Langston Hughes symposium offers free public events for all ages

LAWRENCE -- In addition to special programs by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Alice Walker and acclaimed actor Danny Glover, several programs in the symposium celebrating Langston Hughes at the University of Kansas will be free and open to the public.

Titled "Langston Hughes: Let America Be America Again," the Feb. 7 to 10 event features more than 75 speakers, including Walker on Jan. 31 and Glover on Feb. 7. Their programs at the Lied Center will be free to the public with vouchers.

The special "Intergenerational Tribute to Langston Hughes" at 4:45 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 9, in the Kansas Union ballroom is also open to the public at no charge. The tribute will include comments from poets Amiri Baraka, Jessica Care Moore, Tony Medina, Eugene Redmond, Sonia Sanchez, Tchaiko Kwyana and Val Gray Ward. Actors Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee, who worked with Hughes, former U.S. Poet Laureate Robert Pinsky and poet Judith Jones have provided videotaped comments.

The University Jazz Combo, directed by Dan Gailey, will perform for the tribute. Toni-Marie Montgomery, KU dean of fine arts, will moderate the program.

Other free and public events include:
 • two film programs;
 • a children's birthday party for Hughes;
 • a four-hour Poetry in Motion concert with open mike;
 • a talk by Roy DeCarava, a New York photographer who worked with and photographed Langston Hughes; and
 • two lectures by Ishmael Reed, an Oakland, Calif., author, poet, publisher and producer.

The dates and locations of these free events are:

 • "Langston in a Glass Eye: Rare Photographs from the DeCarava Collection," 5 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 7, in the Spencer Art Museum auditorium. A lecture by New York photographer Roy DeCarava and Sherry Turner, who will show slides and discuss a collection of recently rediscovered portraits DeCarava made of Hughes during the 1950s and 1960s, now housed in the DeCarava Collection in Brooklyn, N.Y.

 • "Black Films and Filmmakers," 7 p.m. Friday, Feb. 8, in the Haskell Indian Nations University auditorium. Baltimore film critic Thomas Cripps and filmmakers St. Clair Bourne, Isaac Julien and Mari Evans will present clips and discuss filmmaking. Films will include a rarely seen 1942 production written by Langston Hughes, "Way Down South." Contact: Alison Watkins, (785) 864-7836.

 • "SUA African-American Film Festival," 7 p.m. Friday, Feb. 8, in Woodruff Auditorium of the Kansas Union for screenings of "The Color Purple" and "Devil in a Blue Dress." Contact: Student Union Activities, (785) 864-2436.

 • "Langston Hughes Birthday Party: Sharing Aunt Sue's Stories," 3 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 9, in the Lawrence Public Library auditorium, 707 Vermont St. This party for all ages will include stories by African-American storyteller Tracy Milsap and remarks by symposium poets Willie Perdomo, author of "Visiting Langston," and Tony Medina, who wrote "Love to Langston." Contact: Joyce Steiner, (785) 843-3833, ext. 117.

 • "Poetry in Motion: An Evening Honoring Langston Hughes," 7 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 9, in the Lawrence Arts Center, 200 W. Ninth St. The musical group Malarkey and the Prairie Wind Dancers will interpret works by Langston Hughes. Local poets will join poets attending the symposium in reading HughesØ work and their own original work throughout the event and during an open-mike session in the second half of the four-hour program. Mayor Mike Rundle and the Rev. Leo Barbee will read their favorite Hughes poems. Contact: Alison Watkins, (785) 864-7836, or Candi Baker, (785) 843-2787.

 • "A Conversation with Ishmael Reed," 1:30 p.m. Monday, Feb. 11, 4033 Wescoe. Reed, a writer and a principal voice of the Black Arts movement, teaches at the University of California at Berkeley. He will also be reading his work at 4:30 p.m. Monday, Feb. 11, in the Kansas Union Alderson Auditorium.