Let America Be America Again: Conversations with Langston Hughes

Let America Be America Again: Conversations with Langston Hughes is a collection of interviews, speeches, and essays by Langston Hughes, documenting his powerful critiques of fascism, economic and racial oppression, and compromised democracy. He also spoke of the responsibilities of the Black artist, documented the contributions of Black people to literature, music, and theatre, and chronicled the challenges Black artists face in gaining recognition, fair pay, and professional advancement.

Format: Hardback
Length: 368 pages
Publication date: 25 August 2022
Publisher: Oxford University Press

Let America Be America Again: Conversations with Langston Hughes is a captivating collection of interviews, speeches, and essays that capture the essence of a remarkable man. Spanning from early interviews in the 1920s, when he was a busboy and scribbling out poems on hotel napkins, to major speeches, such as his keynote address at the First World Festival of Negro Arts in Dakar, Senegal, in 1966, Hughes' words further solidify the international reputation he established over five decades through his widely published and renowned poems, stories, novels, and plays.

In these interviews, speeches, and conversational essays, the writer affectionately referred to as the Poet Laureate of the Negro Race and the Dean of Black Letters articulated some of his most potent critiques of fascism, economic and racial oppression, and compromised democracy. Through these genres, Hughes also spoke of the responsibilities of the Black artist, documented the essential contributions of Black people to literature, music, and theatre, and chronicled the substantial challenges that Black artists face in gaining recognition, fair pay, and professional advancement. Moreover, Hughes built on his celebrated work in other literary genres to craft an original, tragic-comic persona—a Blues poet in exile, forever yearning for and returning to a home, a nation, that nevertheless continues to disappoint and harm him.

A global traveler, Hughes' words, "Let America be America Again," were, throughout his career, always followed by a caveat: America never was America to me.

Weight: 706g
Dimension: 240 x 162 x 25 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780192855046