Offers programming focused on nonfiction authors and books. Keep watching for more here on cspan2 and watch any of our past programs online a book tv. Org. Hello and welcome to grapevine, harlem renaissance, 19th annual book library festival. I am benedict carton, with africanamerican studies, we appreciate your attendance today. The festival runs through saturday, october 14th. For all the most uptodate information on this festival and all the other programs throughout the year, visit ballstothebooks. All one word. This is funded through donations was one way to help us through this kind of programming is friends of fall for the book. To learn more visit please visit their website again. We ask that you please remember to silence your cell phones and thank you for filling out a survey and improve the festival of the future. Thank you to our main sponsor in africanamerican studies so we are pleased to have here Marylouise Patterson and Jeffrey Stewart, two writers who examine key figures of the harlem renaissance, Langston Hughes and alain locke respectively. In letters langston, doctor Marylouise Patterson explores the relationship her family, her mother had with Langston Hughes. In the new negro, the life of alain locke, Jeffrey Stewart follows the career of the central figure in the harlem renaissance. It is important to Say Something about the subject that they write about. They celebrate, both are offers celebrate artistic genius in a society that said you did not belong. There great gift to many through their art is to say this is how we do belong. Without further ado, Marylouise Patterson, thank you. [applause] thank you, everyone. Thank you, george mason university, thank you, professor benedict carton, thank you for inviting me. This is, these two people, Langston Hughes and alain locke, very important people in American History, certainly in American Literature. I would like to introduce you to my parents, and the parents of my coauthor, who knew Langston Hughes for over 30 years and corresponded with him for over 40 years. And this is an introduction, these two sets of parents, my parents, william and Louise Patterson and evelyn crawford, her parents, evelyn and Matt Crawford, their uniqueness perhaps was that they were africanamerican communists. And they were very Close Friends of langston for most of their lives and for the first half of the 20th century. I would like to show you the 17 minute video so that you will get a sense of who they were. The letters, the correspondence is in a book that we coedited entitled letter to melanchthon from the harlem renaissance to the red scare and beyond. I also want to say the voice you want to hear is the voice of paul robeson. There are pictures without labels on them. If you want to know who the people are you can ask me afterwards. [inaudible conversations] i will see you fast to sleep as i see my baby my baby like a little bird we knew Langston Hughes from the beginnings of our lives. He wrote to each of us to welcome us into the world. He did this because of his closed ties, Louise Thompson and William Paterson and Matt Crawford. He wrote me a card from paris, from langston, glad you are here. And in california the following year, when i came along a few years later he me a handwritten first draft of this poem. I found a folders lying in the snow with a star on it. Do you know . And the an original manuscript, i thought this would be over and by the time you are a big girl, i hope the red star will be shining everywhere and he will take a long time to enjoy it so be a nice baby and grow up strong. From langston. And patterson began with Louise Thompson who would later become the Louise Thompson patterson, the first to have a close personal friendship with hughes and childhood friends crawford and evelyn Gray Crawford into the poets life. Louise thompson in my mother, evelyn gray became best friends in the early 1920s, and my mother as she was known to family and friends worked as a stenographer in San Francisco. Nathaniel crawford migrated with his family from hampton, alabama, and attended high school. Louise was a teacher in virginia. She and langston met when he was there for a speaking engagement. Louise left hampton and moved to harlem. She witnessed a strike against the administration and felt she could no longer be part of this goal. Once in harlem she became part of the circle of artists and intellectuals whose most prominent figure was Langston Hughes. And on vacation, during that trip, San Francisco born William Lorenzo patterson. Pat and langston met earlier during the heyday. In new york in 1920 and wellknown in one of harlems most prominent attorneys and dedicated political access. He would later become a National Leader of the american communist party. In the summer of 1928, with her friend louise, who introduced her to Langston Hughes, and artist Aaron Douglas and the brilliant writer, langston hit it off immediately and after a few weeks she would return to the bay area and sweetheart Matt Crawford who she married the following year. In her early days in new york as secretary to langston, and not neale hurston. And by wealthy white patron, and the relationship with a dramatic halt, and no longer control langston or louise and humiliated them both. She was another woman who had been a patron of the arts, particular interest was primitive people, she did not want them to write poems on these protests, seems to be primitive, had control you and when didnt have to worry. Going to college, and west virginia. Tried to ruin and made it hard for langston for a long time. In 1932 langston was on a speaking tour, in oklahoma, dear mister crawford, thank you, i would be happy to appear in oakland, i should be in california in april, nice to see her, sincerely, Langston Hughes. By may of that year my father and langston had become fast friends. Late that months, a telegram about an exciting prospect louise had been organizing from new york. Here is a copy of a wire from louise, all players must arrive in moscow by july 1st. Very necessary you should arrive new york by june 15th, wire immediately, louise. And get a path forward, that would be your decision, and had been invited to moscow to make a film inside black and white with the state of race relations, and they were roommates during their stay in the soviet union. In the heavy atmosphere, they forged a friendship for political struggle. William paterson has gone to the soviet union earlier. By 1928, a political philosophy and traveled to moscow. I went to make a motion picture. And over here. In this country. Pictures from this anywhere in the world and eventually the film was canceled. It kept going. I was able to travel all the way, i am picturing one of those expressions because there are types like myself and i wanted to know how they live. They were profoundly affected and uplifted by their trip to soviet central asia. On their return they would both become active in the fight in alabama. This time they also joined the communist party convinced the only hope for black americans was a fundamental change in an oppressive political, economic and social order. Langston remained in the soviet union until spring of 1933. Back in the states, Langston Langston spoke nearly half and went to visit them at his alabama prison. Later he traveled louise had also gone to spain. During that time there was a focal point for anyone who had anything at all. From all over the world. There was the ransom. It was the written word and they are all aligned and wrong. Langston pulled back from 1978 and i was there. Together in 1938 langston in harlem, their most successful production was langstons play dont you want to be free. Throughout the 30s and 40s langston spent a lot of time in california at the home of a wealthy friends. He would come to berkeley to go to the barbershop and visit my family. He was playful and lighthearted some of the time but also confided in my parents and found family among us. And on syrias personal and political, he called this clarification. In 1941 he was attacked by the confusion for an early poem he had written, occasionally borrowed small amounts of money, paying them back promptly when he got his next check from a speaking engagement or publishing project. Langston was called to testify about his political views before the infamous senator mccarthy. He sent our parents a summary of this testimony was a touching note explaining with Paul Roberson he had not enforced to name names. Langston invited my parents and me to broadway. By father was disturbed by the play and langston and saw tuesday night, and thank you for sending us several other books. It is difficult to define my reaction to simply heavenly. I cannot say i liked it. It did not appeal to me. Simply heavenly does not say what needs to be said. And simply childish. The time and place called for Something Else, the dominant moral role in american life. Thanks again. One must do more than bring speakers into progressive life. And they require anger and surprise. I certainly am sorry i wasnt at the theater the night you all came as i wouldve loved to say hello to you. Your letter is greatly appreciated and valid in a number of ways. When it comes to plays it is a miracle to end up with anything, after 20 to 30 others they were handed creation from producers and records so all i can say is i did the best i could under the circumstances. Your serious consideration is something to be grateful for and hope to see pressures let up. This correspondence, a break in the friendship between these two men. And another opinion. In the 1960s langstons visits with us were less frequent, what we were doing and thinking. Mary louise was in moscow and in graduate school in new york when news of her marriage to a fellow student at Friendship University was announced, and in summer of 1966, on his way back from the states, langston passed through paris where i was living. My parents were visiting me at the time and the four of us and langston teased me that evening telling me i had no business speaking french better than he did and after saying goodbyes, he watched langston walk up the shell and serve the next morning, the last time i would see him, someone who along with our parents dedicated his life to the cause of justice for black americans and other oppressed people from around the world. He was our uncle and our friend, and the book you suggested we read and a rightful place. In america, in the kitchen, i left. Tomorrow, nobody will daresay to me in the kitchen then, they will see how beautiful we are. I am in america. [applause] now you have met my parents, william and louis patterson, michael others parents, evelyn and Matt Crawford and had a glimpse of their 40 plus year friendship with langston. You will love our book, letters from langston from the harlem renaissance to the red scare and beyond coauthored by me and Evelyn Louise crawford. My mother, louise, was the last survivor of the aforementioned quintet and when she departed in 1999 we were left with a trove of letters from langston to our parents we had grown up with, and they kept any letters our parents mustve written him. In 2002 we went to the library and your Yale University for the James Weldon Johnson collection where langstons papers reside to see what if anything langston had kept. Low and behold he kept just about everything including letters we had written to him that we had long ago forgotten about. We sat there in silence, overwhelmed by what we found and slowly realized this 40year correspondence was a window into the most important sociopolitical events of the 20th century. And additionally, the correspondence displayed black radical activism. They are choosing to make a commitment to progressive struggle that they knew would lead them financially strapped. Leslie, it illuminated a profound friendship. We realized we had to share this discovery. It couldnt just remain our family treasure. We had to write a book for uncle langston, we knew that one who never stopped because we knew he had never stopped believing that workers deserve to enjoy the fruits of their labor or in biblical terms the meek deserve to inherit the earth they till. He never stopped believing in the imperative to struggle for true democracy in america, the america that never was but could be as he poignantly wrote in his poem, let america be america again. I would like to make three points about langston from the Vantage Point of being one of his nieces. The first, there was the langston who was politically independent outside joining the National Negro congress. The only groups he joined that i recall were writers groups, most of those were politically progressive. He was also artistically independent holding a normal 95 job only twice in his life and only for a few months. One was at Atlanta University and the other was at chicago. Despite the fact that he was a famous screenwriter, playwright, poet heard on the radio and request speaker for many events, he was penniless most of his writing life, borrowing from friends, thankful for the largest of his patrons and the few awards that came his way. He survived mostly from his speaking engagement which forced him to be on the road for weeks and months at a time often in dilapidated car facing grueling schedule, everyone to two days and during the humiliation of jim crow accommodation this, landed somewhere he had friends or slept in his car. This constant travel and substandard travel conditions meant he was ill. This along with chainsmoking had to have taken a great toll on his life shortening it to 65 years. It wasnt until the 1960s that he made any real money and only got to enjoy it 5 to 6 years, he died in 1967. There was the langston who kept his radical ideological beliefs to the end of his life. This is proven by the fact he maintained an open friendship with my parents who were known communist and other open black communists like ishmael in chicago, and 1950s or the hint of sympathy, and vanished, divorced, jailed or dead, sound familiar . Donald trump was mentored by roy cohn who was mentored by and worked with the infamous senator joe mccarthy for whom the term mccarthyism was coined and master of the art of bullying, smear campaign, lying and the use of the new media, tv, which proved perfect for his popularizing of his fear mongering theatrics. Leslie, langston loved black people. He loved are colored people and oppressed people but he especially loved black people. In all complexity and contradictions, our walk and attitude, our expression, food and generosity, humor and blues, language and rhythm, strength, unrelenting struggle for freedom, equality, dignity and ability to live without fear. He never stopped giving his voice to people are being the voice of his people, he never stopped assisting young writers and to hear the songs and voices of their people. Thank you. [applause] just want to say im honored to hear this session with professor Jeffrey Stewart. I am honored to be here with you. Is this is this i was confused, someone told me it was the black mike and i thought there was a racial narrative coming in here, and didnt decentralize the moment but anyway i am so glad to be at george mason where i taught for many years among friends and colleagues, to be here with a finished i couldnt finish his, and at the same time i was so nurtured by the community of scholars here who valued me and helped me move along in the path that led to its conclusion. I am so pleased to be here at george mason, my colleagues. And howard university, in that process, one of the things i think about working on a book for a long time is you accumulate many different resources. You talk and work and interact with so many people and at some point something he said to you, some things that was done and whoever comes back and fits and helps suture together the thoughts and ideas hanging apart for a long time and one of those people for me was professor eleanor trailer, professor of english at howard university. I was working with my great friends, richard powell, professor of art history. The blues aesthetic. And struck me, helped pull together, it was special about what i wanted this book to say so at the time in the late 80s everybody was all involved and in love with alex haleys roots even though historians were always nitpicking it to death but partly because it was so popular. We all know that as historians. We hate to see journalists move into our territory and do a job better than we could but they are writers. I will read this little part. Alex haleys roots is a story relating to questions expressed through a search for reunion. In such a story, the questor defined himself in past and present parts, achieves totality and fulfillment as he reunites with his source, a very old story told east and west, a beautiful story that assures us we belong to continuity and there is order in the universe to assert our job is defined and reconciled and experience the fulfillment, that unity achieves. Significantly, however, this is not the story afro American Literature has characteristically told nor is it the story told in the oral folklore upon which that literature is in large part hills, prayer rabbit, signifying monkey, john, the conqueror, the anonymous author of the wondering