Langston Hughes Quote on People Walking Tightropes Metal Print

metal prints harlem renaissance langston hughes quotation text quotes black men famous poet american history cultural arts creative travel community global playwright author

mixed media harlem renaissance langston hughes quotation text quotes black men famous poet american history cultural arts creative travel community global playwright author

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Langston Hughes Quote on People Walking Tightropes

"I had seen people walking tightropes everywhere... Anybody is liable to fall off a tightrope in any land, I thought, and God help you if you fall the wrong way."

African-American Author Langston Hughes (Feb 1, 1901/1902-1967)

The above quote is from Langston Hughes's I WONDER AS A I WANDER, the second volume of the great Harlem Renaissance writer's accounts of his travels around the world. These words summed up travels in 1937 after he'd logged reports on the United States, Cuba, Japan, Russia, and Spain, and then headed for Paris.

The "tightropes" to which he was referring were woven of public and private human conditions similar to those confronting many of us in the 21st century. In the extended passage from which the quote was taken, he alluded more precisely to: "the tightrope of color in Alabama, the tightrope of transition in the Soviet Union, the tightrope of repression in Japan, the tightrope...

After being born and raised in the southeastern United States, I spent many years, while pursuing my education and serving in the U.S. Air Force, traveling around America and the world. Much of that story is told in my recent book releases, Greeting Flannery OConnor at the Back Door of My Mind and Dreams of the Immortal City Savannah. Artwork by me is featured on the cover of both books. My last 3 public exhibits were at the Savannah/Hilton Head Airport Art Gallery in Savannah, Georgia, USA, and during a cultural arts event in the historic Lafayette Square in the same city. I am currently completing an artbook project on the COVID-19 pandemic with text contributions from writers around the world. My original Silk-Featherbrush Artstyle...