Writer and activist James Mercer Langston Hughes was born on February 1, 1902. He was a leader of the Harlem Renaissance and was of the first writers of “jazz poetry.”
Here’s one of his poems:
Harlem
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?
Have a good night, ‘Cados!