Main themes and ideas

The Harlem Renaissance:

• Took place in the early 20th century
• Centred around the lives of people of the Black community
• Centred around American culture and politics

The Harlem Renaissance was a social, political and artistic movement that aimed to covey the “Double consciousness of the African American experience.”

Background Information on Hughes –

• Born in 1902, Missouri
• Born to mixed race parents (divorced)
• Class poet in high school
• Dropped out of Columbia university after his first year because he didn’t want to become an engineer

Langston Hughes main aim with his poems was to be able to convey the life of those who are a part of the African American community, he wanted to “reproduce(ing) the human soul.” He mixed formal poetry along with oral techniques such as vernacular in order to convey the culture and lives of those from the Black community. He wanted to showcase that although they are faced with constant oppression and discrimination, that doesn’t stop them from continuing to live on and persevere just like the rest of the world.