Harlem Renaissance 2.0 Banners
Celebrating Same Gender Loving /LGBTQ+ African American Harlem Renaissance Icons
Banners Presentation
Along 125th Street
The Harlem Renaissance 2.0 Banners feature SGLBTQ s/heroes: Singer Alberta Hunter; artist, writer and performer, Richard Bruce Nugent; actress, Edna Thomas; composer, arranger; Hall Johnson, choral conductor and and writer, Dorothy West whose pursuits spanned the social, political and cultural landscapes, and advanced political and social change.
Executive Director, Dr. John-Martin Green says,
“The Gatekeeper is an indigenous African term for SGL guardians who restore balance and harmony when there is crisis in the community. As 21st Century Gatekeepers, we must spotlight the vital and unique contributions of SGL people to the history and culture of Harlem.”
Hall Johnson was a highly regarded African American choral director, composer, arranger, and violinist who elevated the African American spiritual to an art form. His choirs performed on Broadway and toured the world. Johnson arranged music for and conducted his choir in more than thirty feature-length Hollywood films, as well as a number of short films and cartoons.
Dorothy West was an author and journalist who wrote two novels, numerous short stories, worked as a magazine editor and newspaper journalist and was best remembered for her novel The Living is Easy (1948). West’s legacy is that her stories exposed the divisions borne of internalized racism and classism within African American society, showing how they undermined relationships and progress.
Alberta Hunter rose from poverty to become one of the most influential blues and jazz singers of the 20th century, as well as a well-respected nurse, vaudeville act, and songwriter. Achieving international fame for her rhythmically infectious singing style in the 1920’s and 30’s Hunter, following two decades of retirement, began a second successful singing career in the 1970s when she was in her 80’s.
Edna Thomas, one of the earliest African American female actors of the New York stage, was pivotal in the development of African American theater in the 1920s and ‘30s. A leading figure in the Negro Actors’ Guild of America, and the WPA Federal Theatre Project during the Great Depression, Thomas’ portrayal of Lady Macbeth in the all-Black production of Macbeth at the Lafayette Theater solidified her as the “First Lady of Negro Theatre” in the Harlem press.
Richard Bruce Nugent was a writer, painter, illustrator and actor noted for his bohemian lifestyle. A central figure in the Harlem Renaissance, Nugent’s avant-garde story “Smoke, Lillies, and Jade,” which appeared in 1926 in the provocative literary magazine FIRE!, was a seminal work as the first openly celebratory story of same-sex desire published by an African American writer.
The Gatekeepers Collective (TGC), with West Harlem Development Corp and the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council launch HARLEM RENAISSANCE 2.0, honoring the Centennial of the Harlem Renaissance and SGLBTQ (same gender loving (SGL), gay, lesbian, bisexual, Transgender, Queer) Heroes: a public art and performance initiative including a series of Banners along West 125thSt. celebrating SGLBTQ Sheroes and heroes who pioneered the Harlem Renaissance, as well as a public performance created from the lived experiences of the heirs to this legacy. The goal of the initiative is to celebrate and affirm the sexual identities of these giants of African American History and culture who elevated Harlem to mythic proportions.
The Harlem Renaissance 2.0 Banners feature SGLBTQ heroes: Artist and Writer, Richard Bruce Nugent; Composter and Arranger, Hall Johnson; Actress, Edna Thomas; Jazz and Blues Singer, Alberta Hunter; and Short Story Writer, Dorothy West; whose pursuits spanned the social, political and cultural landscapes, and advanced political and social change.
Harlem Renaissance 2.0 is made possible in part with funds from the West Harlem Development Corporation (WHDC).
West Harlem Development Corporation (WHDC) The mission of WHDC is to promote increased economic opportunities and quality of life to sustain a vibrant community in West Harlem.
