"We, Too, Rise with You": Recovering Langston Hughes's African (Re)Turn 1954-1960 in An African Treasury, the Chicago Defender, and Black Orpheus.(Critical essay) From: African American Review | Date: September 22, 2007| Author: Kim, Daniel Won-gu | COPYRIGHT 2007 African American Review. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan.  All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group.Copyright information

 
   Oh, Congo brother 
   With your tribal marks, 
   We, too, emerge 
   From ageless darks. 
   We, too, emit 
   A frightening cry 
   From body scarred, 
   Soul that won't die. 
   We encarnadine the sky.--Langston Hughes, "We, Too" 11. 1-9 

In spite of a persistent tendency among critics to dismiss and occlude his radical work, most readers of Langston Hughes now know that Hughes was a revolutionary writer. The "Harlem Renaissance" poet who in the 1920s wrote "The N...