May 24, 1960

Mr. Tom Dent,
217 W. 139th St.,
New York 30, N. Y.

Dear Tom Dent:

I am sorry I missed you the day you brought
your poems by, but I have been out of town
a great deal this season on lecture trips,
and still have one more to make. For con-
sideration by the potential publisher of
the proposed anthology I have submitted the
following poems of yours:

WHO AM I
COME VISIT MY GARDEN
GRAPE
145th ST. HILL
LOVE

And when there is more news to report I
will let you know, and it would be a
pleasure to see you. Meanwhile, best
wishes,

Sincerely,

May 16, 1964

Dear Mr. Hughes

I received your letter of the 5th here in New Orleans this week. You
remember I told you I would be in New Orleans working for the Legal Defense
Fund. Well I decided as this is home to have a physical, because I haven't
seen a doctor since I came out of the army five years ago. It seems I've
had hernias on both sides for maybe four years; the result was operation
here, came out of the hospital Wednesday. I don't know when I'll be able
to return to New York but it shouldn't be more than a week, so I hope to
make the reception on the 24th.

My parents send their best wishes. I hope Indiana U. Press plans
distribution of New Negro Poets to all the Negro colleges, including
Dillard.

August 12, 1965

Dear Langston

I had been meaning to write you for some time; looks like I'll be in New Orleans for a year. I was not able to find work in the City, finally in late March was robbed, so I decided to return here to try to set up a job in New York. Then my money problems worsened, I was not able to arrange a job from here, I began to look for work in New Orleans. I got a job which hasn't begun yet - something similar to HARYOU here, shouldn't be bad but we're waiting on the money. Meanwhile I have become very involved with the Free Southern Theater. The Free Southern Theater is like Umbra, only far sounder (that is, sounder people) with far more potential. So my involvement has been exhaustingly complete, as they need everything, but I've never seen anything so good in New Orleans. For the first time, we have an organization with the potential of a cultural revolution, for theater, art, deals with how we should live our lives, not just the mechanics of money and power. This is all pretty new for the South, certainly for New Orleans, so the theater has found a hard way to go. But for me, for the first time, I have something worthwhile I can involve myself in in New Orleans. Whites too who are ahead of the southern social prisons are drawn to the FST because it serves as a rallying point on a non-political level for those who want to work to change this society.

Langston, you should see the audiences. I mean what happens with an audience that has never seen a play before - now they are seeing IN WHITE AMERICA or Brecht's THE RIFLES OF SENORA CARRAR. And they respond, the response is alive and vigorous. After each play

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the actors participate in a discussion of the play with those in the audience who want to stay and these discussion prove that the audience is listening and reacting. A beautiful thing, because the audience then can relate the play to its individual lives and the actors can measure the effectiveness of their work. The company is now on tour in Mississippi, later this month we will be in Jonesboro and Bogalusa, La. Until my job comes through I am sort of holding the fort here, but I plan to make the Bogalusa dates.

I haven't done much writing, except for some criticism, but I expect this to be a productive year. At this point I am more interested in stories than poetry. I never felt that much at home with poetry anyway, but the way novels and plays are going today aren't they really rather involved poems? I am searching for form, there is something in me which does not so easily let me imitate (unless I do it unconsciously). Poetry, that is the formal structure of poetry, is foreign to me, and I don't tell many stories. If I am lucky, because I want to badly, I will find my own way.

I hope you can come to New Orleans soon. If you could come this Fall we could see some of the shows on the tour, as the company will be on the current southern tour until December 15th. I don't know what the story is with Umbra, as far as I know a third issue is now in production. I keep in touch with my New York friends, hope to get up there sometime this Fall.

Best wishes

Tom Dent

August 24, 1966

Dear Langston

I hope this note catches you in the country. You write to Langston and he might be on 129th St. or Africa or outer space! Did you see the recent Look Up & Live show on CBS where we used some things from Same In Blues for our Afro-American Poetry show? The enclosed *Times* article is about the show. The scene here has hit its stride now, the company is in Mississippi until September 6th when it returns here for a week, then back to Miss. until October 1st when we disband. Out of bread; hope to raise $30,000 to begin another seven month season in March, 1967. With all the personality problems, money problems, problems of direction, problems of operating within a largely black lethargic (black) community or hostile (white) community, the thing is going well and I think we are accomplishing something. I do workshops in writing and in Afro-American literature at our building here in the Desire area. It's like planting seeds, trying to find the kids who can write, who want to write, something like in your first autobiography where you told about going to a town and asking if there are any writers there, except that I am working right here in New Orleans. I give my kids a fifteen book bibliography beginning with Douglas' Narrative of a Slave and on to Malcolm X so they will know something about themselves, of what we have done and what we have been through. Do you know none of the colleges do this, the so called Negro colleges, none of them have courses in Negro literature or even Negro History or our interpretation of American History. Which is ludicrous. And as Chairman of the Board of the theater I have basic financial responsibility; which is a bitch.

Well Langston, I am trying a play. May as well, we have here the vehicle and the audience. But my problem is I've got to begin selling something, articles stories or something. And I don't know how; I guess that means I need an agent. I want to ask you if you know of someone; I want to try to sell basically *narrative*

storeis and articles. I don't want to impose on your time, but I thought if
anyone could help me you could.

I plan to be here until about October 1st. After that in New York until
we get the money to begin another season, then I will return here.

St. Louis St. has changed; the *Quarterdin* Quarter is going through a Village
metamorphisis, very commercial. They are moving the Negroes out. We live
on Burgundy St. in one of the few Negro sections *lifex* left. Okay, I have a
good place for $35 a month. Our building on Louisa St. is *beautif* beautiful,
we haven't been able to get it ready to use as a theater this summer but it
will be ready to *seating* seat about 150 for next summer. When we plan to
play about two solid months in New Orleans at our own place before touring.

Let me hear from you as soon as possible.

Best wishes