Stonewall Library To Unveil Harlem Renaissance Exhibit
The Stonewall Library and Archives in Fort Lauderdale is set to celebrate gay and lesbian contributions to the Harlem Renaissance with an exhibit to be unveiled at the start of African American History Month on Feb. 2.
The exhibit mirrors the assertion of acclaimed black historian Henry Louis Gates that the Harlem Renaissance was "surely as gay as it was black, not that it was exclusively either of these." As time has passed since the African-American literary revival of the 1920s and 1930s, also referred to as the Jazz Age, Langston Hughes, Richard Bruce Nugent, Bessie Smith and others have been increasingly accepted as gay icons. Their work offers a lens into a cultural moment marked by progressiveness and acceptance.