Aaron Clifton Moten and John Douglas Thompson to Lead YOUNG MAN LANGSTON at 92Y, 2/23

Two of New York's finest stage actors -- Aaron Clifton Moten and John Douglas Thompson -- star in the premiere of Young Man Langston, a dramatic reading from the letters of Langston Hughes that looks at the poet's formative years, from the publication of "The Negro Speaks of Rivers" and The Weary Blues, to his travels through the American South, to his life as an artist among artists in 1920s Harlem.

The reading takes place at 92Y's Kaufmann Concert Hall at Lexington Avenue at 92nd St in NYC on Monday, February 23, 2015 at 8 p.m. Tickets from $28. For tickets and more information, click here.

The script is by Arnold Rampersad and David Roessel, editors of the newly publishedSelected Letters of Langston Hughes, a comprehensive collection which for the first time offers readers the full story of a determined poet precociously finding his voice; struggling to realize his literary goals in an environment generally hostile to blacks; reaching out bravely to the young and challenging them to aspire beyond the bonds of segregation; using his artistic prestige to serve the disenfranchised and the cause of social justice; and irrepressibly laughing at the world despite its quirks and humiliations.

Enhanced by photographs and poetry, the Selected Letters includes Hughes' correspondence with Carl Van Vechten, Blanche Knopf, Zora Neale Hurston, Arna Bontemps, Countee Cullen, Ezra Pound, Paul Robeson and James Baldwin, among others. These letters give readers an unusually rich picture of a generous, visionary and gratifyingly good man who was also a genius of modern American literature.