Langston Hughes Harlem Renaissance Poet

Prolific events His weekly writing sessions in jazz and blues clubs His work as a freighter His time at Lincoln University The Harlem Renaissance

Inspiration in Life He was an African American man in pre-civil rights America He was inspired to look into poetic meter by music of the day Harlem, Angola, Belgium Congo, Guinea, all inspired his writing

Quotes “We younger Negro artists now intend to express our individual dark-skinned selves with out fear or shame. If white people are pleased we are glad. If they aren’t it doesn’t matter. We know we are beautiful. And ugly too… If colored people are pleased we are glad. If they are not their displeasure doesn’t matter either. We build our own temples for tomorrow, as strong as we know how and we stand on the top of the mountain, free within ourselves.” Excerpt from “The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain”

Poems from Hughes “Dream Deferred” 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?

Poems for Hughes “Juke Box Love Song” I could take the Harlem night and wrap around you, Take the neon lights and make a crown, Take the Lenox Avenue busses, Taxis, subways, And for your love song tone their rumble down. Take Harlem's heartbeat, Make a drumbeat, Put it on a record, let it whirl, And while we listen to it play, Dance with you till day-- Dance with you, my sweet brown Harlem girl.

Poems for Hughes “Dinner Guest: Me” The Negro Problem Being wined and dined, Answering the usual questions That come to white mind Which seeks demurely To Probe in polite way The why and wherewithal Of darkness U.S.A.-- Wondering how things got this way In current democratic night, Murmuring gently Over fraises du bois, "I'm so ashamed of being white." The lobster is delicious, The wine divine, And center of attention At the damask table, mine. To be a Problem on Park Avenue at eight Is not so bad. Solutions to the Problem, Of course, wait.

Quotes about Hughes “In the middle of the next century, when the literary establishment will reflect the multicultural makeup of this country and not be dominated by assimiliationists with similar tastes, from similar backgrounds, and of similar pretensions, Langston Hughes will be to the twentieth century what Walt Whitman was to the nineteenth.” Ishmael Reed

Expect the Following Langston Hughes wrote of the African American struggle, and of African American life. He also wrote of white racism.