“I’ve known rivers: I’ve known rivers ancient as the world.”

 

THE NEGRO SPEAKS OF RIVERS (Disney, Jump at the Sun Books 2009), is a poem widely acknowledged by many to be the song of the Harlem Renaissance, and the poet who wrote it at age eighteen, Langston Hughes, to be the voice. As illustrated by E. B. Lewis, in powerful and vivid watercolor,  it sings about the strength and courage of black people in America and around the world. “I built my hut near the Congo and it lulled me to sleep … and I’ve seen its muddy bosom turn all golden in the sunset.” The thing about rivers is that they run through all of our lives and the songs they sing are universal. Share this with the children in your life.