Poetry series to celebrate Langston Hughes

It all started with the idea of throwing a birthday party for a poet.

But Larry Robin's idea evolved, as ideas do. Robin, the force behind both Robin Books and Moonstone Arts Center, wanted to celebrate a selected poet during his or her birth month.

"Who Do You Love?" was born, combining elements of a talk show, live poetry reading, and discussion of the featured poet's life and works. Complete with a host, guests, and audience, the event will be broadcast live on the first Tuesday of each month from PhillyCAM Studios.

And who better to be the first poet celebrated than Langston Hughes?

The inaugural "Who Do You Love?" will happen Tuesday, celebrating Hughes' birthday (Feb. 1). A 1929 graduate of Lincoln University in Oxford, Pa., Hughes was an esteemed American poet and leader in the Harlem Renaissance. The poet, Robin said, had the knack of being able to speak to everyone through everyday American language.

Tuesday's free event will begin with a panel discussion of Hughes. Then there will be a "cover open mic," in which members of the community can get up and perform work by Hughes.

The focus is poetry, Robin said, because poetry crosses boundaries to bring people together. "Who Do You Love?" seeks to bring people together in love of poetry itself and of a chosen poet.

Robin said art is central to learning and thinking, a main tenet of the Moonstone Arts Center. Founded in 1983 to promote creativity and imagination, Moonstone aims to stimulate communication through the arts, with programming for both adults and children.

Warren Longmire, poetry editor at the Philadelphia-based journal Apiary, collaborated with Robin on the creation of the series. Philadelphia has a thriving poetry community, Longmire said, so it's natural and healthy for poets to get together and community-build.

For Longmire, Hughes was a natural choice for the first "Who Do You Love?" Black History Month falls in February, and with the explosion of social media hashtags such as #BlackLivesMatter, accompanying calls to action in regard to social issues, there has been a lot of movement in black communities, Longmire said. "We wanted to pick someone everyone would be familiar with," Longmire said, "but who also spoke to the issues of today."

"Hughes is timeless," said Bruce Robinson, who will be a guest at Tuesday's "Who Do You Love?" event. The professional actor founded FreshVisions Youth Theatre in Germantown more than 20 years ago, and he says Hughes' work has been one of his greatest influences.

And that influence continues, Robinson said. Many of Robinson's former students return as adults and can still recall the Hughes poems they learned under his instruction. Robinson called Hughes a trailblazer, as well, creating a foundation for other black poets.

Writer and performer TS Hawkins, another guest at Tuesday's show, called Hughes part of a legacy of activists, poets and playwrights, one that organizations like Moonstone Arts Center recognize as important to Philadelphia's social and cultural fabric. A longtime supporter of the center, Hawkins said that the organization is an enormous part of the city's rich arts history: "It's magnificent that Moonstone Arts and Larry Robins continue to create opportunities to honor that sacred space."

Robinson says he admires Moonstone's effort to remind people that poetry, and writing as a whole, are both very much alive today. "Poetry can change a life," he said, "if you really open yourself up to it."

Elijah Pringle, host of Tuesday's "Who Do You Love?," said that sharing Hughes' work would allow young artists to speak their minds without necessarily looking for approval. He sees Hughes' work as a mouthpiece or jumping-off point for younger artists.

Hughes speaks so powerfully to younger people, Pringle says, because he was among the first artists to speak a common language on behalf of the common man.

"Most of the poets in that time were great intellectuals, but they always had an esoteric spin," Pringle said. "Hughes took his amazing talent and was willing to speak about everyday people and things that weren't so pleasant."

In works such as "I, Too, Sing America," Hughes gives voice to the "darker brother" sent away from the table to "eat in the kitchen." But:

Tomorrow,

I'll be at the table

When company comes.

Nobody'll dare

Say to me,

"Eat in the kitchen,"

Then.

For Hawkins, poets such as Hughes remain vastly important - especially when his words still ring true in 2015. "It's a reminder," Hawkins said, "that history and culture cannot be muted in condos and coffee cups."