Langston Hughes Lobby

Langston Hughes Lobby, approximately 1,150 square feet, is an elegant, glass-enclosed atrium overlooking the Schomburg Center’s outdoor courtyard, paying tribute to the great Black American poet and to Arturo A. Schomburg. 

Featuring high ceilings and an abundance of natural light, the lobby is also home to Rivers, a site-specific public art installation and peace memorial in honor of Langston Hughes - where his ashes are buried underneath - and Arturo A. Schomburg. The terrazzo floor is marked by a brass cosmogram bearing song lines, texts, and literary signs paying ancestral tribute in the tradition of African ritual ground markings, weaving a web of connections between people of diverse cultures and backgrounds, the past and the present.