116th birthday of Langston Hughes

(Born 1 February 1902, Joplin, Missouri, US)

ONE OF THE most distinguished alumni of the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s-1930s – prolific award-winning poet, novelist, playwright, columnist, freedom movement exponent

First published in 1926 by Hughes, just 24, the poems here in The Weary Blues are a preview of the enduring liberatory portraiture of a stretch of anthologies and other writings that the savant contributes to African American and world literature

(Wynton Marsalis Septet, “Black codes from the underground” [personnel: Marsalis, trumpet; Wycliffe Gordon, trombone; Wes Anderson, alto saxophone; Todd Williams, tenor saxophone; Marcus Roberts, piano; Reginald Veal, bass; Herlin Riley, drums; recorded: Berlin Jazzfest, Germany 3 November 1989])

Twitter @HerbertEkweEkwe

132nd birthday of Alain Locke

(Born 13 September 1885, Philadelphia, US)

DISTINGUISHED philosopher and prolific multidisciplinary scholar aptly described by Martin Luther King as one of the preeminent philosophers that “came through the universe”, dean of the 1920s-1930s Harlem Renaissance

(Ornette Coleman Quartet, “WRU” {or Wit and its Relation to the Unconscious – Sigmund Freud}
[personnel: Coleman, alto saxophone; Don Cherry, pocket trumpet; Scott LaFaro, bass; Ed Blackwell, drums; recorded: Atlantic Studios, New York, US, 31 January 1961])

(Ornette Coleman Quartet, “C & D” {or Civilization and its Discontents – Sigmund Freud}[personnel and recording details: as in above])

Twitter@HerbertEkweEkwe

115th birthday of Gwendolyn Bennett

(8 July 1902, Giddings, Texas, US)

Poet, graphic artist, organiser and leader of artists’ guilds, cultural magazine editor and contributor, academic, one of the leading figures of the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s-1930s

Twitter@HerbertEkweEkwe

111th birthday of Helene Johnson

(Born 7 July 1906, Boston, Mass, US)

One of the outstanding poets of the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s-1930s, later develops the discipline to write a poem each day for a period stretching almost five decades

(George Russell Sextet, “Ezz-thetic” – personnel: Russell, piano; Don Ellis, trumpet; Dave Baker, trombone; Eric Dolphy, alto saxophone; Steve Swallow, bass; Joe Hunt, drums [recorded Riverside Records, New York, US, 8 May 1961])

Twitter @HerbertEkweEkwe