New Exhibit "Harlem Renaissance: As Gay as It was Black"

In the 1920s and 1930s, New York City's Harlem was the focal point of the so-called New Negro Movement, which sparked the Jazz Age and an incredible revolution in art, fashion, literature and music. According to the preeminent African-American historian Henry Louis Gates, the Harlem Renaissance, as it was later known, was “surely as gay as it was black, not that it was exclusively either of these.”

Many artists of the Renaissance were subtle, but others such as writer Langston Hughes (below) and singer Bessie Smith referred to same-sex attractions in their work. Their art, as well as other artists, are featured in a new exhibit, “The Harlem Renaissance: As Gay as It Was Black" at Florida Atlantic University.

Rod Hagwood at The Sun Sentinel:

"The photo panels highlight writers such as Langston Hughes and Zora Neale Hurston; singers Ethel Waters, Ma Rainey and Bessie Smith; dancer Josephine Baker; comedian Jackie "Moms" Mabley and many others who populated the north Manhattan neighborhood during an era "when the Negro was in vogue," as Hughes once said. But gays – regardless of race – were not so fashionable, even as they surreptitiously captured the zeitgeist and ran with it, earning influential articles in Vanity Fair magazine and The New York Times by Carl Van Vechten, who announced the New Negro Movement to whites with "…now is the psychological moment when everything chic is Negro."

It is only in the last 10 years that scholarship has investigated how much gays, lesbians and bisexuals (many of the participants in same-sex affairs were married, some several times) contributed to the movement. Pop culture hasn't caught on yet, although in 2004 the movie "Brother to Brother" swept the indie festival circuit, winning six major awards, including best fiction feature, at the Miami Gay and Lesbian Film Festival. The film resurrects Bruce Nugent, Zora Neale Hurston, Langston Hughes and Wally Thurman."

And:

"Although Harlem at the time was a black gay counterpoint to Greenwich Village and its population of white gays, intellectuals and artists, the virulent racial segregation of that era gave gays of color an additional hurdle to clear. 'Imagine if you had that triple threat: black, a woman and a lesbian,' said [Jack Rutland, executive director of the Stonewall Library Museum Archive in Fort Lauderdale]. 'You are deeply repressed. But there is a place like Harlem and you could be there with your own kind. So they did and this had an effect on the point of view of feminists and the art that came from there.'"

We analyzed Brother to Brother's importance for MTV/LOGO-owned AfterElton. Read that HERE. The images at top and right are from the other important gay film on that era, which surprisingly not mentioned here: Isaac Julien's gorgeous film Looking for Langston.

Shane Vogel, author of The Scene of Harlem Cabaret: Race, Sexuality, Performance, says the Renaissance offered freedom: “The goal...was to further depictions of black life by black artists, which included defining themselves sexually through art, writing, and dance. Many artists explored those themes in their work very openly.”

"The Harlem Renaissance: As Gay as It Was Black" was organized by the Stonewall Library Museum Archive in Fort Lauderdale. The exhibit runs May 11-June 30 in Florida Atlantic University's Wimberly Library Atrium in Boca Raton.

You May Enjoy:
Fascinating Archive of Black LGBTs on Chicago's South Side
History of Philly's Black Gay Nightlife, WWII to Present

Comments

[Corey]

I know I was born at the right time for who I am right now and all that, but I also think I've lived in other era's, and the Twenties was the last one I remember most! I can see myself so clearly in that photo - I fit right into the content and context of it. And, I'm sure I'd know just where to go to find Langston!

[Nathan James]

A noteworthy addition to the roll call of gay black artists who gave life to the Harlem Renaissance is Billy Strayhorn, composer of Duke Ellington's signature song, "Take The 'A' Train". He was an openly gay jazz pioneer who lived with his partner, Aaron Bridgers (a noted jazz musician in his own right) on Convent Ave. in Harlem during the 1940s. His open sexuality kept him hidden from the spotlight (it wasn't until the late fifties that Strayhorn was publicly credited as Ellington's composer), although he wrote songs for other musical greats like Lena Horne and Louis "Satchmo" Armstrong. Strayhorn was a major influence on the Harlem Renaissance, composing jazz with a revolutionary new approach to tonality and syncopation.

Alas, he was forced, like iconic black gay author James Baldwin, to contend with the rampant homophobia of his era, which eventually drove him from Harlem and NYC. Yet, to this day, Harlem and the Renaissance era owe much of their legacy to Strayhorn. But we still speak of his gayness in hushed tones when in mixed company.

When, last year, the Bahamas' Tourist Bureau decided to honor Ellington by operating a restored "A" train from the Renaissance era (complete with a jazz band playing the theme song), I mentioned composer Strayhorn, and wondered if he would have approved of the advances in LGBT culture today. Several people who overheard my remark gave me cold stares usually reserved for condemned criminals...how DARE I suggest Strayhorn was gay! I just shook my head and listened to the band play, as we rode along the tracks of Strayhorn's youth...

[Anti-Intellect]

As quiet as its kept the black community was more open to homosexuality than opposed to it back then. We simply had too many other issues to face. Then somewhere along the line we sold our soul to white american middle class values and have been proudly embracing homophobia ever since.

[Chitown Kev]

@Anti-Intellect

True but you forget the other factor.

In that era there was a VERY definitive and SECULAR black community; it was the blues culture for the most part.

Blues people were derided in the black churches even in the era of the Harlem Renaissance. But it was a definitive black culture, secular in nature, that allowed for homosexuality and/or gender nonconformity.

That opposition within black culture is still there but it remains invisible. Plus hip hop kinda sorta replaced the blues but, to an extent, nationalism came with hip hop. With nationalism comes misogyny and with misogyny comes homophobia.

[MW09]

This is great! I have to read more about this, thanks Rod!

[FREELEO]

I agree. This is great. It would also be great if this exhibit would travel.

[Anti-Intellect]

@Chitown Kev id be interested in learning more about nationalism and how in the hip hop community and how it led to misogyny and homophobia.

[Trey]

This is really awesome. It still amazes me how a lot of blacks don't wanna come to the realization that Strayhorn and Hughes were gay. If they'd just think about it a little, they'd see it, but I guess that's the whole problem: they don't wanna see it.

[FREELEO]

There is a movie being made about Billy Strayhorn's personal life called Billy and Aaron. I saw a short on the film but I believe they are making a full length film. There is a FB page called, "Billy and Aaron" that you can join to check for updates.

[Chitown Kev]

@Anti-Intellect

Well, there is a wikipedia page on the term that can give you a start.

But remember, I'm saying that ALL nationalisms are like this. I could be talking about the Nazis (the most extreme example) some of the strains of nationalism that have revealed themselves with the fall of the Soviet Union, Serbian nationalism, the "I want my country back" teabaggers or black nationalism; all of them have a deep nasty strain of misogyny and homophobia to them.

[Honut Sinti]

I love the photos accompanying the article.

[filmfledgling]

Wasn't there a rumor that Lena Horne had a heavy crush on Billy Strayhorn, and wanted to marry him?