Langston Hughes

 
“We possess within ourselves a great 
reservoir of physical and spiritual strength.”


“There is no lack within the Negro people 
of beauty, strength and power.” 

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• 1902–1967
• Born in Joplin, Missouri - February 1, 1902
• Raised by his grandmother, Mary Langston, in Lawrence, Kansas.
• Poet, novelist, short story writer, playwright, song lyricist, radio writer, translator, author of juvenile books, and lecturer. In early years worked as assistant cook, launderer, busboy, and at other odd jobs; worked as seaman on voyages to Africa and Europe. Lived at various times in Mexico, France, Italy, Spain, and the Soviet Union.

James Langston Hughes was first recognized as an important literary figure during the 1920s, a period known as the "Harlem Renaissance."  His first published poem was – The Negro Speaks of Rivers. During The Great Depression, Hughes became involved in radical politics, eventually joining the American Communist Party. The work of Langston Hughes was influenced and shaped by the joys, struggles and triumphs of poor African American families. In the writer's own words, his poetry is about . . .

"workers, roustabouts, and singers, and job hunters on Lenox Avenue in New York, or Seventh Street in Washington or South State in Chicago – people up today and down tomorrow, working this week and fired the next, beaten and baffled, but determined not to be wholly beaten, buying furniture on the installment plan, filling the house with roomers to help pay the rent, hoping to get a new suit for Easter – and pawning that suit before the Fourth of July."

Harlem

by Langston Hughes   


What happens to a dream deferred?

Does it dry up
like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore--
And then run?
Does it stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over--
like a syrupy sweet?

Maybe it just sags
like a heavy load.

Or does it explode?

I, Too, Sing America

by Langston Hughes   


I, too, sing America.

I am the darker brother.
They send me to eat in the kitchen
When company comes,
But I laugh,
And eat well,
And grow strong.

Tomorrow,
I'll be at the table
When company comes.
Nobody'll dare
Say to me,
"Eat in the kitchen,"
Then.

Besides,
They'll see how beautiful I am
And be ashamed—

I, too, am America.

I, Too, Sing America

  by Langston Hughes

I, too, sing America.

I am the darker brother.
They send me to eat in the kitchen
When company comes,
But I laugh,
And eat well,
And grow strong.

Tomorrow,
I'll be at the table
When company comes.
Nobody'll dare
Say to me,
"Eat in the kitchen,"
Then.

Besides, 
They'll see how beautiful I am
And be ashamed—

I, too, am America.

- See more at: http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15615#sthash.F2k1BVuV.dpuf