Gay Rebel of the Harlem Renaissance

Richard Bruce Nugent (19061987) was a writer, painter, illustrator, and popular bohemian personality who lived at the center of the Harlem Renaissance. Protg of Alain Locke, roommate of Wallace Thurman, and friend of Langston Hughes and Zora Neale Hurston, the precocious Nugent stood for many years as the only African-American writer willing to clearly pronounce his homosexuality in print. His contribution to the landmark publication FIRE!!, Smoke, Lilies and Jade, was unprecedented in its celebration of same-sex desire. A resident of the notorious Niggeratti Manor, Nugent also appeared on Broadway in Porgy (the 1927 play) and Run, Little Chillun (1933) Thomas H. Wirth, a close friend of Nugents during the last years of the artists life, has assembled a selection of Nugents most important writings, paintings, and drawingsworks mostly unpublished or scattered in rare and obscure publications and collected here for the first time. Wirth has written an introduction providing biographical information about Nugents life and situating his art in relation to the visual and literary currents which influenced him. A foreword by Henry Louis Gates Jr. emphasizes the importance of Nugent for African American history and culture.