Jimmie Daniels & once lover architect Phillip Johnson
Jimmie Daniels, 1940
Photo: Carl Van Vechten
The Boxer, James Richmond Barthé, 1942, Bronze, 47.6 x 30.9 x 17.6 cm
Trumpet Player | Langston Hughes
The Negro
With the trumpet at his lips
Has dark moons of weariness
Beneath his eyes
where the smoldering memory
of slave ships
Blazed to the crack of whips
about thighs
The negro
with the trumpet at his lips
has a head of vibrant hair
tamed down,
patent-leathered now
until it gleams
like jet—
were jet a crown
the music
from the trumpet at his lips
is honey
mixed with liquid fire
the rhythm
from the trumpet at his lips
is ecstasy
distilled from old desire—
Desire
that is longing for the moon
where the moonlight’s but a spotlight
in his eyes,
desire
that is longing for the sea
where the sea’s a bar-glass
sucker size
The Negro
with the trumpet at his lips
whose jacket
Has a fine one-button roll,
does not know
upon what riff the music slips
It’s hypodermic needle
to his soul
but softly
as the tune comes from his throat
trouble
mellows to a golden note
Alain LeRoy Locke (1885 – 1954) was an American writer, philosopher, educator, and patron of the arts. He is best known for his writings on and about the Harlem Renaissance. He is unofficially called the “Father of the Harlem Renaissance”. His philosophy served as a strong motivating force in keeping the energy and passion of the Movement at the forefront.
Locke promoted African American artists, writers, and musicians, encouraging them to look to Africa as an inspiration for their works. He encouraged them to depict African and African American subjects, and to draw on their history for subject material.
“Beauty’s hair was so black… and soft… blue smoke from an ivory holder… was that why he loved Beauty… one can… or because his body was beautiful… and white and warm… or because his eyes… one can love…”
– Richard Bruce Nugent
![Richard Bruce Nugent [1906 - 1987] — writer, painter, illustrator, and popular bohemian personality — lived at the center of the Harlem Renaissance. Protégé of Alain Locke, roommate of Wallace Thurman, and friend of Langston Hughes and Zora Neale Hurston, the precocious Nugent stood for thirty years as the only African American writer willing clearly to indicate his homosexuality in print. His contribution to the landmark publication FIRE!!, the prose composition “Smoke, Lilies and Jade,” was unprecedented in its celebration of same-sex desire.](http://24.media.tumblr.com/c5d7b67d8c42e14c1d0402e75a881f3b/tumblr_mmpr24eksu1ql2ecio1_400.png)
Richard Bruce Nugent [1906 - 1987] — writer, painter, illustrator, and popular bohemian personality — lived at the center of the Harlem Renaissance. Protégé of Alain Locke, roommate of Wallace Thurman, and friend of Langston Hughes and Zora Neale Hurston, the precocious Nugent stood for thirty years as the only African American writer willing clearly to indicate his homosexuality in print. His contribution to the landmark publication FIRE!!, the prose composition “Smoke, Lilies and Jade,” was unprecedented in its celebration of same-sex desire.
