langston hughes wrote another poem about the dream called what about a dream deferred? laura gottesdiener's book "a dream foreclosed" really picks up on that poem. what happens to a dream deferred? does it dry up like a raisin in the sun or fester like us for and then run? does it stink like rotten meat? or crust over, suite, immediate just sags like that have the load or does explode? in her book you will hear about today laura talks about the explosion and the dream. and she talks about fighting back. when i first started reading this book it was like this is kind of hard. it was hard to read because she was talking about such -- so depressing, makes you so a angry, you hear about all of these cricket loan companies and banks, how rich people get richer and the poor get poorer and especially african-americans, how they take away their dreams and away their homes. laura gottesdiener has been a real trumpet. a real good announcer of this event. when i first saw the book i wanted to look away. that remembered what the buddhists say about suffering. they said life is suff

one of the poems that particularly struck me was langston hughes' "i too sing america." and going to that school, where people didn't want us, i could be armed with that poem, "i too sing america", and it was like a force field around me. >> brown: that night, inside/out held a public reading that featured several of its alumni, including justin rogers, now a student at wayne state. his poem, "small town city", was a portrait in words of the plight of his hometown. >> "i am one of the faithful citizens rooted like flag poles writing love poems to my city no matter how many dark alleys we tread through or potholes we swim in." i was trying to touch on really specific situations that people encounter on a regular basis. i looked at what my city is now and realized i enjoy what i have here, more than what my fantasy city is. and that these negative things, they are there, but there are so many other positive things. i'm going to enjoy what i have here. >> brown: it was a positive moment in a city that can use them, led by poetry bringing, as young quintin pope had put it, "