The Harlem Renaissance was one of the most important artistic and cultural milestones in modern history, and a sweeping new exhibit at The New York Historical highlights how this era was — as Henry Louis Gates Jr. once put it — “surely as gay as it was Black.”
This perspective rings true for Allison Robinson, the lead curator of “The Gay Harlem Renaissance.”
“In school, we tend to learn that the Harlem Renaissance was focused on race and class, and the things that they’re producing, but in fact, sexuality and gender are just as important,” Robinson told NBC News.