Sun, Feb 04
|Providence
29th Annual Langston Hughes Community Poetry Reading
In its 29th year, the annual Langston Hughes Community Poetry Reading remains the must-see opening destination into Black History Month events throughout Rhode Island.
Time & Location
Feb 04, 2024, 1:00 PM – 3:00 PM
Providence, 150 Empire St, Providence, RI 02903, USA
About the event
On Sunday, February 4th, 2024, we will again have a legacy celebration of poems from the international icon with Rhode Island ties, the late Langston Hughes. Hughes’ reach transcends well beyond being the writer and voice of the Harlem Renaissance.
The year’s poetry reading will focus on his life as a global poet – from his travels as a steward on a freighter bound to Africa to seafaring around Europe to reporting as a newspaper correspondent during the Spanish Civil War. Besides those in Africa and Europe, the countries Hughes has been to include Haiti, Japan and the then-Soviet Union.
Those journeys further prove that his life and work can unite people of different races, backgrounds, professions and ages so it is no wonder that our annual poetry reading gatherings do the same. Over the last few years, more than 500 from all of Rhode Island have attended.
The readers are also going to be a diverse group, including students from Achievement First Providence. On hand to accompany them will be the Leland Baker Trio led by Leland Baker, a jazz saxophonist and music educator who has lived and spent time honing his craft in the great cities of New Orleans, New York City and here in Rhode Island.
The 1PM statewide-impacting event in the Providence Public Library’s (PPL) Donald J. Farish Auditorium is free and open to the public. In addition to PPL, sponsors and partners include the Providence Department of Art, Culture & Tourism, the Rhode Island Foundation and the Papitto Opportunity Connection (POC) Foundation.