(ThyBlackMan.com) ‘Always fresh, honest and often very funny’
Time Out on Hanging by Her Teeth
Too often we are told to get rid of contradictions, told that they threaten us, or make us a threat to others. In this new biography Bonnie Greer gives us an insight into the controversial African-American writer and campaigner Langston Hughes, a jazzman, a man you could not predict or define, a man of contradiction who refused classification.
Langston campaigned tirelessly for civil rights, but testified before the 
House Un-American Activities Committee – seen by many as a witch-hunt. Bonnie refuses to ignore or excuse these contradictions but asks how they formed him. For Greer, to overlook, to excuse, is to dismiss an essential element of his genius and his passion.
Langston Hughes was a man far ahead of his time, writing, during the Harlem Renaissance, about the African-American reaction to a black president of the United States. With honesty and wit Bonnie confronts the contradictions of his day and ours and allows us to draw strength from the unsolvable world in which he found himself, and in which we still find ourselves in these strange and complicated times.
Praise for Bonnie Greer:
‘Lyrical and painful … a strange and mystical tale’ New York Times
‘Humorous, sexy and always very sharp’ TLS
In The Observer’s list of 300 top British intellectuals, of the seven playwrights featured, Bonnie Greer appears as the only female. Observer 8 May 2011
Purchase book; http://www.amazon.com/Langston-Hughes-Contradiction-BlackAmber-Inspirations/dp/1906413762
Official website; http://www.facebook.com/pages/Bonnie-Greer/163830213500
