Flamboyants: The Queer Harlem Renaissance I Wish I’d Known

Gr 10 Up–Johnson is three for three for self-narration, their chatty, conversational style an irresistible invitation. “My heroes were hidden from me,” they write, particularly the Black and queer—learning about them as a struggling youth “could have made all the difference.” They rectify that lack for younger readers/listeners, with a reminder that “queerness is as old as heterosexuality.” Jaunty musical snippets announce each Black queer pioneer: performer Ma Rainey, “the original trash-talking, take-no-shit Black woman”; writer/educator/philosopher Alain Locke, first Black Rhodes Scholar (“here we go again with Black queers being the first”); entertainer Bessie Smith who paved the road to stardom for other queer artists; poet Claude McKay who showed the world the Harlem Renaissance wasn’t all glitz and glamour even if W.E.B. Du Bois wasn’t pleased; and more.