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Article: Black Nativity; THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO LANGSTON
- Article from:
- Pittsburgh City Paper
- Article date:
- December 17, 2003
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright Steel City Media Dec 17, 2003. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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One of the ornaments on the Christmas tree of American holiday theater is the Black Nativity: A Gospel Song Play, written by Langston Hughes in the 1960s.
Hughes was deemed the "Poet Laureate of the Negro Race," a title he encouraged. He meant to represent the race in his writings and he was, perhaps, the most original of all African-American poets besides Paul Lawrence Dunbar.
Nativity scenes are nothing new; in fact, they have been around for more than a thousand years in church celebrations and art paintings. Small porcelain sculptures depicting the event can be purchased online for $9.99.
What made Hughes' Black Nativity new and different was the way he put the gospel music of the black ...