A new art exhibition opening this fall in New York City invites visitors to explore a lesser-known but vital chapter of the Harlem Renaissance: the queer artists, writers and performers who helped define it.
"The Gay Harlem Renaissance" will be on view at the New York Historical from Oct. 10 to March 8, 2026. It lands at a time when some exhibits centered on Black and LGBTQ+ stories are being canceled, often amid political backlash to diversity and inclusion efforts.
Recent cancellations include shows at the Art Museum of the Americas in Washington, D.C., which focused on Black and queer artists, and the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery, which featured transgender art. An LGBTQ+ film festival in Phoenix was also scrapped, prompting the festival’s New York City edition to offer free virtual access to Arizona residents.
The New York Historical's show will highlight everyday Black queer life in the early-20th century, when Harlem was both the capital of Black culture and one of the most welcoming neighborhoods in the city for LGBTQ+ people.
“I think it’s a tribute to the New York Historical that they are sponsoring this exhibit, and I am really grateful for their support for it. It’s an important part of New York City history,” said George Chauncey, the show's chief historian and a professor at Columbia University, who authored "Gay New York."
“There are two main things we want to communicate with this exhibit," he added. "One is just how unexpectedly visible and accepted and integrated into daily life LGBTQ people were in Harlem in the 1920s and ’30s — and also how central a role they played in the cultural outpouring that we now know as the Harlem Renaissance."
The show will feature more than 200 works across mediums, including photographs, sculptures and music, from some of Harlem’s most celebrated voices, like Langston Hughes, Bessie Smith and Gladys Bentley.
“I hope that people who come to the exhibit will come away with a sense that Harlem was indeed the most gay-friendly neighborhood in New York in the early 20th century, surpassing Greenwich Village,” Chauncey said.
