Author Wants To Save Langston Hughes’ Historic Home In Harlem From Gentrification

A group of artists are banding together to save Langston Hughes‘ former home in Harlem.

Renée Watson, a local writer who lives near the historic home, launched a fundraising campaign in hopes of raising $150,000 to rent the place and turn it into a cultural center.

“For the past ten years, I’ve walked past the brownstone where Langston Hughes lived and wondered why it was empty,” Watson said on the campaign’s homepage. “How could it be that his home wasn’t preserved as a space for poets, a space to honor his legacy?”

Watson has lived in the city just over ten years, and she reached out to other writers once she learned of the possible fate of Langston Hughes’ home. Although born in Joplin, Missouri, Hughes made a name for himself in New York during the Harlem Renaissance, where Harlem served as his primary home for the remainder of his life.

He became known as one of the leaders of the Harlem Renaissance, creating a number of popular poems including “The Negro Speaks of Rivers” and “My People,” as well as the iconic short essay “The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain.”

So it’s understandable why Watson is trying to make sure the home is preserved in some way that still honors Hughes, which is why she, alongside several other artists, have created the I, Too, Arts Collective.

“Change is happening in Harlem and I believe it is important that in a place like Harlem, the historical and cultural spaces where African American pioneers lived and created be preserved,” Watson said. “Our goal is to lease and renovate the brownstone where Langston Hughes lived in Harlem as a way to not only preserve his legacy but to build on it and impact young poets and artists.”

So far Watson has raised $27,145. You can donate here.