Langston Hughes

This piece was one of nine created for my exhibit Regarding Privilege, on display from September 23rd to November 2nd, 2023.

American writer and social activist

February 1, 1901– May 22, 1967

This poem was published in 1926 in The Weary Blues.

This is the piece that started this series. Traveling to Taos in 2021, a friend gave me a letterpress card printed with this poem. As I sat with it in my retreat, I decided to stitch the words onto some fabric I had dyed with avocado peel and pits. I wrote the quote out in my own handwriting, copied it onto tracing paper, traced it onto fabric, then spent the rest of the week stitching it in my spare moments. The language and the images it conjured were so beautiful, and I realized I could hold the BACK up in front of a mirror, and read the quote, despite the knots and anomalies of the stitching.

Please contact me if you’re interested in acquiring this piece for your collection.

The text of this piece reads:

bring me all of your dreams,

you dreamer.

Bring me all your

heart melodies

that I may wrap them

in a blue cloud-cloth

away from the too-rough fingers

of the world.