Two KU graduates receive Langston Hughes Creative Writing Award | Arts & Culture

credit: Potato Salad by Zack "Danger" Brown Kickstarter photo

Kayla Cook and Jenea Havener are this year's recipients of the Langston Hughes Creative Writing Award, given to two writers in the Kansas City area each year to encourage others to follow in Hughes' footsteps by telling their stories through poetry and prose, the Kansas City Star reports. "My name in the same sense as [Hughes]—that's crazy," Havener, who grew up in Lawrence, tells the Star. "I remember as a kid, we had books of poetry in my house, and I really loved the Langston Hughes poem 'Harlem.' I wouldn't have been able to tell you as a kid what it was called, but I love that poem. I thought the descriptions in that poem were so juicy and so true." Cook, who graduated from the University of Kansas with a degree in English, writes about her experiences growing up as a black woman in Kansas. "We are told as Black people that our voices do not matter," she says. "As a Black community, we have struggled, but we are a community. And we are thriving in a country that we were never intended to. So I hope people take away that we need active change." Havener, who graduated from the University of Kansas with a degree Read the Entire Article

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