LOC teacher guides with primary-source images and audio related to Hughes. Includes photographs, manuscripts, and audio recordings. For the campaign: these become discoverable artifacts in the fictional 1958 Harlem…

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Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture: Harlem photographs collection

New York Public Library / Schomburg Center

History · Grades 7-12 · Primary Source · nypl.org · English

Digital collection of Harlem photographs. The campaign page already uses a ca. 1946 photograph of West 125th Street from this collection. For bookwormburrows: these photographs are the visual substrate of the dimension…

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Hughes House at 20 East 127th Street (NYC Landmark, NRHP listed 1982)

NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission (LP-1135, designated 1981)

History · Grades 7-12 · Government Resource · nyc.gov · English

Official landmark designation report. Hughes occupied the top floor of this 1869 Italianate brownstone as a workroom from 1947 to 1967. The Harpers purchased the house in 1947; Hughes moved in with them…

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NYC LGBTQ Historic Sites Project: Langston Hughes Residence

NYC LGBTQ Historic Sites Project / Amanda Davis

History · Grades 9-12 · Primary Source · nyclgbtsites.org · English

Detailed entry on Hughes at 20 East 127th Street with notes on the Emerson and Ethel Harper household, the birth-year correction (1901 not 1902 per 2018 research), interior photographs, and references to Rampersad biography vol. II…

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Newsela: Langston Hughes biographical articles (lexile-leveled)

Newsela

English Language Arts · Grades 6-10 · Lesson Page · newsela.com · English

Lexile-leveled biographical articles for differentiated reading. Same content adjusted to multiple reading levels (typically 5 levels from 3rd grade through 12th). For mixed Grade 7 reading levels. Requires school subscription for full access…

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20 East 127th Street: Langston Hughes House (Langston Hughes Place)

I, Too, Arts Collective / NYC Tourism

History · Grades 7-12 · Primary Source · nyctourism.com · English

Hughes lived on the top floor from 1947 to 1967 with the Emerson and Ethel Harper family. Wrote Montage of a Dream Deferred (1951) and I Wonder as I Wander here. NYC Landmark 1981, NRHP 1982. Now home to I, Too…

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Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture (Arthur Schomburg Center, 515 Malcolm X Blvd)

New York Public Library

History · Grades 7-12 · Primary Source · nypl.org · English

Hughes’s ashes are interred beneath a medallion in the floor outside the auditorium named for him. The center holds his papers and is the major archival resource for Harlem Renaissance research…

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Lenox Avenue (Malcolm X Boulevard): Harlem’s heartbeat (Hughes, Juke Box Love Song)

Wikipedia / NYC geography

History · Grades 7-12 · Primary Source · wikipedia.org · English

Hughes described Lenox Avenue’s traffic as Harlem’s heartbeat in Juke Box Love Song. Runs from Central Park North (110th) to 147th Street. Mount Morris Park Historic District from 119th to 123rd…

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Gothamist: Langston Hughes Lives On In Harlem (walking tour overview)

Gothamist

History · Grades 7-12 · Lesson Page · gothamist.com · English

Overview of Hughes sites: the brownstone, the Schomburg Center ashes, the block renaming to Langston Hughes Place. Quotes Hughes: I would rather have a kitchenette in Harlem than a mansion in Westchester…

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Harlem Renaissance (National Gallery of Art, Uncovering America)

National Gallery of Art

Arts · Grades 9-12 · Lesson Page · nga.gov · English

Covers Aaron Douglas, Winold Reiss, Alain Locke The New Negro (1925), Harlem Community Art Center. Strong on visual-arts vocabulary for the dream-layer where art populates the streets. Free.

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A New African American Identity: The Harlem Renaissance (NMAAHC, Smithsonian)

National Museum of African American History and Culture

History · Grades 7-12 · Primary Source · si.edu · English

Authoritative overview. Cites Alain Locke Enter the New Negro, Survey Graphic 6 (March 1925) p. 634, formulating the Harlem Renaissance as a spiritual Coming of Age. Useful as canonical period self-description for the fictional 1958 Harlem. Free.

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The Poet’s Voice: Langston Hughes and You (NEH / EDSITEment)

National Endowment for the Humanities / EDSITEment

English Language Arts · Grades 9-12 · Lesson Page · neh.gov · English

Five-journal-entry sequence built around Negro Speaks of Rivers, Mother to Son, and others. Defines and develops voice. Notes Hughes 1958 collaboration with Henry Red Allen band, a useful 1958 anchor for the campaign. Free.

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Teach This Poem: Theme for English B by Langston Hughes (poets.org)

Academy of American Poets / Dr. Madeleine Fuchs Holzer

English Language Arts · Grades 7-12 · Lesson Page · poets.org · English

Free lesson plan by Academy Educator in Residence. Theme for English B is the poem where Hughes speaker walks from Columbia down through Harlem, the same geography the campaign bookworms traverse. Free.

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Teach This Poem: As I Grew Older by Langston Hughes (poets.org, with Ellington audio)

Academy of American Poets

English Language Arts · Grades 7-12 · Lesson Page · poets.org · English

Includes Duke Ellington/Johnny Hodges audio integration of Weary Blues. Develops listening and cross-media analysis. In the fictional 1958 Harlem: bookworms might hear this music from a window on Lenox Avenue. Free.

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The Harlem Renaissance lesson plan (PBS NewsHour Classroom, found poem activity)

PBS NewsHour Classroom / Daniella K. Garran

English Language Arts · Grades 9-12 · Lesson Page · pbs.org · English

Includes Found poem activity and Lasting Legacy essay assignment. The Found poem technique maps onto the campaign: bookworms collecting words and phrases from the dimension to compose a poem is a natural in-game activity. Free.

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Curry, Izola Ware (Stanford King Institute encyclopedia entry)

Martin Luther King Jr. Research and Education Institute, Stanford

History · Grades 9-12 · Primary Source · stanford.edu · English

Authoritative scholarly entry. Izola Ware Curry stabbed King at Blumstein’s Department Store (230 West 125th Street) on September 20 1958 with a 7-inch steel letter opener. More than two hours of surgery at Harlem Hospital…

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How an Assassination Attempt Affirmed MLK’s Faith in Nonviolence (History.com)

History.com / A&E

History · Grades 9-12 · Lesson Page · history.com · English

Long-form retrospective. Identifies operating surgeons Drs. Emil A. Naclerio and John W. V. Cordice. Confirms Blumstein’s at 230 West 125th, the letter opener, and King’s nonviolent response statements of September 30 and October 24 1958. Free.

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Thank You M’am 1976 short film record (NMAAHC, Smithsonian, object 2017.55.45.1a)

National Museum of African American History and Culture

English Language Arts · Grades 7-12 · Primary Source · si.edu · English

16mm Eric Jones / Rosetta LeNoire dramatization, transferred from DC Public Library. The canonical short film of the story with NMAAHC provenance. Free record; film availability varies.

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WLIB station history (1190 kHz, Hotel Theresa, Hal Jackson, The House That Jack Built)

Wikipedia (citing FCC and Inner City Broadcasting records)

History · Grades 7-12 · Primary Source · wikipedia.org · English

In 1958 WLIB broadcast from the Harlem Radio Center in the Hotel Theresa with pioneering Black DJ Hal Jackson on staff. Jackson anchored The House That Jack Built. Daytime-only. In the campaign: WLIB is the radio station playing in Mrs. Jones’s room. Free.

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WWRL station history (1600 kHz, competing Black AM station)

Wikipedia

History · Grades 7-12 · Primary Source · wikipedia.org · English

The competing Black AM station serving Harlem in 1958. WLIB and WWRL were the two AM radios most likely playing in any Harlem boarding-house room. Free.

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Apollo Theater history (R&B revue format introduced 1955 by Tommy Dr. Jive Smalls)

Apollo Theater Foundation

History · Grades 7-12 · Primary Source · apollotheater.org · English

In 1955 DJ Tommy Dr. Jive Smalls brought the R&B Revue concept to Apollo manager Bobby Schiffman. By September 1958 the house was three years into this format with as many as a dozen vocal acts on one bill…

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Frank Schiffman Apollo Theatre Collection (Smithsonian NMAH Archives Center)

Smithsonian National Museum of American History

History · Grades 9-12 · Primary Source · si.edu · English

Sixteen boxes including 5x8 cards kept by Frank Schiffman on every act 1946-1976. Documents Chuck Berry March 13 1958 appearance. The specific week-of-September-20-1958 booking is retrievable from this collection by in-person researchers. Free essay…

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