Langston Hughes’s “Aunt Sue’s Stories” is a free-verse poem about a young black boy who finds comfort in the stories that his Aunt Sue tells him. Aunt Sue’s enchanting voice and somber tone give the child a vivid sense of the life experiences that Aunt Sue has had, especially during slavery.
“Aunt Sue’s Stories” was published in the NAACP’s literary magazine The Crisis in July of 1921. The Crisis is the world’s oldest Black literary publication and is run by the NAACP to this day. Early works in this publication such as Hughes’ poetry helped usher in a new era of portraying everyday black life in America. Portraying everyday black life was also the focus of Jessie Redmon Fauset, the editor of The Crisis at the time of Hughes’ rise to prominence. A prolific editor, essayist, and novelist, Fauset would take part in launching the careers of several Harlem Renaissance artists alongside Hughes. Fauset was a large supporter of Hughes’ first ever published poem, “The Negro Speaks of Rivers,” which is included in Hughes’ first poetry collection titled The Weary Blues. When Hughes’ first book of poetry, titled The Weary Blues, was published in 1925, it officially propelled “Aunt Sue’s Stories” and “The Negro Speaks of Rivers” into the literary world.
The Weary Blues is known for its colloquial African American vernacular and its simple language. With a cadence like that of contemporary poetry, Langston Hughes’ work stays ahead of its time. Reviews of The Weary Blues varied but were generally positive. Contemporary critic Georgia Douglas Johnson described the project in the Pittsburgh Courier as meditative, melodic, and inventive. Other critics such as Jake Falstaff in the Akron Beacon Journal argued that the only excuse for the success of poetry with such mundane subject matter is the fact that it comes from a black voice. On the other hand, Jessie Redmon Fauset herself wrote in The Crisis,
His poems are warm, exotic and shot through with color. Never is he preoccupied with form. But this fault, if it is one, has its corresponding virtue, for it gives his verse, the perfection of spontaneity.
While “The Negro Speaks of Rivers” is the more well-known poem from The Weary Blues, its counterpart “Aunt Sue’s Stories” was written in the same potent, youthful state of mind. “Aunt Sue’s Stories” illuminates the enchanting effects of storytelling in black childhood and the importance of family heritage in African American culture.
