Langston Hughes

Perhaps more than any other writer, Langston Hughes made the white America of the 1920's and '30s aware of the black culture thriving in its midst. Like his most famous poems, Hughes's stories are messages from that other America, sharply etched vignettes of its daily life, cruelly accurate portrayals of black people colliding - sometimes humorously, more often tragically - with whites. Here is the ailing black musician who comes home from Europe to die in his small town - only to die more quickly and brutally than he had imagined. Filled with mordant wit and human detail, The Ways of White Folks is unmistakably the work of a great poet who was also a shrewd and compelling storyteller.

Langston Hughes's inspiring and timeless message of pride, joy, and the dream of a better life is brilliantly and beautifully interpreted in Daniel Miyares's gorgeous artwork. Follow one African-American boy through the course of his day as the harsh reality of segregation and racial prejudice comes into vivid focus. But the boy dreams of a different life----one full of freedom, hope, and wild possibility, where he can fling his arms wide in the face of the sun. Hughes's powerful vision, brought joyously to life by Daniel Miyares, is as relevant---and necessary---today as when it was first written.

Cherished for generations, Langston Hughes' eloquent tribute to his people is set to stunning photographs by acclaimed photographer Charles R. Smith Jr. The vivid sepia photos capture the glory, the beauty, and the soul of being a black American today.