We Are Beautiful and Ugly Too

Co-Hosts - Ahavati & JohnnyBlaze  

Part XXIV in an ongoing series introducing serious writers of DUP to the most well-known poets, both classical and modern. 

James Mercer Langston Hughes  ( February 1, 1902 – May 22, 1967 ) was a central figure in the Harlem Renaissance - the flowering of black intellectual, literary, and artistic life that took place in the 1920s in a number of American cities. A major poet, Hughes also wrote novels, short stories, essays, and plays. He sought to honestly portray the joys and hardships of working-class black lives, avoiding both sentimental idealization and negative stereotypes. As he wrote in his essay “The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain,” “We younger Negro artists who create now intend to express our individual dark-skinned selves without fear or shame. If white people are pleased we are glad. If they are not, it doesn’t matter. We know we are beautiful. And ugly too.”

Hughes is one of the earliest innovators of the then-new literary art form known as jazz poetry. He incorporated the syncopated rhythms and repetitive phrases of blues and jazz music into his writing.

Many Harlem Renaissance writers were deeply concerned with racial pride and with the creation of purely African-American poetry. Since jazz music was an important part of African-American culture at the time, Hughes and others like him adapted the musical genre to create their own, singularly African-American voices that could easily be distinguished from the work of white poets. Many of Hughes' poems, such as "The Weary Blues", sound almost exactly like popular jazz and blues songs of the period, and vice versa. His work is also highly evocative of spirituals.

From 1942 to 1962, as the civil rights movement was gaining traction, he wrote an in-depth weekly column in a leading black newspaper, The Chicago Defender.

Guidelines 

Write up to 2 New Poems honoring Hughes inspired by any one or more of his poems. We feel listing particular poems may be constricting, and want you to follow the inspiration wherever it leads. 

Do your best to make us feel as though we are reading poems by Eliot. The more we feel you "capturing his essence" in "your own words" , the higher you will score. This will involve choice of wording, delivery, subject material, formatting, target audience - a wide range of factors.   

The Rules 

1.  Up to two entries per DUP persona.   

2. No erotica; this is open to all ages and can't be viewed with an ECW ( Extreme Content Warning ).   

3. No exact word limit; however, attempt to keep it no more than 250 - 300.   

4. Any form is acceptable ( but studying the poet is advised ).   

5. Webmiss has already created #LangstonHughes in the theme list.  The page will automatically generate as soon as eight entrants hashtag the theme.  Do NOT copy paste your poem to the competition, it must be linked to your page with the below information.

6. In your poem's notes, provide links and or titles to the poem(s) by Hughes that inspired yours. Without these, we have no way of determining if you were truly inspired by Hughes or simply swapped fresh words into his existing poetry ( which is a form of plagiarism ).

LASTLY**** ALL NON-ELIGIBLE ENTRIES WILL BE REMOVED. This is not a competition to deliberately ignore guidelines so as to advertise your work.

Comp will be judged by Ahavati & JohnnyBlaze. As in the past and in the event there is a tie, we will call in third ( and possibly fourth ) judge.

You have one month; best of luck to all entrants!

non entry

Let’s all go to the Quadroon Ball
Oh no, you’re mulatto, you can’t go
As the white guys ogle at the off-white gals
But the black guys can’t - no, they can’t go

I’m sort of an octoroon you see
So I should get in, yes I should get in
But my skin’s too black despite white blood
And the Jim Crow grins look meanly grim

Let’s all go to the Quadroon Ball
The music’s good, the dance-floor wide
But Federal Laws don’t reach this State
So I’m standing here, all cold, outside.



#LangstonHughes
Poem relates to Langston’s poem “Cross” which you can find here:
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/150989/cross



Author’s Notes
“Racism had become institutionalised often to an insane degree. The state of Louisiana was particularly involved in what was called ‘sangularity’, the ‘measuring’ of African blood in an individual. The categories of sangularity were: Mulatto — one black parent, one white parent; quadroon — one white grandparent, one African grandparent; octoroon —one white great-grandparent, one African great-grandparent. A bit like grading a dog or cat. Each of these degrees of sangularity had its own societies and was treated differently. Quadroons often looked white and there was a famous ‘Quadroon Ball’ in New Orleans where men could go and ogle at blonde, blue-eyed, ivory-skinned girls who were not ‘quite white’. Needless to say, black men were not allowed to these parties!”
(pages 29-30 in ‘Langston Hughes: the value of contradiction” by Bonnie Greer, Arcadia Books, 2011)

#LangstonHughes
Poem titled "Cross" inspired this piece
Link:
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/150989/cross

Less than 24 hours to enter!  The judging has already begun!  

Thank you to all entrants who braved the classics this month!