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Looking for Langston - Black Gay Male Identity

            "Looking for Langston" tells the story of African American Poet Langston Hughes and his life and consequences within the black gay culture. The film is presented as a reflection on Langston Hughes and the Harlem Renaissance going on during that time period. The 1980's showed a rise in the queer civil rights movement as well as the AIDS epidemic which Looking for Langston tells the story of. Director Isaac Julien seamlessly merges the documentary footage of the Harlem Renaissance along with the scripted scenes that are interpretations of the works of Langston Hughes as well as the other artists. The film soon dives into an underworld of this all black male, homosexual Harlem movement. Julien draws upon music, poetry, and film to celebrate identity and desire within the Harlem Renaissance. Julien uses these materials in order to effectively relate the issues of discrimination, isolation, love, fear and desire to the audience in order to paint this image of a dark, obscure world. This film represents an interesting dynamic between that of the viewer and the one being viewed. It succeeds in holding a relatively strong bond between "the self" and "the other". It does this through having "the self" captivated through the desires of "the other" and having the viewer disconnected, or kept at a distance from the idealized other. The film creates a sense of transience which is effectively organized by virtue of "desire." .
             Looking for Langston is a very genuine search for Black gay male desire. It is Langston Hughes search for a Black gay male identity. And the past plays a key role in Hughes search for desire. Isaac Julien clearly indicates throughout the film that its reflection on the past is the direct result of concerns regarding the present. The film holds a strong juxtaposition between the past and the present. And the audience gets a sense of Hughes's strive for understanding the unknown and looking for the present desire all while in a moment of danger.


Essays Related to Looking for Langston - Black Gay Male Identity

1. Langston hughes

Langston Hughes was a writer who was able to look diversity in the face. ... Even his parents" educated status couldn't save their family from poverty, as blacks were still looked upon as ignorant, regardless of how much education they had received. ... "I tried to write poems like the songs they sang on Seventh Street - gay songs, because you had to be gay or die; sad songs, because help being sad sometimes. But gay or sad, you kept on living and you kept on going. ... One director of theatre, Martin Jones, after success with one play, went looking for another hit and...

  • Word Count: 1438
  • Approx Pages: 6
  • Grade Level: High School

2. Langston Hughes

Setting out to write about black Americans, Hughes created a body of work-poetry, fiction, journalism, essays, plays, and song lyrics. ... Reality didn't match Langston's fantasy. ... Paris at that time was home to an array of black American musicians and entertainers. ... Langston returned to college, this time at Lincoln University, an all-male, black institution located in the wooded countryside south of Philadelphia. ... Langston Hughes was a very private man. ...

  • Word Count: 1295
  • Approx Pages: 5
  • Grade Level: High School

3. The Identity of Langston Hughes

Langston Hughes is an African American writer and a social activist. ... This is what people remember Langston Hughes for. ... "I Too" is a famous poem of Langston Hughes, which is very short and to the point. ... One could easily relate the speaker of this poem to Langston Hughes himself. ... Langston Hughes' piece "I Too," stands for the identity of the population of African Americans as well as a reflection of his own Identity. ...

  • Word Count: 1169
  • Approx Pages: 5
  • Has Bibliography
  • Grade Level: High School

4. Langston Hughes

People have been treated with animosity as a result of being black, gay, Jewish, mentally challenged, lower class, Indian, etcetera. Langston Hughes, a famous black author, was a victim of this austere rancor. ... She taught him about famous black people in society in the early 1900's. ... James Presley notes "one summer in Chicago when he was a teen-ager Langston Hughes felt the American Dream explode in his face; a gang of white youths beat him up so badly that he went home with blacked eyes and a swollen jaw. ... The black churches of Laurence, Kansas were another influence in Langst...

  • Word Count: 1559
  • Approx Pages: 6
  • Grade Level: High School

5. Langston Hughes

Shaped by his parents, childhood, and life experiences, Langston Hughes became one of the most influential Black Americans of his time. Langston Hughes was born February 1, 1902, to James and Carrie Hughes. ... He then attended Lincoln University, an all black male school, in Pennsylvania (Meltzer 115). ... Langston Hughes died on May 22, 1967. ... Langston Hughes was a great man in Black rights history. ...

  • Word Count: 1218
  • Approx Pages: 5
  • Has Bibliography
  • Grade Level: High School

6. The Black Expiereance

Experiencing America In Black Skin In this essay I will discuss the black experience through history and Langston Hughes's desire to portray the black experience as hopeful. ... The first poem that I read by Langston Hughes was "I, Too." ... (Hughes, "I, Too" 807) The male character knows his place within the walls of the family he works for but, he also knows that he is buying time within the walls too. ... Thirdly, is the poem "Negro" also by Langston Hughes. ... After reading each of the poems Langston Hughes uses the importance of history to relate the black experience. ...

  • Word Count: 624
  • Approx Pages: 2
  • Has Bibliography
  • Grade Level: High School

7. The Truth About Black Men, Gays And Homophobia

The truth about black men, gays, and homophobia There's nothing easy about being black, but the struggle for a positive African American Identity is filled with support for fighting it. However, when that same African American Male is Gay there is no support team. ... Black publications proudly announce their arrival while gay publications arrive in hidden plan manila envelopes. ... There exist both prominent if their lives were not under constant scrutiny for traces of lavender within the male's "blackness". ... It would change Hip-Hops preconceptions of the homosexual an...

  • Word Count: 1889
  • Approx Pages: 8
  • Has Bibliography
  • Grade Level: High School

8. Langston Hughes and Richard Wright

Langston Hughes and Richard Wright Langston Hughes helped advance black literature in the United States more than any other writer. ... He compares the two in ways that put the white male above the black mother drastically. ... He says, "I wonder where I"m gonna die, being neither white nor black?" ... This created blacks feeling of fear and I"m sure nervousness in some occasions. ... But as Langston Hughes put it that we are all brothers under the skin and I think that even though blacks were going through this hard time, they had this thinking in the back of their mind and in time we ...

  • Word Count: 582
  • Approx Pages: 2
  • Grade Level: High School

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