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A Dream Deferred

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’s Dream Deferred was published in a collection of poems titled The Panther and the Lash in May 1967. The title of this collection, published just after Langston’s death, is a reference to the founding of the Black Panther Party the year before. Despite all his own worries about the possibilities of revolution, the poems in The Panther and the Lash welcome the new wave of militancy and are a return to his political poems of the 1930s and 1940s.

We have titled our blog Dream Deferred as a homage to Langston and also in the hope that the “explosion” will come one day soon. The struggle for socialism gives us nourishment, but at the same time the experience of life means we have had to be patient too.

News and debate

Over the past 30 years both of us have been involved in one way or another with the struggle against racism and fascism. On this blog we will carry news, discussion and debate on the rise of the far right and fascism — and the movements that are developing to challenge this threat both in Britain and Europe.

But our interests are many and varied. We will also write about other political and cultural matters. If you don’t like football, you should look away from posts about West Ham or Spurs!

Articles on this site represent our own views or those of other bylined contributors only. Please feel free to join the debate by posting comments. We welcome serious comments and discussion — whether you agree or disagree.

We hope you enjoy the site.

Martin Smith and Tash Shifrin

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