A gathering of freethinkers
Catching Elephant is a theme by Andy Taylor
A Dream Deferred by Langston Hughes
‘Langston Hughes was the first African American author to support himself through his writing; he produced more than sixty books. He earned critical attention for his portrayal of realistic black characters and he became one of the dominant voices speaking out on issues concerning black culture. He wrote in many genres; starting and continuing with poetry, he turned to fiction, autobiographies, and children’s books. His most famous fictional character is Jesse B. Semple, nicknamed Simple, who uses humor to protest and satirize the existing injustices. via Paul P. Reuben’
- CARTER Magazine
Langston Hughes by Winold Reiss
nypl:
Happy birthday to Langston Hughes, who was born today in 1902.
Here he is (far left) with Charles S. Johnson, E. Franklin Frazier, Rudolph Fisher and Hubert T. Delaney, on the roof of 580 St. Nicholas Avenue, Harlem, on the occasion of a party in Hughes’ honor, 1924.
Head over to the Library for the Performing Arts to listen to recordings of Langston Hughes reading his poetry or head to the Schomburg Center to explore the Langston Hughes Collection.
Born today, Langston Hughes. via Yale
Happy birthday and black history month to Langston Hughes #RIP
What happens to a dream deferred? Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun? Or fester like a sore then run? Does it stink like rotten meat? Or crust over like a syrupy sweet? Maybe it sags like a heavy load. Or does it just explode?
“When peoples care for you and cry for you, they can straighten out your soul.”
“Motto
I play it cool
And dig all jive
That’s the reason
I stay alive.
My motto as
I live and learn is
Dig and be dug in return.”“Life is for the living.
Death is for the dead.
Let life be like music.
And death a note unsaid.”
“I have discovered in life that there are ways of getting almost anywhere you want to go, if you really want to go.”
“An artist must be free to choose what he does, certainly, but he must also never be afraid to do what he might choose.”
“We younger Negro artists now intend to express our individual dark-skinned selves without fear or shame. If white people are pleased we are glad. If they aren’t, it doesn’t matter. We know we are beautiful. And ugly too… If colored people are pleased we are glad. If they are not, their displeasure doesn’t matter either. We build our temples for tomorrow, as strong as we know how and we stand on the top of the mountain, free within ourselves.”
Happy Birthday to poet, playwright, novelist, columnist and social activist James Mercer Langston Hughes (February 1, 1902)
Persian Painting by Mahmoud Farshchian
photo & design by Tala Litta
Shah Abbas ll of Persia-Iran ( 1642-1666 )
painting by Sheikh Abbasi ( 1653 )
photo & design by Tala Litta
Philip Glass and Leonard Cohen//Book of Longing
Joy In Repetition: Philip Glass Turns 75
You learn something new every day: In one memorable section of Mishima, the composer employs the sound of a surf-rock band that captures the anxious energy of postwar Japanese youth. In the slow section that follows, there’s a passage that reappears time and time again as background music in This American Life, the radio show hosted and produced by Glass’ cousin and fellow Baltimore native Ira Glass. (NPR)
Philip Glass’ 9th Symphony
Performed by American Composers Orchestra for Philip Glass’ 75th Birthday Concert at Carnegie Hall, NYC 1/31
Classic Composers
Josef Abel (1768-1818): Portrait of a young man with glasses (which may or may not depict a young Franz Schubert). Early 19th century
CATHAY
Translations by
Ezra Pound(1915)
Here is the complete text for each of the nineteen poems originally appearing in Ezra Pound’s 1915 collection Cathay. Neither rightly translations nor original poems, they are instead an ingenious highbred devised by the young Pound soon after the widow of Ernest Fenollosa appointed him the literary executor of her husband’s work. Pound discovered a working manuscript of notes on a series of poems by the Chinese poets Li P’o and Wang We’i, among others. (Fenollosa provided the Japanese equivalents of their names, Rihaku and Omakitsu, respectively.) When writing the poems, Pound had little knowledge of either the Chinese language or its ideograms. From the time of their original publication and through most of the 20th Century, Pound’s creative explorations provided both a profound inspiration and a source for great debate. The Cathay poems have undergone scrutiny and controversy for nearly a hundred years while at the same time having a profound influence on Western poetry, including major American and European poets throughout the 20th Century. It greatly encouraged and influenced the imagist movement. It’s style was easily akin to the straighforward American style of poetry.
http://paintedricecakes.org/languagearts/poetry/cathay_pound.html
