The Langston Hughes Medal is awarded annually to recognize an influential and engaging African American writer. Established by the late Raymond Patterson, Professor Emeritus of English at the City College of New York, the medal honors Langston Hughes' lifelong commitment to social change through works that reflect various cultures with roots in an African heritage. The award is given to a "literary work that has endeavored to engage, challenge and question their cultural milieu in the tradition of Langston Hughes."
In 1973, the late Raymond R. Patterson, Professor of English at the CCNY, founded the Langston Hughes Festival to celebrate Langston Hughes’s vision of himself as an African American citizen-poet.
Famous quotes containing the words langston hughes, langston and/or hughes:
“I swear to the Lord
I still can’t see
Why Democracy means
Everybody but me.”
—Langston Hughes (1902–1967)
“In the middle of the next century, when the literary establishment will reflect the multicultural makeup of this country and not be dominated by assimiliationists with similar tastes, from similar backgrounds, and of similar pretensions, Langston Hughes will be to the twentieth century what Walt Whitman was to the nineteenth.”
—Ishmael Reed (b. 1938)
“You never look at the backside of a mirror because when you do, it’ll affect your future because you’re looking at yourself backwards. No, you’re looking at your inner self and you don’t recognize it because you’ve never seen it before.”
—Gus Van Sant, U.S. screenwriter and director, and Dan Yost. Bob Hughes (Matt Dillon)