Langston Hughes
Poet, Innovator of Jazz Poetry, Essayist, Novelist, Playwright, Harlem Renaissance Leader, Social Activist
Born: 2/1/1901, Joplin MO
Transition: 5/26/1967
astrological system used: sidereal
“Frosting
Freedom
Is just frosting
On somebody else’s
Cake–
And so must be
Till we
Learn how to
Bake.”
– The Panther & the Lash, 1926
Happy Birthday!
At the first glance of his Ascendant, I gathered that he was influenced by an elder or that his parents were much older than him (Capricorn-House of the Ancients). In my research, it revealed that he was raised by his maternal grandmother, Mary Sampson Patterson Leary Langston. When he was born, she was already near 70. This placed his grandmother in the landscape of chattel slavery in her lifetime. She was his guardian until he was 13.
The Sun at the horizon conjunct his Ascendant illuminates his identity + conscious thinking ability (Mercury in Capricorn). This planetary movement within the constellation of Capricorn highlights that his identity is in harmony with the transformation of fixed ancestral patterns (trine Pluto in Taurus). With his South Node influencing his mindset, thinking ability, and foundational learning experience, his North Node (his purpose) is activated within higher learning institutions and in long-distance journeys (9th house experience). After a year at Columbia University, he moved to Mexico, where his Dad lived since his mother and father had divorced when he was young. From there, he traveled to Africa and Europe to be seaman.
In 1924, he moves to Washington D.C. In 1926, his first book of poetry, The Weary Blues, is published. From 1926-1930, he completes his college education in Pennsylvania. With the Moon in Gemini in both his 5th and 6th house experience, it highlights how his writing would illuminate the day-to-day emotional landscape of the black american experience and his tone of expression within his writing. I love the interplay of opposition between his Venus-Moon aspect. Using his creative work to explore and expose the cognitive dissonance that eurocentrism + white supremacy imposed on the black experience.
Critic Donald B. Gibson describes Hughes in Modern Black Poets: A Collection of Critical Essays, as: differed from most of his predecessors among black poets… in that he addressed his poetry to the people, specifically to black people. During the twenties when most American poets were turning inward, writing obscure and esoteric poetry to an ever decreasing audience of readers, Hughes was turning outward, using language and themes, attitudes and ideas familiar to anyone who had the ability simply to read... Until the time of his death, he spread his message humorously—though always seriously—to audiences throughout the country, having read his poetry to more people (possibly) than any other American poet (Poets.Org)
His 11th House experience occupy a conjunction between Saturn, Jupiter, and Chiron. The 11th House experience illuminates not only group involvement, but also humanitarian ideals and global awareness. Langston Hughes was a key energetic contribution to the Harlem Renaissance movement (Mars trine Jupiter + Saturn + Chiron). This movement socially and culturally reimagined who we are within the American framework and the challenges we faced.
Thank you Baba for your life, contributions in shaping our culture and experience as a human of color in the American Experience.
I want to close this out with one of favorite poems from Langston Hughes, Harlem. This was written about a decade before the Civil Rights Movement.
What happens to a dream deferred?
Does it dry up
like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore—
And then run?
Does it stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over—
like a syrupy sweet?Maybe it just sags
like a heavy load.Or does it explode?
Harlem, 1951
References:
#sidereal #astrology #astronomy #blackhistorymonth