The King of Letters
A Review by Dr. Jerry Flack
Make it stand out
Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.
There Was a Party for Langston is not so much a juvenile biography of Langston Hughes as it is a celebration of his profound legacy as a word maker and his influence on generations of African American authors and poets such as James Baldwin, Alice Walker, Toni Morrison, Nikki Giovanni, and Alex Haley.
In February of 1991, the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, a branch of the New York Public Library, sponsored a grand opening of the Langston Hughes Auditorium in Harlem, Manhattan, New York City. Langston Hughes had been the king of letters. He had been the best word maker ever. He gave fresh meaning to such words as Mother, America, Harlem, Rhythm, Freedom, Black, and Dream. As the king of letters, he inspired other great word makers and great leaders such as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Jason Reynolds writes that he was inspired to write There Was a Party for Langston when he discovered a photograph of Maya Angelou and Amiri Baraka dancing up a storm at what was presumably a finale to the grand opening ceremonies of the Langston Hughes Auditorium. They had come to the party to recite poems at their hero’s feet, but they also took part in a genuine, be-bopping, snappy, high-stepping Harlem jubilation. The greatest Black word makers in America paid tribute to Langston’s great words. But, they also came to a party, to jam, to lionize, to boogie, to leap, to get-down at an all-out boom da boom bash.
The two most prominently featured Black word makers shimmying and filled with dazzle are Maya Angelou and Amiri Baraka. There are visual and verbal allusions to their great works. The word Freedom is highlighted by a bird flying free as it is released from a golden housing made up of the letters of the word C-A-G-E. In one dazzling spread, Maya is dressed as constellations in a dark and deep blue sky. Amiri’s favorite word is Black. He has come to recite his favorite poems by Langston such as “I, Too, Am America.” But, he also held hands with Maya as they swung and spun and slid. They were celebrating Langston’s great jazz poetry.
Laughter and joy fill the library. Great American authors and poets joyfully come alive from the spines of their great books that rest upon the surrounding library shelves. They are smiling and laughing at the party that celebrates the ABCs of Langston Hughes. Countee Cullen, Alice Dunbar Nelson, Alice Walker, Ralph Ellison, Octavia Butler, and Claude McKay are actively watching a spontaneous Harlem exultation.
Young Langston is shown as a child growing up in Ohio where he was always the best word maker in his classes. Reference is also made to his enemies who wanted to burn his words. His response was to create even more words and especially words that made people laugh and experience joy.
If there is a fault with There Was a Party for Langston it is the lack of biographical information in the narrative and end notes about the life of one of America’s greatest writers. That omission can be corrected easily with further research about the complete life of Langston Hughes. (See Home and School Activities.)
Two things make this picture book soar. The front end pages are highly informative. Sixteen luminary African American men and women of letters are highlighted with positive caricatures adorning the spines of their great literary works in the front end pages. The back end papers display the titles of Langston Hughes’s most famous books.
The second special highlight is the incredible originality of the illustrations created by brothers Jerome and Jarrett Pumphrey. Their extraordinary images are fashioned from handmade stamps. The key theme of There Was a Party for Langston is working with letters and words. The ingenious power of the artists’ use of letters is extraordinary on every page. In one spread, lighted windows in a tenement building spell out the word Harlem. In another high-stepping use of Langston’s ABCs, the word Blues is spelled out with jazz musicians and their instruments. Alphabet letters are used to create images of people and allusions to words that are keys to book titles and historical events. The illustrations are dazzling and high-spirited. Every time readers turn a page they are transported to evocative and celebratory new images that transform letters into dancers, poets, profiles of Langston, and even library shelves.
There Was a Party Going On is a snappy, joyous hoopla readers will not want to miss.
Home and School Activities
Langston’s Life and Times. Langston Hughes (1901-1967) is often credited with the origin of jazz poetry. He is perhaps best known as the leading poet of what is now referred to as the Harlem Renaissance. Known primarily as a poet, Hughes also wrote plays, stories, and journalistic pieces for The Chicago Defender. Learning more about Langston is one of at least two scholarly projects that can be realized by inquisitive students. They can download copyright free photographs of Hughes to highlight their own written biographical portraits of this great author and poet. Students can read his works such as Shakespeare in Harlem and The Big Sea. Readers will note the titles of 12 of Langston’s most well-known book titles that are imprinted on the spines of his books located on library shelves and displayed on the back end papers.
A second avenue of research for a young reporter’s article for February’s Black History Month can include a contemporary investigation of the Harlem Renaissance, a cultural tribute to African American music, dance, art, literature, theatre, and even fashion that spanned the 1920s and 1930s. The most famous poet of the Harlem Renaissance was Langston Hughes. The Harlem Renaissance extended beyond Harlem to other American cities and especially to France where the African American dancer Josephine Baker was a French heroine and queen.
Jason Reynolds’ Debut. There Was a Party Going On is Jayson Reynolds’ picture book debut. Reynolds has won numerous awards for his novels. From 2020 to 2022, he was the Library of Congress National Ambassador for Young Person’s Literature. He has also received Coretta Scott King Honors and the Carnegie Medal. In 2023, the American Library Association presented him with the Margaret A. Edwards Award. Reynolds received the John Steptoe Award for New Talent for his first novel, When I Was the Greatest. He wrote the novel, Miles Morales: Spider-Man (2017) for Marvel Comics. Born in Washington, D.C. in 1983, Reynolds has become an inspiration for a new generation of word makers. Urge young creators with aspirations to become web designers or blog writers to write and illustrate a tribute to Reynolds. The author uses many interjections in his premier picture book such as comic book author-illustrators use in their works (e.g., Bam! Pow! Wow!). Ask readers to define interjections as one of the eight parts of speech. Next, invite them to write and illustrate mini-biographies of Reynolds making abundant use of interjections in their narratives. Readers can also research the lives and works of Jerome and Jarrett Pumphrey, the brothers who have collaborated to create prize-winning picture books. Their illustrations for There Was a Party Going On are extraordinary. Readers with a particular interest in artworks can engage in online research to learn and share more information about these brothers and collaborators.
Langston’s Word Children. One of the greatest contributions of There Was a Party Going On is the posting of the literary luminaries that are saluted throughout. As noted, the front end pages present drawings of 16 great African American word makers (alphabetically arranged) from James Baldwin to Richard Wright. These same literary greats are revisited kinetically midway through the Harlem celebration. Ralph Ellison comes alive and points and inviting arm to Alice Dunbar Nelson (and others) to note the celebrated dancers. Add Maya Angelou and Amiri Baraka plus Langston Hughes and young researchers have 19 African American word makers whose lives and works they can research and present in oral and/or written presentations, especially during Black History Month.
Speaking Langston’s Words. Students can hear some of Langston’s greatest poems performed on YouTube. One example is Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. reading “Mother to Son.” Hughes himself is presented reading another of his great poems, “The Negro Speaks of Rivers.” Encourage individuals and groups to stage solo or group readings of these and other African American verse masterpieces. A bonus can be memorization. Many of the greatest of Langston’s poems are relatively short and can be memorized. Memorization may seem like an old-fashioned skill, but learning and reciting poetry and word passages has helped thousands of people through difficult or perilous experiences. Hughes’s verse is also useful with ESL students. They can recite the word master’s great poems in both English and in their native language.
Reynolds, Jason. There Was a Party for Langston. Illustrated by Jerome Pumphrey & Jarrett Pumphrey. New York: Atheneum Books, 2023. Caldecott Honor Book, 2024. Coretta Scott King Honor Book, 2024.
