I, Too, Sing America: The Friendship and Collaboration of Margaret Bonds and Langston Hughes

As an undergraduate at Northwestern University, pianist-composer Margaret Bonds (1913-1972) stumbled across a book of poetry by Langston Hughes (1902-1967). It was in that book that she first read, “The Negro Speaks of Rivers,” his first published poem (written at age 17 and published at age 19). The two met in person several years later, beginning an intimate friendship and artistic collaboration that spanned 30 years. They respected, encouraged each other’s artistic pursuits, and shared a passion for celebrating their African American identity, and elevating the work of other artists. Bond’s musical settings of Hughes’ texts had internationally acclaimed performances during their lifetimes. This lecture-recital traces the story of their friendship, chronicled in hundreds of letters exchanged over three decades, and includes performances of Bonds’ settings of Hughes’ texts, including “The Negro Speaks of Rivers,” “Three Dream Portraits,” and “Songs of the Seasons.”