Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Langston Hughes' poetry celebrates Black culture, addresses racism in America

Poet and writer Langston Hughes in  1945. (Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
Poet and writer Langston Hughes in 1945. (Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Langston Hughes was born 120 years ago. He’s best known for writing powerful poetry and prose. Less known is that he was also a librettist.

At a 1957 visit to the University of Illinois, he gave a poetry reading and attended the premiere of the opera “Esther.”

Jim Meadows of WILL in Illinois has the story.

This article was originally published on WBUR.org.

Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.