“… expansive, visual, and alive for today’s young readers.” It’s Poetry Month So We’re Talking Melodies of the Weary Blues with Shamar Knight-Justice

April is here and that means one particular thing to children’s librarians and educators nationwide: POETRY MONTH!!! And as I may have mentioned before, if you’re looking for stellar new poetry, 2026 has your number. I mean I’ve been loving Goldfinches, Fourteen Ways of Looking at Jellyfish, Nature’s Remarkable Partners, Poems for Every Season, and World Soccer Kings… and that’s just what I’ve seen in the Spring!

But out of all the spring poetry collections, I think you’ll have to agree that there is nothing to compare to the new edition of Langston Hughes’s first book of poems, Melodies of the Weary Blues: Classic Poems Illustrated for Young People. Each poem is paired with an incredible children’s book illustrator, and NONE of them phoned this job in.

I wanted desperately to talk to the man behind the project, and Shamar Knight-Justice, who compiled it all, was willing.

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Betsy Bird: Shamar! I can’t thank you enough for answering my questions today. MELODIES OF THE WEARY BLUES is one of those cases where you approach the book expecting a rote collection of poems, and instead you get hit in the face with this inspired pairing of truly great poetry with art that goes above and beyond the norm. Give us some insight into how this collection came to be in the first place. 

Shamar Knight-Justice: This project started with a conversation between my agent, Christy Ewers, and me about our shared love for Langston Hughes. Christy is always tuned in to what is happening across publishing, and she noticed that Hughes’s collection The Weary Blues had entered the public domain. She brought me the idea of building it into a large illustrated anthology and asked if I would be interested in taking the lead.

From there, we pitched the concept to Luana Horry at HarperCollins, and she immediately connected with it. Once she said “yes,” we began shaping the vision, reaching out to artists, and figuring out how to turn Hughes’s poems into something that felt expansive, visual, and alive for today’s young readers. I was also able to get the blessing from Langston Hughes’s estate, by writing them a letter about why we wanted to put the project together.

BB: A labor of love, no question. So before I go any further with my questions, I’m curious about your own personal connection to Langston Hughes. How did you discover him initially and what is it about his poetry that stands the test of time?

Shamar: My connection to Langston Hughes actually started with resistance. As a kid, I read constantly, but almost never poetry. I gravitated toward sports autobiographies, fantasy novels, silly mysteries, anything with a clear narrative. Poetry felt too rhymey or cheerful, so I usually skipped that section of the library. That changed when I read Mother to Son at fourteen. At the time, my relationship with my own mom was evolving, and that poem sounded exactly like the conversations she was trying to have with me about resilience and pushing through hard things. It cut past my teenage stubbornness and made me feel understood in a way nothing else had. That was the moment I realized what poetry could do. Good poetry does not just sound pretty. It tells the truth and reaches you whether you are ready for it or not, and Hughes has always had that kind of staying power.

BB: And the collection of illustrators you managed to get for this is nothing short of incredible. What particularly impressed me is that none of them are phoning this in. Every last one of them has put their heart and soul into these images. How did you sell this project to them? And how do you feel about the end results?

Shamar: This one was definitely a team effort. It was a big lift from Luana Horry at HarperCollins and my agent Christy Ewers. Those two can sell anything. But honestly, once you say the name Langston Hughes, the conversation changes. He is such a pillar in the Black literary world that artists immediately understand the weight and the honor of being part of something connected to his work. And then it snowballed. As artists started signing on, word spread about who else was involved, and that momentum built naturally. By the end, everyone brought their full heart to it. The results are incredible. Every piece feels distinct but still cohesive, like different voices in the same choir. I love watching people flip through the book and seeing their reactions in real time, and even now I still find myself discovering new details and getting a little awestruck by what everyone created.

BB: You and me both. Now how did you select which poems to include in this book? And how did you choose which artist to pair with which poem? Or did they make the selection themselves? 

Shamar: This part of the process was a joy. When we were selecting poems, we looked for common symbols and motifs that could help the book feel cohesive. We kept coming back to pieces centered on music, natural elements like water and the moon, and a clear emotional alignment that runs through so much of Langston Hughes’s work. Because we were building this with young readers in mind, we were also intentional about choosing poems they could emotionally and visually connect to, and thinking about the themes we could reinforce through recurring imagery.

For the artist pairings, we studied portfolios and looked for work that matched the tone and spirit of each poem. We wanted to stretch artists creatively, but not fight against their strengths. The goal was alignment. When an artist’s natural style fit the emotional core of a poem, the result felt honest and effortless, and that is where the strongest pieces came from.

BB: Was there any poem you would have liked to have included but, for one reason or another, just didn’t work out?

Shamar: Unfortunately, we couldn’t fit every poem, and some were really challenging to leave out. Langston Hughes has such a deep catalog, and I definitely had a couple personal favorites I wanted to sneak in, especially “Mother to Son” and “I, Too.” Those are some of my all time favorites, but once we started shaping the full collection, they just did not quite match the tone and flow of the other poems. So we had to make some tough editorial calls and think about the overall vibe of the book.

BB: Man. That must have hurt. So did you know from the start the order in which these poems would appear or did you base it at all on the art that you received?

Shamar: The order evolved as final art started coming in, and we did not lock the final sequence until the very end. We had a loose structure in mind at first, but once we began seeing the illustrations, it became clear that the visuals needed to help guide the pacing and emotional flow of the book. One thing I felt strongly about once I saw it was opening the anthology with Jenin Mohammed’s spread. Her piece for “Poem” just sets the tone immediately. It is emotional, grounding, and pulls you in right away. It felt like the perfect first note.

BB: You yourself illustrate two of the poems in this collection. Why did you select those two specifically?

Shamar: There were two poems that felt especially personal, where I could immediately see the visuals and knew I had something specific to say. For Lenox Avenue: Midnight, I wanted to focus on Harlem, which is such a key part of Langston Hughes’s story as an artist, and visually take readers back to the 1920s through the clothing, architecture, and overall setting. And for the final poem, Danse Africaine, I leaned into Hughes’s time in West Africa. Including Adinkra symbols on the drums felt important, and I loved the chance to play with light and shadow, especially that line about a night veiled girl whirling softly into a circle of light. Both pieces let me explore history, movement, and mood in a way that felt really natural to my style.

BB: Finally, what other projects are you working on these days, children’s book related or otherwise?

Shamar: On the picture book side, I’ve got a few projects either about to release or in final art right now. Coming out this summer is The Pool Is Cool, written by Dwayne Reed and published by Little, Brown Books for Young Readers. Beyond that, I’m deep into work on several 2027 titles, including City Song by Ishta Mercurio with Beach Lane Books, The Fortune of Immy Nakatudde written by Florence Migga with G. P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers, and You’ll Remember Sycamore written by Derrick Barnes with Nancy Paulsen Books. It’s a full slate, but I like working on multiple stories at once. Each one stretches me in a different way.

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Incredible work and an incredible book. Big thanks to Shamar for taking the time to answer my questions today. Thanks too to Jenny Lu and her team at Harper Collins for helping to put this all together. Melodies of the Weary Blues: Classic Poems Illustrated for Young People is on shelves now. Check it out (and its fabulous Teaching Guide) whenever you have the chance.

Filed under: Best Books, Best Books of 2026, Interviews