{
 "id": "langston-hughes/laughers",
 "title": "Laughers",
 "ordinal": null,
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "Langston Hughes",
 "poet_slug": "langston-hughes",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "Poetry",
 "book_slug": null,
 "book_kind": "compilation",
 "sequence": null,
 "container": null,
 "epigraph": null,
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1922,
  "venue": "The Crisis (June 1922), as “My People”",
  "note": "Located in the bound Crisis volume 23–24 on disk (Archive.org crisis2324dubo): printed as “My People”, the second of “Two Poems” by Langston Hughes on page 72 of the issue whose masthead reads Vol. 24 No. 2, June 1922, Whole No. 140. The two texts differ in one place: where the collected text reads “Rounders, / Number writers,” the Crisis reads “Porters, / Hairdressers,”. The corpus keeps the collected reading and records the difference here.",
  "uncertain": false,
  "sources": [
   "https://archive.org/details/crisis2324dubo"
  ]
 },
 "source": {
  "kind": "standard-ebooks",
  "repo": "standardebooks/langston-hughes_poetry",
  "file": "poetry.xhtml",
  "upstream": [
   "https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Weary_Blues",
   "https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/001021002",
   "https://scalar.lehigh.edu/african-american-poetry-a-digital-anthology/langston-hughes-fine-clothes-to-the-jew-1927-full-text.1",
   "https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/003138045",
   "https://archive.org/details/newnegrointerpre00unse",
   "http://childlit.unl.edu/topics/edi.brownies.html",
   "https://archive.org/details/the-brownies-book",
   "https://archive.org/details/crisis2324dubo",
   "https://archive.org/details/crisis2526dubo",
   "https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/000502434",
   "https://archive.org/details/sim_crisis_1926-10_32_6",
   "https://archive.org/details/sim_crisis_1927-06_34_4",
   "https://archive.org/details/sim_crisis_1927-07_34_5",
   "https://archive.org/details/sim_crisis_1927-10_34_8",
   "https://archive.org/details/sim_crisis_1927-11_34_9",
   "https://archive.org/details/sim_crisis_1928-06_35_6",
   "https://archive.org/details/sim_crisis_the-crisis_1930-07_37_7",
   "https://archive.org/details/hughes_ny_amsterdam_1923-04-25",
   "https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/008956003",
   "https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/006784879",
   "https://archive.org/details/sim_opportunity-a-journal-of-negro-life_1925-03_3_27",
   "https://archive.org/details/sim_opportunity-a-journal-of-negro-life_1925-06_3_30",
   "https://archive.org/details/sim_opportunity-a-journal-of-negro-life_1926-05_4_41",
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   "https://archive.org/details/sim_opportunity-a-journal-of-negro-life_1927-03_5_3",
   "https://archive.org/details/sim_opportunity-a-journal-of-negro-life_1927-06_5_6",
   "https://archive.org/details/sim_opportunity-a-journal-of-negro-life_1927-12_5_12",
   "https://archive.org/details/sim_opportunity-a-journal-of-negro-life_1930-06_8_6",
   "https://archive.org/details/sim_opportunity-a-journal-of-negro-life_1930-12_8_12",
   "https://archive.org/details/sim_political-affairs_1925-03_4_5",
   "https://archive.org/details/sim_political-affairs_1925-04_4_6",
   "https://archive.org/details/sim_political-affairs_1925-07_4_9",
   "https://archive.org/details/langston_hughes_new_york_herald_tribune-1926-02-14",
   "https://archive.org/details/014-lnn-1926-03-01-001-single",
   "https://archive.org/details/014-lnn-1926-11-01-001-single",
   "https://archive.org/details/014-lnn-1927-02-01-001-single",
   "https://archive.org/details/014-lnn-1928-10-01-001-single",
   "https://archive.org/details/lincoln-university-yearbook-1928",
   "https://archive.org/details/sim_vanity-fair_1926-05_26_3",
   "https://books.google.com/books?id=2dsqAQAAIAAJ",
   "https://archive.org/details/palms_october_1926",
   "https://archive.org/details/langston_hughes_palms_november_1926",
   "https://archive.org/details/sim_poetry_1926-11_29_2",
   "https://archive.org/details/v01n05-sep-1926-New-Masses/v02n02-dec-1926-New-Masses",
   "https://archive.org/details/v01n05-sep-1926-New-Masses/v03n10-feb-1928-New-Masses",
   "https://archive.org/details/v01n05-sep-1926-New-Masses/v06n07-dec-1930-New-Masses",
   "https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/000520354",
   "https://archive.org/details/ebonytopazcollec00unse",
   "https://archive.org/details/carolinamagazine19261927",
   "https://archive.org/details/harlem-1928-11",
   "https://poets.org/poet/langston-hughes",
   "https://www.poetrynook.com/poet/langston-hughes",
   "https://scalar.lehigh.edu/african-american-poetry-a-digital-anthology/langston-hughes-poems-published-in-the-crisis-1921-1926"
  ],
  "rights": "public domain (SE dedication; underlying text pre-1931)"
 },
 "verification": {
  "level": "structural-only",
  "last_checked": "2026-08-12"
 },
 "stats": {
  "n_lines": 32,
  "n_stanzas": 1,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 41,
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 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Dream singers,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Story tellers,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Dancers,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Loud laughers in the hands of Fate⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "My people.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Dish-washers,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Elevator-boys,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Ladies’ maids,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Crap-shooters,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Cooks,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Waiters,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Jazzers,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Nurses of babies,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Loaders of ships,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Rounders,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Number writers,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Comedians in vaudeville",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And band-men in circuses⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Dream-singers all⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "My people.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Story-tellers all⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "My people.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Dancers⁠—",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "God! What dancers!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Singers⁠—",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "God! What singers!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Singers and dancers,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Dancers and laughers.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Laughers?",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Yes, laughers⁠ ⁠… laughers⁠ ⁠… laughers⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Loud-mouthed laughers in the hands",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of Fate.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ]
 ]
}