A Note From The Director

The Langston Hughes Festival announces its 44th annual award ceremony, scheduled for Thursday, February 9, 2023.

My mother used to take me to see all the plays that came to Topeka like Buster Brown, Under Two Flags, and Uncle Tom’s Cabin. We were very fond of plays and books.  Once we heard Faust…When I was in the second grade, my grandmother took me to Lawrence to raise me.  And I was unhappy for a long time, and very lonesome, living with my grandmother   Then it was that books began to happen to me, and I began to believe in nothing but books and the wonderful world in books–where if people suffered, they suffered in beautiful language, not in monosyllables, as we did in Kansas. And where almost always the mortgage got paid off, the good knights won, and the Alger boy triumphed.  Our mortgage never got paid off–for my grandmother was not like the other colored women of Lawrence.  She didn’t take in washing or go out to cook, for she had never worked for anyone. 
--Langston Hughes,  The Big Sea

 

The Langston Hughes Festival committee is incredibly excited about awarding our February 2023 honoree, Lynn Nottage, with the Langston Hughes Festival Medal.  

Our day-long virtual celebration begins with our symposium at 12:30PM and culminates in a 6:30 PM ceremony where we will award our honoree with the Langston Hughes Medal.

We hope to see you in February!

Vanessa K. Valdés, Director

 

Last Updated: 10/10/2022 13:43