The Harlem Renaissance is considered by many as one of the most important moments in the history of Black arts and culture, but many aren’t aware of the significant contributions made by LGBTQ Artis during this time. “The Gay Harlem Renaissance,” is a new exhibition on display at the New York Historical that looks at the most influential Black LGBTQ artists that came out of the 1920s.
Suggested Reading
The exhibit includes more than 200 pieces, including paintings, photos, books and music by LGTBQ artists and allies who helped define the movement, including Langston Hughes, Countee Cullen and Ethel Waters.
Dr. Louise Mirrer, president and CEO of The New York Historical says she hopes the exhibit will encourage visitors to consider the significance of community among the artists and the spirit that continues to resonate today.
“The Gay Harlem Renaissance provides a sweeping portrait of Harlem after the First World War, when a remarkable generation of Black artists, thinkers, and performers—many of them members of the LGBTQ+ community—shaped a new cultural vanguard,” she said in a statement.
In honor of this special exhibition of Black culture, we’re taking a look at some of the highlights from the “The Gay Harlem Renaissance” exhibit on display until March 2026 at the New York Historical.
Alain Locke
The Gay Harlem Renaissance exhibit coincides with the centennial celebration of the release of philosopher and writer Alain Locke’s “The New Negro,” an anthology of writing about Black art and culture. Although he was not openly gay, Locke was supportive of Black LGBTQ+ artists.
The Nightlife
Part of the exhibit pays tribute to some of the creative ways working class people managed to find ways to make ends meet during the Harlem Renaissance, including hosting apartment parties where guests paid a small cover for a chance to hear music and socialize with others.
The Nightlife
The intimate parties held in speakeasies and apartments allowed guests to dance with and flirt with people of the same sex without judgment. This element of community is highlighted throughout the exhibit.
“The exhibition takes visitors to the basement speakeasies, rent parties, and drag balls where ordinary queer and straight people built lives together, as well as to the salons of the cultural elite,” said Columbia history professor George Chauncey, the chief historian of the exhibit.
Black Swan Records
While there were plenty of talented Black musicians during Harlem Renaissance, white-owned record labels rarely gave them opportunities, unless it was to record minstrel music. In 1921, Harry Pace saw a tremendous opportunity to provide a positive platform for Black artists, launching Black Swan Records, the company he advertised as “The Only Records Using Exclusively Negro Voices and Musicians.”
Ethel Waters
One of Black Swan’s most notable artists was singer and actress Ethel Waters. Known for songs like “Dinah” and “Stormy Weather,” she recorded with Black Swan from 1921 to 1923 and was one of the highest paid Black artists of the time.
She was the second Black person to be nominated for an Academy Award and the first Black person to star in her own television show.
Ethel Waters
Although Waters was married to three different men, she lived with a female romantic partner Ethel Williams during the 1920a.
Painting the Great Migration
The exhibit also includes paintings inspired by The Great Migration, the period after World War I when more than six million Black Americans migrated north from southern cities in search of economic opportunities.
Painting The Great Migration
As they settled in cities like New York, Philadelphia, Chicago and Detroit, Black Americans established community through political activism and the arts. This movement inspired “The New TK<” which would later be defined as The Harlem Renaissance.
Drag Balls
Although they were illegal, drag balls were considered safe places for gay men to socialize. One of the highlights of the exhibit is a recreation of a winning gown worn by Bonnie Clark at the 1932 Hamilton Lodge Ball, the largest drag ball on the East Coast, which was held every February in Harlem’s Rockland Palace.
The Writers
Part of the exhibit pays tribute to some of the most important writers of the time, including poet and novelist Countee Cullen. NYU and Harvard-educated, he considered by many as the Poet Laureate of the Harlem Renaissance. In addition to self-publishing much of his work, he also edited works by other Black writers.
Although Cullen wasn’t openly gay, he often wrote poems for his lovers. Married to two women, one ex wife claimed the reason for their breakup was due to his attraction to other men.
The Writers
The New York Historical’s exhibit also showcases works by female writers Zora Neale Hurston and Nella Larse. Although both kept many details of their romantic lives private, were known to explore queer themes in their writing.
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