American Academy of Poets: Poets of the Harlem Renaissance and After
http://www.poets.org/exh/Exhibit.cfm?prmID=7
Langston Hughes and seven other "major figures of the Harlem Renaissance" are featured in this "beautiful site that...celebrates the art of poetry." The reader will find not only biographies, photos, and samples of the writers' works, but will also be able to "hear the voice of the poet as he/she reads." There are several fine links to examine, including "journals & zines," "indices & general resources," and "Find a Poet," which "allows users to type in a poet's name and explore the American Academy of Poets vast biographies." This site "truly personalizes the poetry experience." The Langston Hughes page, not as spectacular as the rest of the site, consists of a brief biography and nine complete poems. Be aware that one must have a computer capable of downloading the type of audio player required for this site.
Overall Rating: 4

Cyberguide: The Poetry of Langston Hughes
http://www.sdcoe.k12.ca.us/score/langhu/langhutg.html
This terrific Web site offers "a wealth of suggestions" for the study of Langston Hughes. Teachers "may select from a number of activities," including "creating an author brochure, bookmark, or poster, making an image map, or writing an e-mail letter to a Langston Hughes study group." These activities "work toward answering three specific questions intended to promote understanding of Hughes and his work."
Overall Rating: 4

Cyberguide: The Poetry of Langston Hughes
http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/mcc:@field(SUBJ+@band(+Hughes,+Langston++1902+1967++))
"With an address like this, one would hope to find something very special at the end of it." That something special is a series of five photocopies of the original rough draft of Langston Hughes' poem, "The Ballad of Booker T." Although there are no support materials for teachers, it is interesting to see the evolvement of a poem from its first draft to a polished work of art. The site is "a fine destination for students who are writing poetry," and they can see that "even prominent poets have to edit their original work."
Overall Rating: 3

Harlem Renaissance 1919-1937
http://www.csustan.edu/english/reuben/pal/chap9/CHAP9.HTML
If you are looking for "basics on the Harlem Renaissance including...biographies of 23 notables," with an emphasis on Langston Hughes, then this site may be beneficial. Teachers and students will find "abundant information about Hughes and...his contemporaries, with a period discussion, an event chronology, bibliography and discussion of proper MLA format, and 26 research/study questions, several of which spotlight Hughes." Despite a "distracting notebook format with small type and poor graphics," the site could be "used as a springboard for...research, documented essays, etc."
Overall Rating: 3

Harlem Renaissance Art
http://www.cc.colorado.edu/Dept/EN/Courses/EN370/EN3707117Garcia/
"Photos, art and poems of several Harlem Renaissance artists and writers are beautifully presented in this...high-quality" site. Poets featured here include Langston Hughes, Countee Cullen, Zora Neale Hurston, and Jean Toomer," among others. The paintings included in the site are "extremely attractive, leaving the user wanting to see more of the same." This Web site could provide an "excellent introduction to Harlem Renaissance art for any student, (and) lends itself to interdisciplinary possibilities."
Overall Rating: 3

Home to Harlem
http://www.hometoharlem.com/Harlem/hthadmin.nsf/harlem/homepage
Visitors to "Home to Harlem" will have an opportunity to take a visual tour of modern Harlem as well as a trip back through time to the city of the Harlem Renaissance. Most useful to teachers and students may be the links where they can find "biographies and sample works from such writers as Countee Cullen, Langston Hughes, and Richard Wright," or those where they can "visit historic sites...complete with narrative and period photos." If one can ignore the advertising of "places that a local Chamber of Commerce would proudly highlight," then the site could be "utilized as an auxiliary resource" for investigating this literary period.
Overall Rating: 3

Langston Hughes, HarperAudio
http://town.hall.org/Archives/radio/IMS/HarperAudio/052694_harp_ITH.html
A nice source for four of the "Simple Stories," by Langston Hughes: "Simple on Indian Blood," "A Toast to Harlem," "Last Whipping," and "Feet Live Their Own Life." Each recording is about eight minutes in length and is read by actor Ossie Davis, who does a fine job with the dialect and intonations. This site "can be part of a unit on the short story, oral interpretation, dialogue writing, the Black experience, American literature, and American history, among others." Students of all ages will enjoy these four Hughes stories. Although they are short, they are humorous, and will probably leave the student thirsting for more of his stories. One valuable link leads to a computer sound file with recordings of the works of 32 authors, in addition to Langston Hughes.
Overall Rating: 3

The Poetry of Langston Hughes
http://www.novia.net/~aaronk/ls/hughes.html
This site consists of two short poems, "Justice" and "Still Here." Teachers will find no lesson plans, projects, or other ideas. Because the poems "project both public and private attitudes found in Hughes' work," students could compare and contrast the pair, but there are no links or anything else of interest. Although the site loads quickly and is easily navigated, it is designed with "deplorable color choices: yellow text on a black background."
Overall Rating: 2

Smithsonian Institute Photo by Carl Van Vechten
http://www.150.si.edu/150trav/remember/r914.htm
This very small site features a fine black and white photo of Langston Hughes from the National Portrait Gallery. High school English teachers would probably like to add this picture to their collections, but biographical information is extremely brief and says more about the photographer, Carl Van Vechten, than it does about Langston Hughes. There is one good link to the National Portrait Gallery with pictures of other writers, but "the total worth of Hughes material is slight."
Overall Rating: 2