Set against the music, movement, humor, and heartbeat of Harlem, Langston Is My Man is a
theatrical celebration of the words and world of poet Langston Hughes.

The audience boards the A Train and is transported into the vibrant world of Harlem during the
Harlem Renaissance, where an unforgettable ensemble of characters gathers at the legendary
Smalls Paradise. Through jazz, blues, tap dance, storytelling, and Hughes’ poetry, they
introduce us to a community alive with ambition, romance, humor, hardship, and dreams.
 

At the center of the story is Country, a young woman who arrives in Harlem from Mississippi
searching for a new beginning. Through the people she meets, she discovers a Harlem filled
with artists, dancers, dreamers, working people, hustlers, lovers, and survivors. Characters such
as Smalls, Blue, Ella, Stix, Diamond, Feet, Broadway, Zora, and others transform Hughes’
poetry into living conversations and stories about everyday Black life.
 

For a time, Harlem seems limitless. There is music in the clubs, dancing in the streets, poetry in
ordinary conversation, and the promise that talent and determination might lead to something
greater. Feet dreams of Broadway. Broadway Joe dreams of becoming an actor. Country hopes
that life in the North will offer freedoms she could not find in Mississippi. Each carries a dream of what life might become.
 

But beneath the celebration lies another rhythm.

The dreams of Harlem collide with racism, poverty, exploitation, unemployment, violence, and
the realities of being Black in America. The music begins to change. The Harlem Renaissance
fades, Smalls Paradise closes, and the characters who once danced through the night must
confront a world in which their dreams have often been delayed, denied, or taken from them.
 

Yet Langston Is My Man is not a story of defeat.
As Harlem changes, Hughes’ words continue to give voice to the people who live there. On front
stoops, in apartments, on jobs, and in the streets, ordinary people continue telling their stories.
Their humor survives. Their music survives. Their love survives. And, most importantly, their
dreams survive.

Through poems including The Weary Blues, Dream Boogie, Mother to Son, Ballad of the
Landlord, and the unforgettable question of what happens to a dream deferred, Langston
Hughes becomes more than the subject of the evening. He becomes the voice connecting
generations of Black experience.

Blending poetry, theatre, jazz, blues, dance, comedy, and dramatic storytelling, Langston Is My
Man explores both the brilliance and the struggle of Harlem while celebrating the resilience of a
people who continue to dream even when the world tells them not to.

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It is a journey through Harlem.

It is a journey through Black America.

And through it all, Langston Hughes is there—listening, observing, writing, and reminding us
that the lives of ordinary people are worthy of poetry.