Langston Hughes and Black Aesthetics: “The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain” at 100: A Special Issue of The Langston Hughes Review

deadline for submissions: 
March 1, 2025
full name / name of organization: 
Tony Bolden
contact email: 

In a 1926 issue of the Nation, Langston Hughes published his famous essay, “The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain,” a response to George Schuyler’s essay, “Negro Art-Hokum,” wherein Schuyler lampoons the idea of a distinctive African American culture. This special issue will examine the literary and cultural impact of Hughes’s essay a century later. Hughes’s essay broached the topic of aesthetics in African American culture long before Larry Neal used the term in his 1968 essay, “The Black Arts Movement.” Indeed, a recurring theme in Hughes’s numerous publications in poetry, playwriting, fiction, autobiography, history, and journalism is that black sonic and kinetic expression—especially songs, sermons, storytelling, games, and dances—comprise the foundation of the most effective aesthetic framework to represent the full panorama of African American culture. However, prevailing notions of epistemology were based on the mind-body split promulgated by Christian philosophy. The resultant stigma often shaped criteria for art, culture, and intellectualism. Thus Hughes’s metaphorical racial mountain: the gut-level belief that black expression that exemplifies and/or represents intense emotion and bodily movement evinces inferior intellectual and aesthetic quality. On the other hand, twenty-first century scholars have raised questions about Hughes’s essay, particularly the opening lines that criticize a black poet whom many believe is Countee Cullen. Herein Hughes conflates aesthetics with racial identity and reads the young poet’s comment as evidence of anti-blackness: “I want to be a poet—not a Negro poet, “meaning behind that, ‘I would like to be white.”’ As Farah Jasmine Griffin writes, “Might it have been possible that the young poet instead meant that he didn’t want to be limited to the categories the white literary establishment set for ‘Negro’ poets?” What, then, is the legacy of Hughes’s essay? How should we frame contemporary discussions of “The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain,” and what can we learn from reexamining the essay in this historical moment?

Essays may be approached from a variety of foci (e.g., genre, historical period, comparative studies, etc.), and topics may include but are not limited to the following questions:

Which of Hughes’s numerous publications in poetry, playwriting, fiction, autobiography, history, and journalism best exemplify his artistic credo?

Consider Hughes’s famous character Jesse B. Semple. Given his keen insight, vernacular diction, and outrageous humor, not to mention Hughes’s reasoning for creating his character, how does Simple instantiate Hughes's premise?

Hughes was fascinated with the prevalence and functions of humor in black expression. Is humor an aspect of the “colorful, distinctive material” that Hughes points up in his essay? And if so, which of his writings most effectively illustrate the role of humor in Hughes’s aesthetic? 

Are there comedians who exemplify Hughes’s argument?   

How does Hughes’s essay coincide with such contemporary theoretical frameworks as black feminist theory, queer theory, Afropessimism, Afrofuturism, children’s literature, black street literature, and/or hip hop studies?

Similarly, does Hughes’s essay connect with works of other writers, painters, or musicians with whom he didn’t work?

Consider also the writings of Zora Neale Hurston, Margaret Walker, Alice Childress, Gwendolyn Brooks, Kristin Hunter, Lorraine Hansberry, Jayne Cortez, Sherley Anne Williams, Gayl Jones, Ntozake Shange, Dominique Morisseau, and those of other black women writers. Are there ways in which Hughes’s essay connects with their writings?

In what ways does Hughes’s essay prefigure aesthetics and/or themes in subsequent black writings?

Several well-known musicians have recorded Hughes’s poetry, including Marian Anderson and Nina Simone, jazz musicians such as Gary Bartz and Courtney Pine, and classical musicians such as Margaret Bonds. Hughes also collaborated with musicians Charles Mingus and Josh White as well as photographers Marion Palfi, Griffith Davis, Henri Cartier-Bresson, and Gordon Parks. Hughes also worked with visual artists such as Aaron Douglas, Roy DeCarava, Jacob Lawrence, and Romare Bearden. How have nonliterary artists reflected Hughes’s vision?

For instance, several well-known musicians have recorded Hughes’s poetry, including Nina Simone, jazz musicians such as Gary Bartz and Courtney Pine, and classical musicians such as Margaret Bonds and Howard Swanson. Hughes also collaborated with visual artists such as Romare Bearden, Jacob Lawrence, and Roy DeCarava. How have artists working in nonliterary mediums reflected Hughes’s vision?

Conversely, has Schuyler’s perspective proved to be more influential than Hughes’s in black literary history?

In recent years, major cities have selected black artists as poet laureates, and several artists—Yolanda Wisher, Avery R. Young, and Jessica Care Moore, to name a few—have released impressive albums with musicians. Others such as Aja Monet have also released stellar albums. Yet scholars have largely ignored these accomplishments. Do contemporary black poets’ collaborations with musicians reflect Hughes’s vision?

Does postmodernism’s critique of essentialism effectively affirm or analogize Schuyler’s position to any appreciable degree? Is the idea of a black aesthetic itself questionable or problematic?

Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o has cited Hughes as an important influence early in his career. And interestingly enough, the two writers employ humor similarly. In the African diaspora, which artists have created works whose methods parallel Hughes’s argument?  

Finally, are there multiple aesthetic frameworks in African American culture? And if so, how should we frame critical discussions of Hughes and/or his impact on black literary and cultural history?

Please submit a 250-word proposal no later than March 1, 2025, that includes your name and Email address. Send questions, correspondence, and submissions to Dr. Tony Bolden at lhr@ku.edu.