Bestselling Author Roxane Gay is CCNY’s 2025 Langston Hughes Medalist
Roxane Gay, the New York Times bestselling author and noted scholar, is the City College of New York’s 2025 Langston Hughes Medal recipient. She’ll receive the Medal at CCNY’s 46th annual Langston Hughes Festival, Feb. 13-14. This year’s event commemorates the centenary of the Harlem Renaissance, that intellectual and cultural revival of African-American literature, music, art, theater and scholarship of which Langston Hughes was a central figure.
The Langston Hughes Festival commences Thursday, Feb. 13, with a student symposium. The evening ceremony will include a reading by Gay, and a conversation between her and author Edwidge Danticat, the 2011 Langston Hughes medalist.
Concluding the program on Feb. 14, Valentine’s Day, will be the first Langston Hughes Festival Fundraising Breakfast.
“The 2025 Langston Hughes Festival Theme is Black Love, and we will celebrate Black Love in all its iterations,” said Jervette R. Ward, Festival Director and Chair of CCNY’s Black Studies Department. “In addition, in honor of both Gay and Danticat, this special two-day Harlem Renaissance Centennial will include a celebration of Haitian music and food.”
