Literature

Richard Bruce Nugent was born in 1906 in Washington, DC to a middle class family. After is father’s death in 1920, he and his mother moved to New York City.

In June 1925, Nugent met Langston Hughes. After that fateful meeting, Nugent became friends with many famous faces of the Harlem Renassiance including Zora Neale Hurston, Aaron Douglas, Gwendolyn Bennett, John P. Davis and Alain Locke (who he considered to be his mentor).

Together, Nugent, Hughes, Hurston, Douglas, Bennett and Davis banded with Jean Toomer’s Harlem Gurdjieff group to publish //FIRE!//, the first African American quarterly magazine. Unfortunately, the magazine only last one issue because of financial reasons, but the literature in the print left a lasting impression.

Nugent contributed two brush and ink paintings, and the short story “Smoke, Lilies, and Jade.”

“And Alex awoke...Beauty’s hair tickled his nose ...Beauty was smiling in his sleep... his lips were so beautiful...quizzical... when he looked at Beauty’s lips...I would kiss your lips...he //would// like to kiss Beauty’s lips...Alex flushed warm...with shame...or was it shame…” -Smoke Lilies and Jade

While Nugent married Grace Marr in 1952, he was an openly gay man.

“ He did not permit others to impose on him their definitions of who he ought to be, either as an artist, an African-American, or a "man.”  -Tom Wirth

A true friend to Nugent, Hughes rescued his first poem, "Shadow," from the trash, which was eventually published.

Silhouette On the face of the moon Am I. A dark shadow in the light. A silhouette am I On the face of the moon Lacking color Or vivid brightness But defined all the clearer Because I am dark, Black on the face of the moon. A shadow am I Growing in the light, Not understood as is the day, But more easily seen Because I am a shadow in the light.

Most readers thought that the poem was about race, but in a 1983 interview, Nugent explained that "I intended it to be a soul-searching poem of another kind of lonesomeness, not the lonesomeness of being racially stigmatized, but otherwise stigmatized. You see, I am a homosexual."

Pearle Cleage wrote “Blues for an Alabama Sky”. It was performed in 1996. Guy, a homosexual costume designer, lived with his best friend, Angel, during the Harlem Renaissance. Like Nugent, Guy was forced to overcome certain stigmas and prejudices in regards to race and sexuality. media type="youtube" key="uOdAHOFlWn0" width="425" height="350" During the Harlem Renaissance, many people refused to identify as gay or straight. Sam, another character in “Blues for An Alabama Sky” explains, “It’s not always a clear question.” Cleage’s play touches on segregation between black and whites, along with class and sexuality. Acceptance was a difficult thing to come by during the Harlem Renaissance, especially for homosexual African Americans

**__ Roots: A Birth Of African-American History __** //Roots// was birthed from the creative mind of the exceptional writer Alexander Murray Palmer Haley. Haley did lineage research for twelve years to find out the extensive details about his own family history. He even traveled to Africa to a village called Juffure where the main character of his book roots Kunta Kinte was born. In the village they told stories of his ancestor Kunta Kinte’s capture and voyage to America. //Roots// was published in 1976 based off of Haley’s familial roots in Africa//. Roots// became an instant success, it was translated into over 30 different languages, it won the 1977 Pulitzer Prize for Literature as well as the 1977 National Book Award. In 1977 it was also made into a television mini-series. The mini-series broke television records with over 130 million views. The sequel to the series in 1979 also had record breaking views with its finale having the most viewers in television history for a single television production. One of Haley’s most famous quotes was that “ In all of us there is a hunger, Marrow deep to know our heritage, without this enriching knowledge, there is a hollow yearning no matter what our attainments in life” and this quote describes why //Roots// became such a large success in the African-American community. Before //Roots// there were few stories that had the power to depict the real lives and hardships slaves endured//. Roots// allows its viewers to follow the slave trade from capture all the way to Alex Haley’s generation. The novel gave African-Americans a sense of what their ancestors experienced daily as a people that were captured from their homeland and forced to follow the laws of the white slave-owners. //Roots// not only gave the African-American people a sense of their history through literature but then it birthed as a television mini-series which made it not accessible to any person of any age group, nationality, race and social status but it also gave a face to the characters and the emotions that may not be easily conveyed through literature. //Roots// also sparked an interest in researching the lineage of African-American people. More and more people began to see the benefits of taking a look back into their own history to find out where exactly they came from. Another reason Haley wrote this novel was because there was a sense of “lost” history for African-Americans. Our country doesn’t want to make peace with the ideas that we came from a corrupted and horrific time so they cover it to cover themselves which in turn deletes the history of those who suffered the most. //Roots// was an opportunity for most to explore a past and history that was erased for centuries and to unlock the keys to their future. From //Roots// many African-Americans gained the desire to pursuit their own roots in order to find the piece of their life that was missing. As Mr. Haley said not having the knowledge of your history and your roots will leave a people feeling empty, no matter what places you go in life and what you achieve if you never take a look back and find out who you are and whose you are then there will always be a missing piece to the puzzle of your life. //Roots// gave African-Americans a sense of self, a sense of who we are and our journey to where we stand today//. Roots// became the real life proof that not only did slavery exist in this country but the horrors of it were deeper than we could have ever imagined. It allowed its viewers to see with their own eyes the lives their ancestors lead daily. In a sense roots became a confirmation for most people that the history of this great land we live in was built on the backs of involuntary servitude, corruption of the Christian and moral beliefs, hatred, inequality and torture of a specific race which were all the things this county was supposed to have stood against. The greatest thing about Roots is that now that it has been produced it will always be available to anybody who wants to find out the truth of not only African-American history but American history as well. Roots has continued to be shown in schools, on major television networks or even at family reunions just to keep the legacy and knowledge of where African-American people came from and the rich history alive.

 ﻿media type="youtube" key="di-yLC6HPEY" height="349" width="425"