A Poem for a Thursday #309

Langston Hughes was a part of the Harlem Renaissance. He was a poet but also wrote novels, short stories, essays, and plays. Hughes tried to portray the realities of working-class Black lives. He said, “We younger Negro artists who create now intend to express our individual dark-skinned selves without fear or shame. If white people are pleased we are glad. If they are not, it doesn’t matter. We know we are beautiful. And ugly too.”

Dream-singers,
Story-tellers,
Dancers,
Loud Laughers in the hands of Fate—
     My people.
Dish-washers,
Elevator-boys,
Ladies' maids,
Crap-shooters,
Cooks,
Waiters,
Jazzers,
Nurses of babies,
Loaders of ships,
Rounders,
Number writers,
Comedians in vaudeville
And band-men in circuses—
Dream-singers all,——
     My people.
Story-tellers all,—
My people.
     Dancers—
God! What dancers!
     Singers—
God! What singers!
Singers and dancers
Dancers and laughers
     Laughers?
Yes, laughers . . . laughers . . . laughers—
Loud-mouthed laughers in the hands
     Of Fate.

Laughers
Langston Hughes