This program is read by the author and features music from Josephine Baker, Gladys Bentley, Ma Rainey, Bessie Smith, and Ethel Waters to enhance the listening experience.
From the New York Times–bestselling author of All Boys Aren't Blue comes an empowering set of essays about Black and Queer icons from the Harlem Renaissance.
In Flamboyants, George M. Johnson celebrates writers, performers, and activists from 1920s Black America whose sexualities have been obscured throughout history. Through 14 essays, Johnson reveals how American culture has been shaped by icons who are both Black and Queer – and whose stories deserve to be celebrated in their entirety.
Interspersed with personal narrative, powerful poetry, and illustrations by award-winning illustrator Charly Palmer, Flamboyants looks to the past for understanding as to how Black and Queer culture has defined the present and will continue to impact the future. With candid prose and an unflinching lens towards truth and hope, George M. Johnson brings young adult readers an inspiring collection of biographies that will encourage teens today to be unabashed in their layered identities.
A Macmillan Audio production from Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
Flamboyants
The Queer Harlem Renaissance I Wish I'd Known
1 of 1 copy available
-
Creators
-
Publisher
-
Awards
-
Release date
September 24, 2024 -
Formats
-
OverDrive Listen audiobook
- ISBN: 9781250354006
- File size: 68873 KB
- Duration: 02:23:29
-
-
Languages
- English
-
Reviews
-
Starred review from September 23, 2024
Johnson (All Boys Aren’t Blue) combines incisive prose commentary, skewering verse, and revealing memoir in this collection of abridged biographies of Harlem Renaissance–era Black queer luminaries. In an inviting, conversational voice, the author chronicles the intersectional oppression often faced by these icons, whose present-day remembrances “often leaves out their queerness.” Countee Cullen, a poet and an early mentor to James Baldwin, “had to process questions about his sexuality while also being a leader in a heteronormative society.” Featured alongside Cullen are figures who found ways to publicly embrace their sexuality despite the potential for social or legal consequences, such as Ma Rainey and Bessie Smith, who were purportedly very open regarding their relationships with women. Johnson expertly critiques the racism and homophobia experienced by the subjects outside the Black diaspora; he additionally dissects oppressions exerted within the community, as when reportedly bisexual entertainer Josephine Baker banished her son Jarry from her home upon discovering he was gay. Palmer (The Legend of Gravity) combines background textures resembling subway maps and skyscrapers with canvas portraiture to produce graphic and hyperrealistic imagery that harkens to the Harlem Renaissance while maintaining contemporary appeal. Ages 14–up. -
Starred review from January 1, 2025
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. VERDICT In any format, Johnson's justified demand for recognition for "the Flamboyants" transforms into accessible, necessary inspiration for new generations.
Copyright 2025 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
-