Langston Hughes; Harlem; Spanish Blood

On May 11, I went to a really cool event. I went to a talk held at The University of Chicago's Center for the Study of Race, Politics and Culture. It was a "CRES Talk":

Langston Hughes' works have fascinated me for a long time, from excerpts read in my sixth grade english class to the song that references him in the musical 'Rent'. Langston Hughes was undeniably an important and influential author.

The event I went to was titled CRES Talks presents: "Langston Hughes Travels in Harlem – The Globality of the Small Story Spanish Blood."

Langston Hughes in Harlem

Now, I've never read Spanish Blood by Langston Hughes, but after attending this talk, not only did I want to read it for pleasure but I also wanted to read it for the critical sociological view it presents, something I might have otherwise failed to analyze or give sufficient importance to had I not listened to the fascinating Sandhya Shukla (a professor of American Studies and English at the University of Virginia) passionately explain Spanish Blood and Langston Hughes' relevance to the history of the Harlem Movement and the social, ethnic, and racial climate.

The talk focused on Langston Hughes' rendition of Harlem in his works as something not solely Harlem-esque but as global. Professor Sandhya Shukla used Spanish Blood as an important example of how his works touched on broader topics, relevant globally analytical setting. She spoke about how Spanish Blood could be used to link Langston Hughes' person and political travels and how he depicted Harlem's everyday life. She argued that his work was global because the Harlem he wrote about was global. It did this "not only through depicting what is outside its borders, but by exploring what is inside" by inside she meant the experiences of the people that Langston Hughes writes about, "the differences living side by side intimately and conflictually" and the persistent but passionate desire to "transgress the authorized confines of race and place." 

Apparently, in Spanish Blood, Langston Hughes touched on the interactions in Harlem between Latino migrants and African Americans (prior to the wave of puerto rican immigrants) and astonishingly reflecting the future reality of the Harlem communities, the separation of Harlem into 'east' and 'central'. I will definitely keep in mind the things mentioned in this talk while I read Spanish Blood (hopefully this summer!).