Selected Shorts: A Celebration of Langston Hughes

This special program, hosted by stage and film actor Teagle F. Bougere, celebrates the protean literary master and social activist Langston Hughes (1901-1967). It features two of his most striking works. In “Passing” Hughes reflects on a difficult aspect of the Black experience—the need some felt to “pass” as white. Program host Teagle F. Bougere is the reader. And Joe Morton performs one of Hughes most celebrated works, “The Blues I’m Playing,” which charts the long and complex relationship between a brilliant young Black pianist and her white patron. The reader is Joe Morton. Both stories reflect Hughes’ explorations of questions of race, identity, and personal destiny. And, the show includea a much-anthologized favorite, “Thank You, Ma’am,” in which a feisty older woman sets a young boy on the right path. The reader is Pauletta Washington.