed and bound in the United States of America All rights reserved 5 4 3 2 1 11 10 09 08 07 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Montage of a dream : the art and life of Langston Hughes / edited by John Edgar Tidwell and Cheryl R. Ragar ; with a foreword by Arnold Rampersad. p. cm. Summary: “Contributors reexamine the continuing relevance of Langston Hughes’s work and life to American, African American, and diasporic liter- atures and cultures. Includes fresh perspectives on the often overlooked “Luani of the Jungles,” Black Magic, and works for children, as well as Hughes’s more familiar fiction, poetry, essays, dramas, and other writings” —Provided by publisher. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-8262-1716-5 (hardcover : alk. paper) 1. Hughes, Langston, 1902–1967. 2. Harlem (New York, N.Y.)—Intel- lectual life—20th century. 3. Poets, American—20th century—Biography. 4. African American poets—Biography. 5. African Americans in literature. 6. Harlem Renaissance. I. Tidwell, John Edgar. II. Ragar, Cheryl R. PS3515.U274Z6845 2007 818(cid:2).5209—dc22 [B] 2006102013 ø™ This paper meets the requirements of the American National Standard for Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, Z39.48, 1984. Designer: Jennifer Cropp Typesetter: The Composing Room of Michigan, Inc. Printer and binder: Thomson-Shore, Inc. Typefaces: Palatino, Georgia, and Flamme For permissions, see p.351 The University of Missouri Press offers its grateful acknowledgment for a generous contribution from the Office of the Chancellor, University of Kansas, in support of the publication of this volume. Contents Foreword ix Arnold Rampersad Acknowledgments xiii Abbreviations xv Poeme pour Langston / Poem for Langston xvii Cheikh Amadou Dieng / Mame Selbee Diouf Langston Hughes Revisited and Revised: An Introduction 1 John Edgar Tidwell and Cheryl R. Ragar I. The Sacred and the Secular Langston Hughes and Aunt Hager’s Children’s Blues Performance: “Six-Bits Blues” 19 Steven C. Tracy Almost—But Not Quite—Bluesmen in Langston Hughes’s Poetry 32 Trudier Harris Natural and Unnatural Circumstances inNot without Laughter 39 Elizabeth Schultz vi Contents II. The Public and the Private The Sounds of Silence: Langston Hughes as a “Down Low”Brother? 55 John Edgar Tidwell Langston Hughes on the Open Road: Compulsory Heterosexuality and the Question of Presence 68 Juda Bennett Gender Performance and Sexual Subjectivity in Not without Laughter: Sandy’s Emergent Masculinity 86 Kimberly J. Banks Mother to Son: The Letters from Carrie Hughes Clark to Langston Hughes,1928–1938 106 Regennia N. Williams and Carmaletta M. Williams III. Revolutions Literary and Political “Luani ofthe Jungles”: Reimagining the Africa of Heart of Darkness 127 Jeffrey A. Schwarz Langston Hughes’s Red Poetics and the Practice of “Disalienation” 135 Robert Young The Paradox of Modernism inThe Ways ofWhite Folks 147 Sandra Y. Govan IV. Other Words and Other Worlds The Empowerment of Displacement 169 Isabel Soto Contents vii “It Is the Same Everywhere for Me”: Langston Hughes and the African Diaspora’s Everyman 181 Lorenzo Thomas Montage of a Dream Destroyed: Langston Hughes in Spain 195 Michael Thurston The Russian Connection: Interracialism as Queer Alliance in The Ways ofWhite Folks 209 Kate A. Baldwin V. Langston Hughes and the Boundaries of Art Langston Hughes and the Children’s Literary Tradition 237 Giselle Liza Anatol Circles of Liberation and Constriction: Dance in Not without Laughter 259 Joan Stone The Essayistic Vision of Langston Hughes 284 Christopher C. De Santis Langston Hughes and the Movies: The Case of Way Down South 305 Thomas Cripps Bibliography 319 Notes on the Contributors 335 Index 341 Foreword Arnold Rampersad This book, like a well-known speaker being welcomed to the stage be- fore a large audience, needs no introduction—but it has one, expertly written by its editors, John Edgar Tidwell and Cheryl R. Ragar. What I of- fer here at the start of this book would be superfluous and also inferior were I to call it an introduction to the collection of essays they have so imaginatively put together. Instead, it is my honor to have been asked to provide a foreword. An honor it is indeed, since this volume is the smartest collection of work on Hughes to appear in many a year. It’s a trib- ute to the editors and contributors but also, of course, a tribute to Lang- ston Hughes as he continues to exert a power over us that seems at last to be embedded and destined perhaps to be permanent. If we are to judge by reputation but also by the hard evidence of visits to the web sites of organizations such as the Academy of American Poets, Hughes’s work may well be the main gateway through which many younger people and especially small children enter the world of formal poetry. It’s hard to imagine a poet better suited to that almost sacred task. His verse, like his prose, is typically as clear as water, and just as essential to life. It is intensely musical, so it is no wonder that the composer Elie Siegmeister called Hughes the most musical poet of the twentieth centu- ry. It covers a range of emotions, from the nihilistic to the earthy, exuber- ant, and idealistic. Now that the children seem to have him (and with his love of children, for whom he wrote many books, he is surely where he wishes to be), his important place in our process of literacy and learning is assured for some time to come. Books such as this one build on that el- ix