Langston Hughes: from “Montage of a Dream Deferred”

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?

—Langston Hughes

Langston Hughes: “The Weary Blues”

Allen Dwight Callahan’s dramatic reading of Langston Hughes’ 1923 poem is accompanied by 1930s-40s era NYC footage and Cab Calloway.