Langston Hughes – Clara Hsu

Ensouled

Ensouled—a beautiful word—to endow with a soul. If there is such a voice that is ensouled, it is Carlos Ramirez’s. We partnered again tonight for a tribute to Langston Hughes at the Red Poppy Art House. Carlos was hyped up before the show and had trouble containing his excitement. Soon as the spotlights turned on he was afire. His white mane, his smiling eyes, his dancing feet tapped and stomped and bounced and took him within inches of the audience. He sang songs set to the words of Hughes in his baritone voice that could easily drop down to the bass and race up to the tenor register.

“I felt an immediate affinity to Langston Hughes’ poetry when I first read them.” Carlos told me with his wide child-like smile. “They are so singable.”

April Rain, Sun Song, Mother to Child, Daybreak in Alabama, Red Clay Blues…the audience and I were in turn ensouled by Carlos in this December MAPP* night.

*Mission Arts & Performance Project

Reading Langston Hughes Out Loud

“Sun and softness”. Carlos Ramirez gave me his beatific smile when I hesitated. He had invited me to assist him in his performance reading of Langston Hughes. Carlos has put many of Hughes’ poems into songs. His usual partner Greg Pond was unavailable on Saturday to read with him.

“I love Langston Hughes’ poems.” I said to Carlos. ” But I’m Chinese and he is black. I’m not sure if I’ll be able to do the poems justice.” Carlos’ smile broadened even more and I burst out laughing. Carlos is Latino.

At our Monday rehearsal I wanted to read Hughes’ Merry Go Round in a child’s voice. Carlos listened and commented that it sounded like there were a grown woman and a child mixed up in the poem. In other words, the effect didn’t work. I asked him for suggestion.

“Use your own voice.” Carlos of great white beard looked deep into my eyes. “You’re grown, but in your memory there was a time when you were small and you weren’t sure about the merry go round. Tell this memory to the audience.”

I read the poem at MAPP (Mission Artists Performance Project). There was no applause at the end. It was not to be. The audience was stunned by the memory of confusion, when a child looked for the Jim Crow section and found “there ain’t no back to a merry-go-round. Where’s the horse for a kid that’s black?“

After the Beat, What Generation?

carlos2 — Carlos Ramirez. Click image to see Carlos perform.

For one thing, we don’t smoke anymore. And instead of hard drugs, we take psychotic medications and depressant. Alcohol, yes, but most of us has wised up. Even coffee is replaced by tea. Jack Hirschman and David Meltzer are still holding up the Beat, but then what? Poets are still poor, poetry reading is still free, thank God, at least in San Francisco.

The Beat Generation rose from the river of ever rushing poetic fervor. I don’t know who’ll be the next to go viral. The cosmos still holds the upper hand in this matter. But the gems are gleaming in cafes and salons, worthy of a much wider audience. Last night at the Red Poppy Art House in the Mission, Carlos Ramirez and Greg Pond traded Langston Hughes in songs and verse with an attendance of twelve. There was no photographer, no recorder. The magic of Hughes’ poems sung with child-like joy by a nimble seventy-something year old Carlos of great white beard ceased to exist after the reading, except for those who were there.