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4.0 

Blues in Stereo

By Langston Hughes & Danez Smith
Blues in Stereo by Langston Hughes & Danez Smith digital book - Fable

Publisher Description

Publishers Weekly’s Top Ten Fall 2024 Poetry Books

From Harlem Renaissance poet Langston Hughes, a stunning collection of early works written from 1921-1927 curated by award winning poet and National Book Award finalist, Danez Smith. Hanif Abdurraqib calls the collection of polished poems and raw, unfinished, works-in-progress, “a gift to any poet working at any stage of their life and career.” 

 
Before Langston Hughes and his literary prowess became synonymous with American poetry, he was an eighteen-year-old on a train to Mexico City, seeking funds to pursue his passion. Beloved verses like “The Negro Speaks of Rivers,” were written without formal training, often on the back of napkins and envelopes, and were inspired by the sights and sounds of Black working-class people he encountered in his early life. Blues in Stereo is a collection of select early works, all written before the age of twenty-five, in which we see Langston Hughes with fresh eyes. 
 
From the intimate pages of his handwritten journals, you will travel with Hughes outside of Harlem as he travels the world, celebrate love as a tool of liberation, and enjoy his musical verse poetry, including a play he cowrote with Duke Ellington with a full score. Blues in Stereo foreshadows a master poet that will go on to define literature for centuries to come. And by keeping his original, handwritten notations found in archival material, we get to witness a genius’s earliest thought process in real time. National Book Award-nominated poet Danez Smith offers their insight and notes on themes, challenges, and obsessions contained in Hughes’s early work.  
 
 

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10 Reviews

4.0
Smiling Face with Heart-Eyes“Blues in Stereo: The Early Works of Langston Hughes is a prodigious collection of poems, and an unfinished play that really highlights both Hughes’ talent and his journey to finding his voice and style.  The curator of this collection, Danez Smith, has divided the poems into sections that really showcase each of the themes and focuses to enhance the works. Smith does an amazing job of choosing works but also narrating the collection. Their voice mixed in with Hughes' sets a soulful and intimate collection that is much more a light. I really loved their insights and elucidation of each subject.  I fell in love with Hughes as a pre-teen and his poems spoke to me in such a human, soul bearing, and intimate way. The love and affection he shows for people, the way he sees inside as well as the out; he called to my spirit. These feelings and emotions are in this collection as well. Personally, I don’t think the man could write without evoking emotion, beauty, and reverence.  There are so many poems in this collection to love: A Song to a Negro Wash-Woman, Minstrel Man, Gods, Song for A Suicide, Poem, and Poem for Youth, just to name a few. Needless to say, I am in love with this collection as much as I am with all of Hughes’ works. He is The People’s Poet for so many and for me that is certainly true. Highly recommended.”

About Langston Hughes

Langston Hughes was born in Joplin, Missouri in 1901. Often called 'The People’s Poet,' he authored and edited over thirty works poetry, novels, plays, essays, and children’s books. He was a poetic innovator and a central figure of the Harlem Renaissance, and his writing promoted equality, condemned racism and injustice, and helped shape American literature and politics. He died on May 22, 1967, in New York City. 
 
Danez Smith (Curator) is the author of four poetry collections including BluffHomie and Don’t Call Us Dead. Danez was won the Forward Prize for Best Collection, the Minnesota Book Award in Poetry, the Lambda Literary Award for Gay Poetry, and has been a finalist for the NAACP Image Award in Poetry, the National Book Critics Circle Award, and the National Book Award. Danez lives in Minneapolis with their people.
 

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