My America
Langston Hughes on Democracy
Publisher
Broadleaf Books
Publication
Apr 07, 2026
Format
Hardback
Illustrated
No
Price
29.99
Dimensions
5.75 x 8.75 in
ISBN
9798889832126
Pages
292
Age
Adult 18+
Category
Biographies & MemoirsGeneral Nonfiction
Rights Sold
🌍 World Wide Rights Available
Description
Awards & Endorsements
Farah Jasmine Griffin, William B. Ransford Professor of English and Comparative Literature and African-American and African Diaspora Studies at Columbia University, and author of Read Until You Understand: The Profound Wisdom of Black Life and Literature
Author(s)
Randal Maurice Jelks
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| Publisher | Augsburg Fortress |
| Publication | Apr 07, 2026 |
| Format | Hardback |
| ISBN | 9798889832126 |
| Pages | 292 |
| Dimensions | 5.75 x 8.75 in |
| Age | Adult 18+ |
| Price | 29.99 |
Categories
Biographies & MemoirsGeneral Nonfiction
BISAC Codes
LITERARY CRITICISM / American / African American
BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Literary
My America
Langston Hughes on Democracy
by Randal Maurice Jelks
Best known as the leader of the Harlem Renaissance, the celebrated poet and writer Langston Hughes believed in the power of art as resistance. What can we learn from his works today?
Randal M. Jelks delivers this revelatory portrait of the celebrated poet, essayist, playwright, and American artist Langston Hughes. My America traces Hughes's journey from a child captivated by the wonder of Kansas City to a cosmopolitan witness in Paris, New York, Mexico City, and Madrid. We encounter Hughes as a young man discovering the pulse of modern life in a world on the verge of exploding metaphorically and literally. His experiences informed his work and his thinking on art, democracy, and activism.
Langston Hughes is one of the few American writers who consistently wrote about democracy from a joyous perspective, and My America explores how his works speak to the political anxieties and crises we face today. Jelks deftly examines the themes in Hughes's work, including creative expression, communal dignity, class struggle, and human suffering, and what they mean for our inner well-being as democratic persons and political participants.
With care and no-holds-barred insight, My America removes the veneer of respectability often placed on Hughes's work and life to reveal his political adeptness. In a world threatened by fascism, Hughes's writing wasn't afforded the luxury of subtlety. He made a spiritual and political decision to stand on the side of the oppressed. He believed art should be practiced for the sake of justice. And democracy can be practiced with joy.
Reviews, Awards & Endorsements
Farah Jasmine Griffin, William B. Ransford Professor of English and Comparative Literature and African-American and African Diaspora Studies at Columbia University, and author of Read Until You Understand: The Profound Wisdom of Black Life and Literature
"In this fascinating, creative, and deeply researched work, accomplished scholar Randal Maurice Jelks turns his attention to beloved poet Langston Hughes and the ever urgent quest for democracy. As such, Hughes joins Martin Luther King and Benjamin Elijah Mays, others who have garnered Jelks's analytical attention. Here, though, he engages his subject as an observer, commenter, and interlocutor, giving us a text that is as dynamic as it is thought-provoking."
Author
Randal Maurice Jelks
Randal Maurice Jelks is a professor, a documentary producer, and award-winning author. Jelks is the author of three books African Americans in the Furniture City: The Struggle for Civil Rights Struggle in Grand Rapids , Benjamin Elijah Mays, Schoolmaster of the Movement: A Biography and Faith and Struggle in the Lives of Four African Americans: Ethel Waters, Mary Lou Williams, Eldridge Cleaver and Muhammad Ali. His forthcoming book is Letters to Martin: Meditations on Democracy in Black America (Lawrence Hill Books, Chicago, January 11, 2022). His writings have appeared in the Boston Review, the Los Angeles Review of Books as well as blogs, journals, newspapers, and periodicals. He is the co-editor of the academic journal American Studies.
Current Licenses
🌍 World Wide Rights Available