Poet Langston Hughes’ work will be celebrated with performances and more Saturday afternoon at the August Wilson House in partnership with Pittsburgh’s Langston Hughes Poetry Society.
This will be the first “Celebrating Langston” event held at the house in the Hill District, according to Ervin Dyer, board president. The Eventbrite registration describes it as “a Black History Month and birthday tribute to Hughes, one America’s greatest poets.”
Dyer said the society’s actors will dramatize Langston’s poems and short stories with performance poetry, singing and music from noon to 2 p.m. Members of the community will be able to share their poetry, too, if they choose to present.
“We’re thrilled to have the celebration in the home where Mr. Wilson was born,” he wrote in an email. “Of course, one of Mr. Wilson’s first creative identities was as a poet. He wrote about family, Hill residents and unrequited love. His years as a poet makes him a brother poet to Langston Hughes, and having the celebration at AWH gives us a chance to honor the work of both men.”
Sheila Beasley, the society’s public relations coordinator, wrote in an email that the organization also is thrilled about the event. “It’s a great reunion of the collective because some members have moved out of town, and we have not been able to perform together in a couple of years,” she said. “However, we know every time we come together after a pause it flows like we haven’t missed a beat. The talent, inspiration and support are ever present.”
The Langston Hughes Poetry Society Pittsburgh is an inclusive arts collective of poets, authors and performers committed to the remembrance and Hughes’ legacy and other literary artists who have contributed to the African American experience in America, she explained. Created in 2007 by Lewis Colyar and Dessie Bay, its “Reading and Remembering” motto reflects that it utilizes art as a means of social and self-empowerment, according to its mission statement. Its goal remains to encourage reading and creative writing as a tool to make a positive difference in today’s society, and Beasley said its members want to instill hope in current and future generations.
Other current core members of the group are Executive Director Colyar, Johnathan J. White, Edward Murray and Michael R. Williams.
The society, Beasley continued, “has shattered walls of division and invaded a multiplicity of social spaces with events” such as Black Tie Poetry, which featured some poets and performers from Pittsburgh and beyond and brought in the late Amiri Baraka. He was a poet, writer, teacher and political activist formerly known as Leroi Jones.
It also has offered poetry, Black studies and literary workshops in schools such as Penn State Greater Allegheny, West Virginia State University, California University of Pennsylvania (now PennWest California), Fox Chapel High School, Shuman Center and Baldwin High School, and at a 2010 Pennsylvania Association for the Education of Young Children conference for the study of play.
Its Black history programming has included slave narrative readings, lectures, Juneteenth celebrations, and dramatic productions at the Allegheny County Jail, the Homewood Brushton YMCA, Father Ryan Arts Center in McKees Rocks and other venues.
Because of limited space at the August Wilson House, RSVPs are requested by Wednesday. The event is free.
Registration for Celebrating Langston is available at www.eventbrite.com/e/celebrating-langston-tickets-1235191173049.
Helen is a copy editor at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, but she's currently on strike. Contact her at hfallon@unionprogress.com.