C.W. Post Celebrates Black History Month With Langston Hughes Event

Members of the C.W. Post community gathered in the campus’s B. Davis Schwartz Memorial Library on Feb. 3, 2005 to read from Langston Hughes’ work at "Poetry/Spoken Live! Celebrating Langston."

The open reading was organized by Adjunct Professor Carolyn Grimstead of the English Department and Professor Melvin Sylvester, head of the Periodicals Department at the library. The event also featured performing artist and actor Charles Reese who read poems and short stories by Langston Hughes amid a backdrop of music and live drumming.

Hughes (1902-1967) is best known as the poet whose works such as "I, Too, Sing America" captured the African-American experience from the 1920s through the 1960s. He was also a prolific author of novels, short stories, non-fiction books, children's books, plays and other works.

This event coincides with an exhibit highlighting the life, works and legacy of Langston Hughes on display through March 11, 2005 in the lobby of the library.

The reading and the exhibit are among a series of events commemorating the 50th anniversary of the founding of the C.W. Post Campus.

(from left) Melvin Sylvester, Curator of the Langston Hughes Exhibit, Adjunct English Professor Carolyn Grimstead, actor Charles Reese, Provost Joseph Shenker.