My America Author Event - Detroit

We are excited to host Dr. Randell M. Jelks for his new book My America, Langston Huges on Democracy. Dr. Jelks will be in conversation with Michigan's Poet Laureate Melba Boyd on Sunday May 17th at 2pm. The afternoon will include a rich conversation, a Q &A and a booksigning line.

Join the event with a free ticket or book at this link. The book will be available for pick up at the event.

This book is just in time to celebrate 125th anniversary of Langston Hughes Birth. ( Feburary 1, 2026) You can find recent picture books with his poems and book issues of his books in store with us. They would be good companions to this event.

My America is a revelatory portrait of beloved American artist, poet, and playwright Langston Hughes and how his life experiences influenced his work related to democracy, activism, and the fight for joy. From author, professor, and documentary producer Randal M. Jelks.

Come celebrate the book with us -

Randal M. Jelks delivers this revelatory portrait of the celebrated poet, essayist, playwright, and American artist Langston Hughes. My America traces Hughes's journey from a child captivated by the wonder of Kansas City to cosmopolitan witness in Paris, New York, Mexico City, and Madrid. We encounter Hughes as a young man discovering the pulse of modern life in a world on the verge of exploding metaphorically and literally. His experiences informed his work and his thinking on art, democracy, and activism.

With care and no-holds-barred insight, My America removes the veneer of respectability often placed on Hughes's work and life to reveal his political adeptness. In a world threatened by fascism, Hughes's writing wasn't afforded the luxury of subtlety. He made a spiritual and political decision to stand on the side of the oppressed. He believed art should be practiced for the sake of justice. And democracy can be practiced with joy.

About the Author:

Randal Maurice Jelks is a professor, documentary producer, and award-winning author. His writings have appeared in the Boston Review and the Los Angeles Review of Books, as well as blogs, journals, newspapers, and other periodicals. He is the coeditor of the academic journal American Studies.

In conversation with

Dr. Boyd is a recently retired distinguished professor in African American Studies at Wayne State University and is an adjunct faculty member at the University of Michigan in the Department of Afroamerican and African Studies. Her poetry, essays, and creative nonfiction have appeared in anthologies, academic journals, cultural periodicals and newspapers in the United States and Europe. The Kresge Foundation honored her as the 2023 Kresge Eminent Artist.

She has a doctor of arts in English from the University of Michigan and master’s and bachelor’s degrees in English from Western Michigan University. She is current Michigan Poet Laureate!

"In this fascinating, creative, and deeply researched work, accomplished scholar Randal Maurice Jelks turns his attention to beloved poet Langston Hughes and the ever urgent quest for democracy. As such, Hughes joins Martin Luther King and Benjamin Elijah Mays, others who have garnered Jelks's analytical attention. Here, though, he engages his subject as an observer, commenter, and interlocutor, giving us a text that is as dynamic as it is thought-provoking." --Farah Jasmine Griffin, William B. Ransford Professor of English and Comparative Literature and African-American and African Diaspora Studies at Columbia University, and author of Read Until You Understand: The Profound Wisdom of Black Life and Literature

"This book is the Langston Hughes I most like, the political and dramatic Hughes. Dr. Jelks explores what I believe are the moments that most defined his public life: his brush with McCarthyism and his failed attempt to work in Hollywood. Hughes will always be current, but with this book, Dr. Jelks has made it refreshingly clear and completely up-to-date. At a time when Black history is under attack and being censored, we truly need this book!" --Kevin Willmott, screenwriter of Da 5 Bloods, The 24th, and BlacKkKlansman, and director of the film William Allen White: What's the Matter with Kansas?

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