On Meeting Robert Hayden in a Dream

Résumé

“On Meeting Robert Hayden in a Dream” is in homage to Robert Hayden, a giant of American and African American letters. When I first read his collection American Journal, I was immediately struck by his interest in “the other.” I do not need to tell you how relevant his work is today. Are we not “aliens” to each other? Are we not holding signs claiming that our lives matter? I believe now more than ever, Hayden’s work needs to be discussed as a pillar of American literature in the way that we talk about Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson.