The Harlem Renaissance, as gay as it was Black, is a rediscovery of the iconoclasts of the Harlem Renaissance—the creatives who made Harlem a veritable playground of cultural production and a Black queer mecca led fascinating lives that were full of intrigue.

Influenced by the theoretical ideology of the renaissance’s master architect, Alain Locke, writers, visual artists, and performers created works that examined the histories of their people while looking forward to pursuing a new African American artistic culture. Scholarship on the period is only now recognizing their queerness as a factor, and the cultural impact of these Black Queer creatives is finally coming to realization.