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The Stonewall Library and Archives in Fort Lauderdale is set to celebrate gay and lesbian contributions to the Harlem Renaissance with an exhibit to be unveiled at the start of African American History Month on Feb. 2.

The exhibit mirrors the assertion of acclaimed black historian Henry Louis Gates that the Harlem Renaissance was "surely as gay as it was black, not that it was exclusively either of these." As time has passed since the African-American literary revival of the 1920s and 1930s, also referred to as the Jazz Age, Langston Hughes, Richard Bruce Nugent, Bessie Smith and others have been increasingly accepted as gay icons. Their work offers a lens into a cultural moment marked by progressiveness and acceptance.

"When you look at the writing and art that came out of that period, it is infused with a gay sensibility and expressions of gay sexuality from the men and women alike," Jack Rutland, executive director of the Stonewall Library and Archives said of the exhibit. "It’s really everywhere you look."

The work on display in the exhibit--photographs, sheet music, records and books from the many artists profiled--paints a Bohemian picture of a lively era where gay and lesbian identity met with black identity in drag balls, speakeasies, rent parties and buffet flats. Smith sang of her relationships with women in front of packed audiences and was the highest-paid black entertainer of the time.

"These were people living incredibly creative lives, in terms of their sexuality, who they associated with and where they went to entertain themselves," Rutland said. "They had an incredibly progressive mindset."

Yet, at a time when society as a whole was still grappling with its treatment of any sort of sexuality, the gay and lesbian social sphere of the era remained, in many respects, hidden from the mainstream. Some of the era’s most celebrated gay and lesbian artists--including Hughes--never directly asserted their homosexuality and lived deeply compartmentalized lives. And some even made a continued effort to hide their gay identity.

Michael Henry Adams, a Harlem historian currently at work on a novel exploring the lives of the gay and lesbian artists of the Harlem Renaissance, shared a story of one artist he studied who had any of his work deemed even remotely homoerotic destroyed shortly before his death. And some historians have, at times, hesitated to identify certain literary heroes as gay or lesbian.

"For some of these artists, you don’t have the full works to be able to assess them, learn about their lives and who they are," Adams told EDGE. "This is essentially a hidden history where sometimes you’re reduced to having to speculate when you don’t have enough to draw from. But it is miraculous for me to learn that so many of the most celebrated and accomplished writers and artists to this period were gay," Adams continued. "I think it’s compelling too for people today who may be homophobic but admire yet idolize and admire a name like [Hughes.] It challenges them."

This challenge is part of the period’s lingering legacy; clearly significant from both an artistic and historical perspective that allows observers to marvel in its avant-garde openness and learn from its underlying message of acceptance.

"The coming together of these two incredibly rich cultures made this art happen," Rutland said. "They had to come into play together and it would not have been the same without both worlds contributing."