{"product_id":"let-america-be-america-again-conversations-with-langston-hughes-9780192855046","title":"Let America Be America Again: Conversations with Langston Hughes","description":"\u003cstrong\u003eA collection of interviews, speeches, and essays by Langston Hughes.\u003c\/strong\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cem\u003eLet America Be America Again: Conversations with Langston Hughes\u003c\/em\u003e is a record of a remarkable man talking. In texts ranging from early interviews in the 1920s, when he was a busboy and scribbling out poems on hotel napkins, to major speeches, such as his keynote address at the First World Festival of Negro Arts in Dakar, Senegal, in 1966, Hughes's words further amplify the international reputation he established over the course of five decades through more widely-published and well-known poems, stories, novels, and plays. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIn these interviews, speeches, and conversational essays, the writer referred to by admirers as the \"Poet Laureate of the Negro Race\" and the \"Dean of Black Letters\" articulated some of his most powerful critiques of fascism, economic and racial oppression, and compromised democracy. It was also through these genres that Hughes spoke of the responsibilities of the Black artist, documented the essential contributions of Black people to literature, music, and theatre, and chronicled the substantial challenges that Black artists face in gaining recognition, fair pay, and professional advancement. And it was through these pieces, too, that Hughes built on his celebrated work in other literary genres to craft an original, tragic-comic persona--a Blues poet in exile, forever yearning for and coming back to a home, a nation, that nevertheless continues to disappoint and harm him. A global traveler, Hughes's words, \"Let America be America Again\" were, throughout his career, always followed by a caveat: \"America never was America to me.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLangston Hughes \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eChristopher C. De Santis is Professor of English at Illinois State University, where he served as Graduate Program Director from 2009-2013 and Chair of the Department of English from 2013-2022. He is editor of \u003cem\u003eLangston Hughes: A Documentary Volume\u003c\/em\u003e; \u003cem\u003eLangston Hughes and the Chicago Defender: Essays on Race, Politics, and Culture, 1942-62\u003c\/em\u003e; and two volumes in \u003cem\u003eThe Collected Works of Langston Hughes--Essays on Art, Race, Politics, and World Affairs\u003c\/em\u003e and \u003cem\u003eFight for Freedom and Other Writings on Civil Rights\u003c\/em\u003e. His work has also appeared in \u003cem\u003eAfrican American Review\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eAmerican Studies\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eCLA Journal\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eContemporary Literary Criticism\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eLangston Hughes Review\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eThe Oxford Companion to African American Literature\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eThe Southern Quarterly\u003c\/em\u003e, and other publications.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Oxford University Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50497723760914,"sku":"9780192855046","price":47.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_afd8b7c2-79c8-4c1e-a394-ea461900eb74.jpg?v=1730718202","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/let-america-be-america-again-conversations-with-langston-hughes-9780192855046","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}