This program is generously sponsored by the Friends of the Westfield Memorial Library.  Masks are encouraged, but not required in the Meeting Room during the performance. 

Actor Keith Henley of the American Historical Theatre performs "Langston Hughes: I too, have a song to sing!" Langston Hughes was a resident of Westfield, on Downer Street, in the late 1920s. 

Langston Hughes: Jazz Poet, Social Activist
Langston Hughes was a poet who utilized the American language, music, slang and religious views to educate the world about African American lifestyles during the Harlem Renaissance. His jazz poetry depicted the "low-life", or the real life experiences of blacks in the lower social-economic strata. His criticisms focused on the divisions, and prejudices, based on skin color within the black community. Henley’s portrayal deals with the issue of how to be oneself, and encourages all to joy in the knowledge that “I too have a song to sing” and to ask the question “why not me?”

Keith Henley’s background is one of great diversity. He graduated South Carolina State College with a major in Chemistry and minors in mathematics and biology. Later, he went on to study Theatre Education at Camden County College Blackwood, NJ. He currently owns and operates J.O.Y. Productions, Queenie’s Homemade Sweets and Catering, & Alpha Designs. In addition he is the Artistic Director and Choreographer for Folkloric Heritage Culture Arts Company Inc. of Cherry Hill, New Jersey. He began his historic interpretation career with Historic Philadelphia Inc. and has since worked for American Historical theatre and History First Hand and has performed for the Smithsonian Associates’ Teaching American History program, Historic Germantown, the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia as well as many organizations served by the New Jersey Council for the humanities.