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Langston Hughes
Poet and novelist; voice of the Harlem Renaissance
The poet who made Harlem speak for a people — and the people speak for themselves.
The rise
Born James Mercer Langston Hughes on 1 February 1901 in Joplin, Missouri, he published 'The Negro Speaks of Rivers' at nineteen. His jazz-inflected verse and unadorned prose gave literary form to the rhythms, speech and aspirations of Black America during the Harlem Renaissance.