Luther Hughes

Luther Hughes’ collection, A Shiver in the Leaves provides a kaleidoscopic, at times fragmentary, always compelling view of his identity as a gay Black man, and the complexities of a layered sense of identity in a world that would much rather not engage with him in any of his iterations. At times, his writing echoes that of Essex Hemphill, particularly in the way in which he engages with the threat (or the reality) of surrounding violence, providing thus a cultural link of resistance against social restrictions and disruptions. As he states in Such things require tenderness, the closing poem, “ - The rain is clearing. / I hold out my hand.” Readers everywhere will be wise to hold theirs in return.… (meer)