A home where inspiration lives

NEW YORK - For the last two, extraordinarily prolific decades of his life, Langston Hughes (1902-1967) turned out some of his most celebrated work on the third floor of the brownstone at 20 E. 127th St. in Harlem.

While in his two-room suite, with treetop views, a narrow bed, a shower, books, work tables, photographs and other belongings, Hughes produced a book-length poem, an autobiography, newspaper columns, lyrics, anthologies and many other writings.

"Having that base - that house - was very important to the last 20 years of his life," said Arnold Rampersad, who wrote a two-volume biography of the Harlem Renaissance writer.

Now, four decades after Hughes last drew inspiration from the house and from his muse, Harlem, a musician, a music producer and a music executive are transforming the brownstone into performance and gallery space, recording studios, and an overall incubator of creativity for musicians, poets and other artists - all while paying homage to the literary giant.

"We don't want to be stuck in trying to re-create the past," said Shon "Chance" Miller, 29, president and creative director of the organization for which the three are seeking nonprofit status. "We're trying to respect and take from what was done before and incorporate that into what we're doing today."

On what would have been Hughes' 105th birthday, Feb. 1, Miller, along with Marc Cary, a pianist and president of Cary Out Productions, and Jana Herzen, president of Motema Records, opened the three-story, 138-year-old brownstone's doors to new events and possibilities.

The street level - the living and dining rooms and kitchen when Hughes lived in the house - has been redesigned into an intimate performance parlor with seating and standing space for about 60. It has a $150,000 Fazioli piano, and at the rear of the space, a glass case displays Hughes' books, which visitors can buy.

Up the staircase, past walls adorned with Hughes memorabilia, where Hughes' surrogate parents, "Uncle" Emerson and "Aunt" Toy Harper, once slept, are recording studios for jazz, hip-hop and other projects.

Motema Records occupies Hughes' old third-floor workroom. "June, Jazz and Cognac at Hughes House," a festival of Motema artists, is taking place this month.

There's an open-mike night twice a month, hosted by poet La Bruja, and talk of a film series and camera installations to stream events live on the Internet.

"It's very inspirational," Miller said of working in the house. "The creative energy and spirit that runs through here, it's the X factor."

Miller, who said he first learned about the Harlem Renaissance and its most famous writer in the sixth grade in Connecticut, was inspired by the 1920s cultural movement to start writing.

Last year, Miller and Cary, who both live in Harlem, began collaborating. They started searching for studio space. They were shooting a video for a song called "A Dream Deferred," which borrows from Hughes' poem "Harlem," when Miller got a call to check out a potential space.

"This place was just beat down," Miller recalled. But he was stunned when he looked at the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission plaque on the front exterior and saw that the home was once owned by Hughes. The building received landmark status in 1981.

Emerson Harper bought the house in 1947, likely with royalties Hughes received for writing the lyrics to the Kurt Weill Broadway musical Street Scene, according to Rampersad and property records. Harper's and Hughes' names appeared on the deed, records show.

These days, the sounds of jazz again can be heard wafting from the Italianate-style brownstone, just as during Hughes' time. Then, the music usually came from "Uncle" Emerson's piano.

During the last week of July 1948, the three moved into the brownstone from the Harpers' Harlem apartment. Hughes was 46. By fall, they began taking in roomers - a student photographer, an art professor, a bus driver - in hopes of having the property pay for itself, according to Rampersad's The Life of Langston Hughes, Volume II: 1941-1967.

Hughes was born in Joplin, Mo., and lived with his grandmother in Kansas and later with his mother and stepfather in Ohio, where he graduated from high school. He loved Harlem from the moment he set eyes on it in 1921, when he arrived in the city to attend Columbia University. (He eventually graduated from Lincoln University in Pennsylvania.)