After 79 Years, Gentleman Jigger Gets Published

The critically praised 2004 film Brother to Brother re-introduced modern audiences to Richard Bruce Nugent, an openly gay writer popular during the Harlem Renaissance. In the film, an art student meets Nugent and hears stories about what it was like to be a gay voice in one of the 1920's important cultural movements.

Nugent was the first African-American to publish a story about gay characters ("Smoke, Lilies and Jade") and for a long period he was a rare example of a gay African-American man who didn't hesitate to let his art reflect his homosexuality. But his novel, Gentleman Jigger, has gone unprinted until now.

Gentleman Jigger focuses on two brothers: Aeon, who can "pass" as white, and Stuartt, who is openly gay, like Nugent. Stuartt becomes involved with a young hoodlum, forcing him to deal with the gangster's world of molls, jazz and gang bosses. According to Keith Boykin, the novel was never published partially due to the frank discussion of homosexuality, which Nugent refused to take out when asked by publishers.

If you'd like to learn more about Nugent, check out this website which has plenty of samples of his work and a look at his life. You can sample his poetry, his art (including a totally NSFW gallery of drawings) or read a chronology of his life.