Langston Hughes, "Demand"

Listen!
Dear dream of utter aliveness--
Touching my body of utter death--
Tell me, O quickly! dream of aliveness,
The flaming source of your bright breath.
Tell me, O dream of utter aliveness--
Knowing so well the wind and the sun--
Where is this light
Your eyes see forever?
And what is this wind
You touch when you run?

(I have a soft spot for poems that begin with an imperative, whether implied or explicit. I think of #Rilke "Whoever you are: in the evening, step out of your room where you know everything...")

#LangstonHughes

BLUES ON A BOX

Play your guitar, boy,
Till yesterday's
Black cat
Runs out tomorrow's
Back door
And evil old
Hard luck
Ain't no more!

#LangstonHughes

A powerful piece about Langston Hughes and much more: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001mdb7

#LangstonHughes

@gutenberg_org Wonderful!

#blackfriday #BlackMastodon #books #childrensbooks #langstonhughes #ElmerWBrown #librarians

The museum exhibit that my daughter helped curate (along with seven other high school students) opened tonight! It’s the first time that Langston Hughes’ “Sweet & Sour Book of Aninals” poems have been shown with the intended artwork by Elmer W. Brown. It was really cool, and I’m so proud of her! https://medium.com/cma-thinker/a-sweet-and-sour-journey-the-collaboration-between-elmer-w-brown-and-langston-hughes-a8f6f7bb6127 #art #museums #LangstonHughes #ElmerWBrown #Cleveland

🔊 #NowPlaying on BBCRadio3's #Composed

Dorothy Rudd Moore, Kermit Moore, Langston Hughes & Hilda Harris:
🎵 Dream Variation

#DorothyRuddMoore #KermitMoore #LangstonHughes #HildaHarris

Go Slow

Go slow, they say-
while the bite
Of the dog is fast.
Go slow, I hear-
While they tell me
You can't eat here!
You can't live here!
You can't work here!
Don't Demonstrate! Wait!-
While they lock the gate.
Am I supposed to be God,
Or an angel with wings
And a halo on my head
While jobless I starve to dead?
Am I supposed to forgive
And meekly live
Going slow, slow, slow,
Slow, slow, slow,
Slow, slow,
Slow,
Slow,
Slow?
????
???
??
?

Langston Hughes (1902-1967)
#LangstonHughes #HarlemRenaissance #BlackLiterature

It was so simply put, just six words on a sticker. What happens to a dream deferred? Famously asked, but haphazardly slapped on the seemingly random surface of a light pole. Six words. Evocative of pain I also tiresomely endure.
https://medium.com/prismnpen/deferred-dreams-of-a-trans-girl-894d25b55adc?sk=59d0e800f061eed2368cd3ed86042787
#LGBTQ #Transgender #Dreams #LangstonHughes

#BlackMastodon #BlackFedi #BlackPoets #LangstonHughes

If I ever come across a Langston Hughes poem that I don't like, I'll let you know. ❤️

Cross by Langston Hughes

“O, yes,
I say it plain,
America never was America to me,
And yet I swear this oath—
America will be!

Out of the rack and ruin of our gangster death,
The rape and rot of graft, and stealth, and lies,
We, the people, must redeem
The land, the mines, the plants, the rivers.
The mountains and the endless plain—
All, all the stretch of these great green states—
And make America again!”
#LangstonHughes
#tennessee #TennesseeThree #abortionrights

#BlackMastodon #BlackFedi #DreamVariations #LangstonHughes

Some days beg for motivation and inspiration from Langston Hughes. This is such a day.

Langston Hughes
#photography #literature #LangstonHughes

#BlackMastodon #BlackFedi #BlackPoets #LangstonHughes

There's something about the way he turns a phrase and makes the lyrics flow! All of Langston Hughes' poems are special. This one elicits steely determination.

MARCH MOON

The moon is naked.
The wind has undressed the moon.
The wind has blown all the cloud-
garments
Off the body of the moon
And now she’s naked,
Stark naked.

But why don’t you blush,
O shameless moon?
Don’t you know
It isn’t nice to be naked?
- Langston Hughes

#moon #poem #poetry #photography #WaxingCrescent #MonochromeMonday #LangstonHughes #ArtInspiration

AIR RAID OVER HARLEM

Bullets over Harlem
And someday
A sleeping giant waking
To snatch bombs from the sky
And push the sun up with a loud cry
Of to hell with the cops on the corners at night
Armed to the teeth under the light

Lest Harlem see red
And suddenly sit on the edge of its bed
And shake the world with a new dream
As the squad cars come and the sirens scream
And a big black giant snatches bombs from the sky
And picks the cop and lets him fly
Into the dust of the Jimcrow past
And laughs and Hollers
Kiss my
Ass!

Hey!
Scenario for a Little Black Movie,
You say?
A RED MOVIE TO MR HEARST
Black and White workers uníte as one
In a city where
There 'll never be
Air raids over Harlem
FOR THE WORKERS ARE FREE

What workers are free?
THE BLACK AND WHITE WORKERS
You and me!
Looky here, everybody!
Look at me!

I'M HARLEM!

#langstonhughes #poesia #oletushuevos

Hay poesía para leer y poesía para cantar, y la de Langston Hughes es para cantar. Escribía desde su tradición, para honrar y enriquecer el espíritu de su gente.

Sunset in Dixie

The sun
Is gonna go down
In Dixie
Some of these days
With such a splash
That everybody who ever knew
What yesterday was
Is gonna forget-
When that sun
Goes down in Dixie

#langstonhughes #poesia

Today in Labor History March 25, 1931: The authorities arrested the Scottsboro Boys in Alabama and charged them with rape. The Scottsboro Boys were nine African American youths, ages 13 to 20, falsely accused of raping two white women. A lynch mob tried to murder them before they had even been indicted. All-white juries convicted each of them. Several judges gave death sentences, a common practice in Alabama at the time for black men convicted of raping white women. The Communist Party and the NAACP fought to get the cases appealed and retried. Finally, after numerous retrials and years in harsh prisons, four of the Scottsboro Boys were acquitted and released. The other five were got sentences ranging from 75 years to death. All were released or escaped by 1946. Poet and playwright Langston Hughes wrote it in his work Scottsboro Limited. And Richard Wright's 1940 novel Native Son was influenced by the case.

#WorkingClass #LaborHistory #ScottsboroBoys #racism #lynching #rape #prison #LangstonHughes #RichardWright #novel #naacp #communism @bookstadon

I asked ChatGPT to create me a couple 'Cleveland' poems, in the style of Langston Hughes
#cleveland #poetry #langstonhughes

SEA CHARM

Sea charm
The sea’s own children
Do not understand.
They know
But that the sea is strong
Like God’s hand.
They know
But that sea wind is sweet
Like God’s breath,
And that the sea holds
A wide, deep death.
- Langston Hughes, 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘞𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘺 𝘉𝘭𝘶𝘦𝘴

#poetry #poem #LangstonHughes #photography #nature #water #LakeMichigan #birds #BirdPhotography #clouds #birdwatching #NaturePhotography

#ART FOR #ANTIRACISTS: #LANGSTONHUGHES AND THE SPANISH CIVIL WAR
http://www.plp.org/challenge/2023/3/16/art-for-anti-racists-langston-hughes-and-the-spanish-civil-w.html