Langston Hughes Is Having a Really Good Fall

How did a Langston Hughes poem get a full page placement in the New York Times yesterday? The team at FishbowlNY offers very thorough analysis as to the origins of yesterday's reprint of Hughes's 1926 poem "I, too." And of course, this follows Wednesday's happy news that Hughes's Harlem home will be turned into a cultural center following a successful fundraising campaign, which we previously covered here. Not to mention that the Smithsonian's new National Museum of African American History and Culture on the National Mall, which opened this week, features the poem's opening line, where it is chiseled prominently on the institute's wall. More:

This is turning out to be an eventful week for matters related to the late poet Langston Hughes.

On Wednesday, it was revealed that thanks to a successful fundraising campaign, a Harlem home on East 127th Street where Langston lived for several decades is to be transformed into a cultural center. And today, in the print edition of The The New York Times, there is a full-page reprint of his 1926 poem “I, Too.” (Although it is purely coincidental that this print version immediately follows the unrest in Charlotte, it is a powerful juxtaposition nonetheless.)

The poem is not a paid ad but rather part of a special section in the paper about the National Museum of African American History and Culture. The Smithsonian’s 19th museum opens this weekend in Washington D.C.

A Times rep kindly passed on to FishbowlNY the backstory for today’s unusual poetry presentation. “Alicia Desantis in our graphics department, who also happens to have a Ph.D. in 19th century American literature, was part of the conversation about the headline for the section and recalled the phrase from the Hughes poem, “I, Too, Sing America.””

“Our Culture desk settled on that as the headline for the digital presentation that published last week. Wayne Kamidoi, who was designing the print section along with Fred Bierman, was pondering the back page of the section and wanted to do something simple and fitting. He thought of the poem and presented the idea, which the editors loved.”

Learn more at FishbowlNY.