February 1 is both the birthday of Langston Hughes, renowned African American poet, and the beginning of Black History Month. I would like to share on of my favorites, a live recording of Langston Hughes performing his most famous poem, “The Weary Blues,” on a 1958 television program.

Now more than ever, we need to support institutions keeping African American history alive like the Carter G. Woodson Branch of the Chicago Public Library. Recently, there was a community forum attended by 100 people concerned about the delayed repairs to the library, as can be seen by the scaffolding which still remains on the front of the building along Halsted Street.

In other news, this March I will be in Lawrence, Kansas for the Mid-America American Studies Association conference, “Battleground Midwest: Defining Who and What Matters in the U.S. and Beyond” at the University of Kansas. I’m on a panel titled “From Coal Fields to Kitchenettes” about Illinois civil rights history.

A review of my first book, The Black Cultural Front, by Graham Barnfield, appeared recently in an excellent issue of Against The Current. It was included in a Black History Feature along with an interview with one of my mentors, Mary Helen Washington, as well as a review of William Maxwell’s book F.B. Eyes by the journalist John Woodford.

A review of The Negro in Illinois: The WPA Papers by Julia Mickenberg (an old friend from Claremont, CA), appeared in The Annals of Iowa, the publication of the State Historical Society of Iowa. The book contains, she writes, “a lyrical, quirky, and often poetic set of stories about forgotten figures, phenomena, sites, and processes in Illinois history.”

Wishing you health and happiness in the New Year! BD