Langston Hughes

Langston Hughes: A Pioneer for Black Writers Langston Hughes,(1902-1967), was a great American writer He is mostly known for his use of black folk rhythms and jazz in his poetry. He was born in Joplin, Missouri, and educated at Lincoln University in Pennsylvania. Hughes published his first poem, “The Negro Speaks of Rivers,” in Crisis magazine in 1921. He studied at Columbia University from 1921 to 1922 before serving on a ship to Africa. He then worked …

…excluded from the “American Dream” and this poem symbolizes how a black person may have shown their frustrations about the situations they went through. 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?