Langston Hughes gets fitting tribute Corona library named after author by Lisa A. Fraser
because it still wasn’t being taught in the school system, and we needed a place for The Langston Hughes Community young people to go and find that material,” Library and Cultural Center in Corona was said Andrew Jackson, the executive director the first public institution to be named after of the Langston Hughes Library. “They did the famed poet and author. a survey of Queens and realized there were Formed in 1969, just two years after no libraries that had any collections on the Hughes’ death, the center was a symbol of black experience, so they decided we needthe well-organized community ed a library.” activism that arose in Corona The center first opened in 1969 S ENGINE 2 during the 1960s. It fulfilled and was run by the committee 94 LL’ I H the need to have a local place and local staff until the Queens that focused on the history Library took it over in 1987. It of the African diaspora and received funding from the aimed to nurture the black Library Services and Construccommunity that thrived tion Act, a type of federal fundthere at the time. ing designed to aid experimenThe library is an outgrowth tal projects in developing comof the civil rights movement munity libraries. and anti-poverty programs of the “For the community to make this 1960s. During that time, community cordemand and for the library system to sancporations were formed that determined tion this, it was an experiment in communiwhat services were needed in each neigh- ty library services, the first of its kind,” borhood around the city, which resulted in Jackson said. family daycare programs, community The Langston Hughes Library was first health centers, planning boards and com- housed in the space that belonged to a munity school boards. Woolworth’s store on Northern Boulevard. Another of the committees that arose in The full-length windows were a striking the Corona-East Elmhurst area was the feature that allowed passersby to discover Library Action Committee. the library within. “One of the things they realized is we The library’s aim was to take non-readers needed to teach our children their history and turn them into library users and readers. RICHMO 90: ND 19
Chronicle Contributor
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QUEENS CHRONICLE, Thursday, November 11, 2010 Page 18
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Writings from Langston Hughes and his photo at the library named after him in Corona. PHOTO BY PJ SMITH
“We realized in order to do that, you can do it through a book or the other way, through arts and culture — so we created a cultural arts program and after-school tutorial program called the homework assistance program,” Jackson said. Soon, the library outgrew the building and shelving space for books became scarce. Between 1985 and 1987, the Queens Library negotiated a letter of agreement that transformed the facility from experimental to a full branch status in the system that would raise the budget and start a process for new space. It moved to 100-01 Northern Blvd. in 1999. As the LAC was developing, organizers decided that Langston Hughes would be the best name, although he never lived in Queens.
Hughes was born in 1902 in Missouri and spent most of his youth in the Midwest. He was known for writing about the Harlem Renaissance and was a noted poet, author and journalist. He died in 1967. “We wanted our library to have the same impact that he had on American literature,” Jackson said. “He wasn’t just a writer on black American literature, he was an American author.” The library houses the only black heritage reference center in Queens County. Today it has over 45,000 volumes of print and non-print circulating material on the black experience, the largest circulating black heritage collection in the state. The library also boasts an extensive art collection, over 150,000 pieces, often disQ played on the second floor gallery.
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