Festival della Cultura Americana

“I, Too, am America”: Langston Hughes Crosses Borders in the 1920s

In 1924, Langston Hughes visited France and Italy for the first time. His encounter with Europe came a year after he had signed up to work on a ship that was going to Africa. Crossing these borders and boundaries was an important step to becoming a mature artist. In his letters and autobiography, as well as in his poems, Hughes shows that he understands himself and where he comes from better as his world expands. His journey also shows us that the border created in the United States between white and black is the most persistent and complicated one that Hughes has to negotiate, and it reached out to touch him even when he is far from American shores.

This performance combines poetry and letters to show how Hughes’s encounters with borders both abroad and at home in the 1920s created the artist who would speak to Americans about race for over forty years. “Young Man Langston” was first performed at the 92nd Street Y in New York in 2017 for the publication of Selected Letters of Langston Hughes. The text will be altered for the performance in Rome to focus more on his experience in Italy.

Performed by Autumn McGaster and Calvin Washington.

Sponsored by Stockton University.