Celebrating Lynn Nottage: CCNY Honors the Playwright's Art and Activism at 44th Langston Hughes Festival

Episode Transcript

Vincent Boudreau00:15

Welcome to From City to the World. I'm your host, Vince Boudreau, the President of the City College of New York. From City to the World is a show about how the work that we're doing at City College matters to people across the city and throughout the world. We'll discuss the practical application of our research in solving real world issues like poverty, homelessness, mental health challenges, affordable housing, disparities in healthcare and immigration. We'll also talk about the impact of our Harlem community on arts and culture, and where City College fits into that. I'll say, Harlem has a rich and colorful history in the arts. Starting in 1910s through the mid-1930s, thousands of African Americans migrated north, many of them settling in Harlem, and they brought, those Harlem residents a rich culture of writing, singing, dancing, and theatrical performance. That era was called the Harlem Renaissance. It's the golden age of African American culture.
Now, the central figure in the Harlem Renaissance was a writer and poet, Langston Hughes. Known as a pioneer of blues and jazz poetry, Hughes was an activist poet. He wrote plays and novel, two autobiographies, and newspaper columns, all of which depicted urban African American life. With the publication of his first volume of poetry, The Weary Blues, in 1926, he inaugurated a tradition of poetry inflected with jazz, blues, and Afrocentric rhythms. He was the poet-laureate of Harlem.
Now, since 1978, City College has hosted a Langston Hughes Festival to honor the literary legacy of Hughes and to give the Langston Hughes Medal to some of the most distinguished writers of African ancestry. We're going to be hearing a little bit more about that lineage later in the program. This year, on February 9th, 2023, City College will award the Langston Hughes Medal to Lynn Nottage, the first woman in history to win two Pulitzer Prizes for drama. We will talk to Ms. Nottage on the second half of the show.
On the first half of the show, Jodi-Ann Francis, associate director of the Black Studies Program here at City College, and moderator of the Langston Hughes Festival will tell us about that festival. So let me tell you a little bit about her. As Associate Director of the Black Studies Program at City College, Jodi-Ann Francis has curated readings with prominent African and African diasporic figures in the literary world, like Pushcart Prize-winning poet Kwame Dawes, former South African President, Kgalema Petrus Motlanthe, and the family of author, Chinua Achebe. She was a fellow with both the Harvard Future of Work Cross Study, and Harvard Sustainability Council, HGSE. Both organizations explore the intersection between education, technology, diversity, and labor trends using case studies in public universities and community colleges.
Miss Francis is also a writer, blogger, and artist who has collaborated with the BRIC Arts Media, the Apollo Theater, Bronx Council of the Arts, the Harlem Arts Council, and Caribbean Media, The Blog. She's a proud CCNY alum and serves on the advisory committee of the Langston Hughes Festival. Miss Francis, welcome to From City to the World.

Jodi-Ann Francis03:30

Thank you so much, President Boudreau. It's great to be here.

Vincent Boudreau03:33

I'd like to start by asking you to tell us something about the festival. It's been around for decades. It revolves each year around a specific honoree, but can you give us a taste of the different authors who've received the Langston Hughes Medal over the various decades?

Jodi-Ann Francis03:49

Absolutely. I'll quote Langston Hughes himself. He said, "Hold fast the dream, for if dreams die, life is a broken-winged bird that cannot fly." The Langston Hughes Festival is in its 44th year and still dreaming to celebrate, since 1978, the distinguished writers associated with Africa and the African diaspora. This year is no different. We continue to use his legacy by recognizing Lynn Nottage. To give a taste of the writers we have honored in the past, we have honored James Baldwin, Toni Morrison, Maya Angelou, Chinua Achebe, Derek Walcott, Edwidge Danticat, Jacqueline Woodson, Rita Dove, and Jamaica Kincaid. And that's just to name a few.

Vincent Boudreau04:41

Jodi-Ann, that is a living, breathing ancestry of the greats in African and African American literature. I remember the very first time I ever saw Chinua Achebe, who is one of my heroes, very first African novel I ever read was Aké, his account of growing up in Africa, and there he was at City College. So, it's a tremendous festival. What would somebody who comes to our Langston Hughes Festival, you heard me inviting the world a few minutes ago to this festival, what would they see? What does the day look like?

Jodi-Ann Francis05:19

This program this year aims to highlight both the contributions and legacy of Langston Hughes, as well as honor Hughes's legacy and its impact by recognizing our celebrated playwright, Lynn Nottage. The program is a daylong celebration of Nottage's work and will be held on February 9th in Aaron Davis Hall. It includes a symposium at 12:30 PM which includes panelists such as CCNY's very own historian, Dr. Laurie Woodard, 2017 winning award winner for her debut fiction, We Love You, Charlie Freeman, Kaitlyn Greenidge, and famed playwright, Quiara Alegría, known for her play In the Heights. The symposium aims to both engage Nottage's work from varying perspectives, underscore how it continues to mine for the legacy of Langston Hughes, and simply to enjoy the brilliance of Nottage's work and how it is significant in the lives of contemporary society today.

Vincent Boudreau06:25

As the associate director of the Black Studies program, I wonder if you can talk a little bit about how the festival and the tradition of the festival fits into the larger work that you do at the college as the Associate Director of the Black Studies Program.

Jodi-Ann Francis06:39

The Langston Hughes Festival is fully in line and actually centers the mission of the Black Studies program here at the City College, as one of the oldest and largest Black Studies program in the United States, we were founded in 1969, we aimed to serve as a hub for academic discussions, engage new research on African, African diasporas and foster communities really that creates a lifelong learner citizen hoping to improve and engage critically in a setting that continues to forge ahead in becoming a department and the legacy of Langston Hughes to continue and as you say, President Boudreau, impacts the city and the world.

Vincent Boudreau07:22

So, celebrating the literary works of African-American, African diasporic writers is one way to collect the work that we do on campus to the culture and the history of our Harlem neighborhood. How important is that in the way you approach the subject of Black Studies? In terms of your students’ interest, what they do once they graduate, can you talk a little bit about... It's no accident that the oldest Black Studies program in the country is located in the cultural mecca for African Americans in the United States, Harlem. Can you talk a little bit about that connection and how it reflects in your work?

Jodi-Ann Francis08:00

Yes, absolutely. Celebrating great literary works is a path of connection and that is at the heart of Black Studies. It's connection. Not only for our campus, our students, our collective history. It honors Harlem, it honors ourselves, and it honors great work. The celebration is really a bridge and we honor that bridge. It's a bridge between learning, it's a bridge between engagement, and it's a legacy. It's a legacy of created work that highlights the lives, the past, present, and ultimate future of both our students, the residents of Harlem, and the world.

Vincent Boudreau08:44

So now let's talk a little bit about this year's festival and this year's honoree. You are on the selection committee. Can you talk a little bit about what that was like, what the committee considers, and what it was specifically about Lynn Nottage's work that captured your imagination and attention?

Jodi-Ann Francis09:09

It's interesting being on that advisory committee and choosing between an amazing selection of work that is out there. But each year the Langston Hughes Festival Committee gets together. We look through work of major writers from Africa and the African diaspora whose work is access and has likely having a lasting impact on the world of literature and writing. And so, Ms. Nottage's work captured our attention because it is simply intriguing.
The characters in her plays are beautifully convoluted and pushes us to interrogate deep what we considered social truth. And her plays, musicals, and operas always focuses on working class people as we are at City College and we consider ourselves the Harvard of the proletariat. It centers us really and often working-class people who are Black and it privileges them in their full humanity, which is... It's quite abreast. So, we are honored to have her this year on February 9th as this year's recipient and legacy of Langston Hughes.

Vincent Boudreau10:25

Well, that is as good a transition as I could hope for. We do have Lynn Nottage with us today on the show. Let me tell you a little bit about her. Welcome her to the show. Ms. Nottage is a playwright and a screenwriter and the first woman in history to win two Pulitzer Prizes for Drama. Her recent work includes the book for MJ: The Musical on Broadway, the libretto for the opera, Intimate Apparel, the performance installation of The Watering Hole. She's currently preparing a production of Clyde's for the Berkeley rep in California. This past fall, by the way, it was announced that Clyde's is the most produced play in the current 2022, 2023 season all across the country. Some of her past work includes Sweat, a show that we just recently put on at City College, Ruined, and the book for The Secret Life of Bees. Ms. Nottage is the recipient of a MacArthur Genius grant fellowship and other awards. She's an associate professor at Columbia University School of the Arts and is a member of the Dramatist's Guild. Ms. Nottage, welcome to From City to the World.

Lynn Nottage11:30

Well, thank you. Thank you. And it's lovely to be here.

Vincent Boudreau11:33

Really a pleasure to have you on the show and it'll be a great honor to have you at the Langston Hughes Festival. I'm going to do this first and then we will come back for you and I to talk a little bit. I want to start out by asking you about the process of you developing the characters in your work. Anyone who pays attention to your plays immediately sees how careful you are in the construction of your characters, how complexly they're drawn. And I was struck reading one article about you where it mentioned that you spend a great deal of time, sometimes years, interviewing people as you develop your characters. And I wonder if you could talk a little bit about that process, what it gives you as you're putting characters together.

Lynn Nottage12:13

Sure. I never interviewed people for a play until I began doing research for my play Ruined, which was set in the Democratic Republic of Congo. And initially I had wanted it to be a modern adaptation of Bertolt Brecht's Mother Courage which would've been set during the protracted war that was happening in the DRC. And I began searching for stories about what was happening to women and I couldn't find any. And so, I spoke to director Kate Whoriskey and my husband, Tony Gerber, and I said, "Well, if we're going to tell this story, I think that we actually have to travel to East Africa and interview the women directly."
And we found ourselves on a plane and 24 hours later in East Africa sitting with women who were fleeing that armed conflict, found themselves on either the border of Uganda or in Kampala. And I asked them questions which were related to Mother Courage, and one of the questions was always, "What does the word mother courage mean to you?"
And it was really quite arresting and emotional to watch how those women held that word in their mouth, transformed it and said, "Yes, mother courage." And at that moment. I realized that there was a story that was not connected to Bertolt Brecht's Mother Courage that was very specific to what was happening to them in that moment and very specific to the continent of Africa. And so, I'm going to have to immerse myself and do the research.
And I subsequently ended up going back to East Africa two other times and was really fortunate my husband is a documentary filmmaker and he really mentored me through the process of doing interviews. And one of the things that he said is that you have to lead with empathy and you always have to give your subject something, is that it has to be a fair exchange, that you can't ask people to open up their hearts without opening up your heart to them. And so, I think that that really became the foundation for the way in which since approached interviewing people.

Vincent Boudreau14:33

I want to explore this a little bit. When I was a political scientist, I spent lots of years interviewing activists in Southeast Asia and really struggled sometimes with this question of "I'm asking these people to tell me really difficult, really personal things about their lives and I don't know what I'm giving back to them." I would try to talk about how the work I was doing would somehow contribute or advance the things that valued to them. I never really felt that that was a sufficient answer. And I wonder what kind of answers you come up with if you have the same kinds of questions?

Lynn Nottage15:14

I do, and that certainly was one of my dilemmas. When you're asking people really to bear their hearts and sometimes the stories that you're telling are very, very difficult for them to share, it's like, "What can I give you in exchange?" And one of the things that I always said to people is that I'm not a doctor, I'm not a lawyer, I'm not a human rights activist. What I am as a storyteller. And what I can do is listen to your story from beginning to end. And I can be that witness. And that's what I gave them. I gave them an ear. And what I found is so many of the women in particular felt unheard and felt unseen and just the mere act of sitting down and listening was enough for them.

Vincent Boudreau15:58

And that's a characterization that you could probably extend across almost the full range of the characters that you draw in your plays. These are carefully drawn stories of people who are not used to being listened to or heard authentically.
Lynn Nottage16:13):
Absolutely.

Vincent Boudreau16:15

So, I want to talk just a little bit about Sweat. As I said, we've produced it recently at City College. Really such a compelling story. And I think one of the things that struck me about it is that it's an incredibly understanding portrait of postindustrial... I say anger, but it's more than anger. It's a sense of being deserted in a way as well. And it's as sympathetic a portrait as I can think of viewed from, if you would accept this characterization, from the outside of that world. And I wonder how difficult that was for you to arrive at that sympathy with that set of experiences?

Lynn Nottage17:02

Yeah. I think that I arrived at that place because I immersed myself in that community and I really tried to get to know people, not on the superficial level, but just to understand where they were coming from. And I have a phrase that I always lean into, which is replacing judgment with curiosity. And when I began interviewing people who would ultimately become the inspiration for Sweat, I tried very hard to do what I feel I'm good at, which is to listen to what they were saying, even if what they were saying was very difficult to hear. And I also want to figure out how to capture the complexity of a community that had truly been fractured across racial and economic lines without diminishing their humanity and figure out how I could be compassionate and empathetic to even the people who challenged me on so many different levels.

Vincent Boudreau17:56

There is a masterful article about you, it's included in the series in New York Times' The Greats, and you're the first great that, Susan Dominus is the writer, and at one point she's asking you about the book that you're putting together around MJ: the Musical. And the musical is set right around the time in his life when allegations of sexual misconduct are starting to emerge. And so, she's asking you about that and how that factors in your work. And you say something like, "Your job is not to interrogate his guilt. Your job is to unpack his art." And I wonder what drew your eye to that part of the story and what did you ultimately find as you were looking at his artistic process at that moment in his life?

Lynn Nottage18:49

Sure. Michael Jackson is one of the defining musical stars of the 20th century. He changed pop music. And so, for me, I was very interested in the anatomy of an artist, just how did this boy from Gary, Indiana go from living in a tiny home to standing on the top of the world and redefining how we look at and listen to music? And I felt that in many ways that story hadn't been told. And there is so much emphasis on the complexities of Michael Jackson, and I think that there is also a story to be told about that. And I think that there's someone who will do a very good job. But what I was interested in was who was as a pioneering voice in music and how music really shaped every aspect of his life including some of the more difficult parts of it.

Vincent Boudreau19:56

What did you discover in his artistic process, in his art?

Lynn Nottage20:01

Yeah. One of the things that I found which was really fascinating is that he was an absolutely uncompromising perfectionist. And I think that that was at the core of everything that he did. And I think that sometimes his perfectionism drove him to the point of distraction and destruction. I think that one of the other things that I found interesting was that he was such a generous philanthropist and that so much of what he did was to raise money to give back. And I think that that's an aspect of his life that's often overlooked. And I think the other thing that's often overlooked is how in control he was of his craft and how in control, until he was out of control, he was of his image in the media.

Vincent Boudreau20:54

Yeah, what an interesting juxtaposition that is to be so focused on what your craft is and totally unable to control the narrative about who you are. There are various films that show him during the filming of that, the ensemble of We Are The World. And just watching him react to the inability of some of those artists to pull it together, it's hysterical, but you see how uncompromising he is in trying to get the sound he wants. And he's working with some of the best in the industry and he's out of patience with them.

Lynn Nottage21:42

Well, I also think that he was as hard on himself as he was and on others. I think that his father pushed him and he developed certain skills that didn't permit him, at some point, to step outside of his drive for perfection. That became what defined him.

Vincent Boudreau22:03

You've made your most indelible mark to date as a playwright, but you're more broadly an artist. As I read your introduction, you're working on libretto, you've got interview skills, you've incorporated film and even journalism into your work, but you're also a relentless activist. And again, going back to some of the people that I used to talk to in Southeast Asia who were activists first, I remember doing interviews with the New People's Army and they would have all kinds of semi-legal organizations associated with what was an insurgency at the time.
And a lot of them, or some of them, were artistic organizations. And I remember talking to actors and musicians and writers associated with those artistic groups, and the political line was always primary in their work to the point where some of them were frustrated that artistry had to take a backseat to politics. And I don't know that you've characterized yourself as an activist. Everybody who writes about you certainly does. And I wonder how the activist and the artist coexist in you and in your work.

Lynn Nottage23:25

Oh, what a lovely question. For me, I'd say, and I think that others have said this as well, that the very act of where you choose to focus your lens as an artist is a political act. And for me, my art practice really comes from wanting to be in conversation with that world and also wanting to tell stories that move and entertain and illuminate. And I don't think that the two are mutually exclusive. And I have a dual foundation, which is theater and activism. My mother, who was an activist, had me walking picket lines from the time I was five years old. And then at night she would take me to see theater. And so, I think that I was able to assimilate the notion of those two things coexisting from a very early age.

Vincent Boudreau24:22

In the artistic world, what is it that the activist in you wants most to disrupt?

Lynn Nottage24:30

Well, I think for me, I mostly want to disrupt the notion of who belongs center stage. I think that for so long when I went to the theater or when I turned on television, or even to a certain extent when I read books, I didn't see myself woven into the narrative in ways that felt truthful and felt representative of the life that I've led or the life that my family has led. And so, I think that if I want to disrupt anything, it's the notion of who we are as Black people and disrupt the notion of us living in some sort of binary universe in which there's only one way to tell our story.

Vincent Boudreau25:15

That's really interesting. Yeah. Your work is both accessible stylistically, the language is not complicated, but it's very, very complicated thematically. You're unpacking people that are pulled in lots and lots of different directions. And you're also writing about and maybe writing for people whose lives are often treated in two-dimensional terms, but they're in no way two-dimensional. This gets to what you were saying about who needs to be centered in the work. I wonder if you could talk a little bit about how you think about who you write about, how you write about them, and who you're writing for. And how does this combination of complexity and accessibility factor in how you approach your craft?

Lynn Nottage26:07

Yeah. I wish I had a really simple, easy response to that question, but I think-

Vincent Boudreau26:14

It's not surprising that you don't, I should say.

Lynn Nottage26:18

I really don't because my plays come to me in so many different ways and the characters speak to me in many different ways, and I can't tell you why. Finally I sit down and I choose to write about those particular characters other than I can't shake them. And in terms of form and content, I think that each story really dictates the forms of it. People often say that my work is nomadic stylistically and that I can move very agilely between drama and comedy, but I think that it's really reflective of the world that we live in. And that going back to when I was interviewing women in East Africa is that I was struck by how easily women who had been through some of the most horrific trauma could, half an hour later, be laughing. And I found that that tension was fascinating. And I think that when I'm looking for subjects to write about, I'm always looking for that tension in them, those people who move between grandiosity and despair.

Vincent Boudreau27:35

Oh, that's wonderful. I love that phrase, "People who move between grandiosity and despair." I'm going to write it down and steal it from you one of these days.

Lynn Nottage27:43

Yes, please.

Vincent Boudreau27:46

Can we talk a little bit about the staging of your work? It's not a playwright's obligation to make sure their work is accessible, but accessibility is so important, it seems in all aspects of the way you approach both how you gather your information and how it translates. Do you think about whether the people that you write about or people like the people you write about have opportunities to see your work in production onto the page and into a play and where you fit into that process?

Lynn Nottage28:24

Yeah, I'm constantly thinking about it. And it's a real conundrum because theater, as it exists in the proscenium is immensely expensive, which makes it unfortunately exclusive and not always accessible to the audiences that I'm most interested in talking to. But that said, I teach a course at Columbia called “American Spectacle: Looking at Theater Outside of the Proscenium.” And so, I'm always trying to figure out ways in which we can break convention or to use your word, disrupt how theater is made and where theater is made. And over the years, I've been trying to make a concerted effort to reach new audiences. One of the things that we did with Sweat, because we felt that it was really important for this play to be in conversation with communities other than the Broadway community, other than people who go to theaters around the country.
And we did the public theaters first ever national tour, and we very specifically took Sweat to non-traditional venues. So, we were in libraries and we were in community halls and we were in a brewery. And we went to five states very specifically in cities that didn't have major theaters. And that was an amazing experience. And one of the things that I want to note about that experience is during the entire time that I was sitting in the audience, I never heard a cell phone ring. And people brought their children and they sat on seats that weren't uncomfortable, but they were rapt because there was a real hunger to engage with stories that reflected what they were going through.

Vincent Boudreau30:13

As a kid, my father taught in a small college in upstate New York. The most exciting night of the year was the night that we got to go watch college productions of theater. And during Harlem Week or during summer stage, I've seen what theater can be like in an audience of people that don't go to the theater all the time or don't go down to Broadway. And it's so surprising to watch an audience just be swept up in the performance. And so important given the kinds of work that you do to make sure that these folk are participants in the performance as well.

Lynn Nottage30:51

That's so true. And it was really one of the truly gratifying things was seeing how people responded, because so often audiences in New York are jaded and they have this attitude of "Bring the theater to me." Whereas theater is collaborative and theater really is about an exchange of energy. And when I was on the road, I felt like people were willing to sign that contract in ways that people don't a lot of times in New York.

Vincent Boudreau31:20

Obviously, I've said it a few times, we're thrilled to have the opportunity to award you with the Langston Hughes medal this year. You heard the list of people that have received it, and I wonder how you think about yourself in relationship to the literary tradition that the award recognized. I want to be really clear. I'm not asking what does it feel like to be mentioned in the same breath with Maya Angelou. That's not what I'm asking about. What I'm asking about really is what does it feel like to be the modern occupant of that tradition? Does it come with a sense of responsibility to promote, to live up to a tradition, to change or modernize or...? How do you think about being in that lineage?

Lynn Nottage32:13

Yeah, responsibility is such an all-encompassing word, and I think within it is a burden that can lead to the censorship of voice because you're constantly interrogating all of the choices that you're making. And so, I tend to push away from that word and its implications. But that said, I do think that it's a tremendous honor to walk in the footsteps of giants like James Baldwin and Rita Dove and Edwidge Danticat, Derek Walcott. And I think that if I were to take hold of that word in my mouth, responsibility is to be truthful about the ways in which I reflect my world. And I think it's something that I share with all of those people that you mentioned earlier. And in doing so, hopefully it will have some resonance.

Vincent Boudreau33:12

Yeah, I've asked you, now that I'm reflecting on the questions, I've hemmed you in a little bit. I've talked about your responsibility to your source and the voices and people are entrusting you with stories, and then you think about the creative process as needing to have a certain lightness and a certain freedom. I'm apologizing for bringing that word a little bit into the conversation.

Lynn Nottage33:44

No need to apologize because it really allowed me to think about the word "responsibility." And I do think that what we have as artists is our quest to be free enough to tell some truth and responsibility sometimes can encumber that.

Vincent Boudreau34:04

I have one last question that I've been thinking about asking you, and I'm warning you ahead of time. It's super self-indulgent, it's institutionally self-indulgent. But as I was reading to your work, I started to feel that my college, and I've been at City College for 31 years. I came right out of my degree program as an assistant professor, fell in love with the place and just stayed. It's got a lot of issues, my little piece of heaven up here in Harlem. But if it was a person, it might be a character in a Lynn Nottage play. A little bit, doing good work, complicated, working to serve the underclass in New York, striving to produce social mobility. And I'm not going to ask you to comment on my own private fantasy specifically about my college and your work, but what makes a good character in a Lynn Nottage play?

Lynn Nottage34:59

To answer the first part of your question, City College actually is a character in a Lynn Nottage play. I went to the High School of Music and Art, which was on 135th Street and Compton Avenue. And so, every day had the good fortune to see the beautiful campus. And I think that the campus wove its way into my work and Crumbs from the Table of Joy ends with the character going to City College. It's the last monologue.
So, what makes it a good character in a Lynn Nottage play? I really think for me, in the process of writing, it's a character that continues to challenge me, a character that entertains me, a character that demands attention. Because if you're going to live with a character for a number of years, they're going to have to keep your attention and keep you from looking away. And I also think that for me, it's characters that offer me new ways of looking at things. I find that characters that most intrigue me are the ones that are most perplexing and the most vexing that I have to figure out, "Well, why is that character doing what they're doing?" And the play really becomes the process of me trying to understand those perplexing and frustrating characters.

Vincent Boudreau36:21

Well, listen, it's going to be a joy to welcome you to campus on February 9th. I can't wait for the symposium and, in particular for the ceremony. I'm going to stop calling it a ceremony and I'm going to start calling it a celebration. Jodi, I want to give you the last opportunity to... I've been pitching the Langston Hughes Festival throughout this program, but since you are one of the organizers of it and the moderator of the symposium, I want to give you a second to pitch it yourself.

Jodi-Ann Francis36:53

Yes, absolutely. Thank you. Thank you both Lynn Nottage and President Boudreau. The Langton Hughes Festival this year really is an invitation to everyone. As President Boudreau has been indicating, if you have an aunt, if you have a cousin, this is your celebration as well. We are celebrating both you, Ms. Nottage's work, as well as Langston Hughes' legacy, Blackness. We're inviting you to campus. Come February 9th, 2023 to both occasions, the symposium at 12:30 PM as well as the celebration and creative performance and tribute at the end of the day at 6:00 PM. We look forward to seeing you here. Thank you.

Vincent Boudreau37:39

Wonderful, wonderful. Lynn, I can't tell you what a pleasure it's been to talk to you about your work. You've been so generous with your time and really look forward to welcome you in person to the campus.

Lynn Nottage37:49

Well, thank you. And I really greatly and profoundly appreciate this honor.

Vincent Boudreau37:54

The honor is ours. So, to the audience, I want to thank you for listening to From a City to the World. Thanks to our guests, Jodi-Ann Francis, moderator of the symposium of this year's Langston Hughes Festival, and to Lynn Nottage, the recipient of this year's Langston Hughes Medal. This show was produced by Angela Harden, and yours truly, Vince Boudreau. For more information about the Langston Hughes Festival, you can also go to ccny.cuny.edu and search the phrase "Langston Hughes Festival." I want to thank one more time our two guests.