Langston Hughes would have turned 101 years old this month.

It might not be cause for the same type of gala the community threw last year for its native son’s 100th birthday, but some Kansas University officials have organized a series of events they say could become an annual tribute to Hughes.

“We wanted to use it to find a way to continue what we did last year, to celebrate Kansas writers and artists, and use Langston Hughes as a figurehead for that,” said Cathy Mallett, program manager for Kansas University Continuing Education.

The Langston Hughes February Festival is a conglomeration of workshops, speeches and a film festival.

Highlights include speeches by two well-known authors. Paule Marshall, whose works include the novels “Brown Girl, Brownstones” and “The Fisher King” will speak at 7:30 p.m. Thursday in the Kansas Union Ballroom.

Her speech — “The Triangular Quest for Self and Community: Brooklyn-Barbados-Benin” — is this year’s Frances and Floyd Horowitz Lecture at the Hall Center for the Humanities.

Renaissance man and Kansas native Gordon Parks will be featured in an event at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at the Lied Center.

Parks, known for his novel and film “The Learning Tree” and his photographs in Life magazine, has been invited to speak, though KU officials have yet to hear whether the 91-year-old’s health will allow him to come to Lawrence. If not, he’ll speak via a satellite TV feed.

After his speech, “The Learning Tree” will be screened, and a panel discussion of film experts will talk about the film.

A two-day film festival also is scheduled this week. It begins at 8 p.m. Friday at Liberty Hall, 642 Mass., with the premiere of local filmmaker Kevin Willmott’s film “Confederate States of America.” Willmott will lead a discussion on the film.

The film screenings continue from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday at Haskell Indian Nations University’s main auditorium. Scheduled are “Half-Past Autumn,” “Beyond Tara: The Extraordinary Life of Hattie McDaniel” and “Tell Grandma about Langston Hughes.”

Two conferences also are scheduled this week to coincide with the February Festival. The Conference on Writing and Literature, an annual event for young writers and teachers, runs Wednesday and Thursday at the Kansas Union. For more information, visit www.writingconference.com.

On Friday, KU Continuing Education will conduct its annual Conference on New Literacies, which was formerly known as the Conference on Composition and Literature. It will help teachers and others understand how to combine arts and literature instruction.

It runs from 8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. at the Lawrence Arts Center, 940 N.H.

For a complete list of events, visit www.visitlawrence.com/hughes.