Langston Hughes, in his own words and Reading by Ossie Davis

Langston Hughes
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Listen to Langston Hughes in his own words 
and "Simple" Read by Ossie Davis On The Gist of Freedom Blog Talk Radio Podcast produced by Lesley Gist

Langston Hughes
SIMPLE
read by OSSIE DAVIS

I cannot truthfully state, as some novelists do at the beginning of their books, that these storeis are about "nobody living or dead." The facts are that these tales are about a great many people- although they are stories about no specific persons as such. But it is impossible to live in Harlem and not know at least a hundred Simples.
Fifty Joyces, twenty-five Zaritas... or reasonable facsimiles thereof....Usually over a glass of beer, [Simple] tells me his tales, mostly in high humor, but sometimes with a pain in his soul as sharp as the occassional hurt of that bunion oh his right foot. Sometimes, as the old blues says, Simple might be laughing to keep you laughing, too...Langston Hughes 

Margaret Danner is also an outstanding Black Poet, From Chicago. Margaret was an assistant editor of Poetry Magazine and a winner of a John Hay Whitney Fellowship.