Everett Hoagland Reads Poetry At UMass Dartmouth Library

A packed UMass Dartmouth library listened on as 2015 Langston Hughes Award-winner Everett Hoagland read his works Tuesday afternoon.

The award is given to African-American writers who's work focus on social changes and equality, much like Hughes.

Hoagland was New Bedford's first poet laureate in 1994, and a long-time UMass Dartmouth professor.

Hoagland met Hughes in 1964 as a student at Lincoln University, a historically black university in pennsylvania. Hughes read and critiqued two of Hoagland's poems, which he says inspired him to take poetry more seriously.

"I began to ask my self maybe i'm not just a guy who can write some poetry recreationally. Maybe, maybe, maybe I'm a poet,"  Hoagland said.

He credits Hughes with being the most popular and prolific black poet to ever live.