Langston Hughes

Born: 1902 in Missouri

Died: 1967

He was a poet, novelist and a playwright who focused on African American themes.

Said that Carl Sandburg & Walt Whitman were primary influences in his early life.

After dropping out of Columbia, he worked as a steward on a freighter.

Helped create a new type of art form called “jazz poetry.”

He wrote his most famous poem called The Negro Speaks of Rivers at only 17.

Said the success of his musical Street Scene
allowed him to buy his house in Harlem.

Said: “Hold fast to dreams, for if dreams die, life is a broken-winged bird that cannot fly.”