Come along to Homo Harlem!

Historian Michael Henry Adams leads a virtual tour of Lesbian and Gay life in the historic African American cultural capital, where we'll meet personalities living and lost and see landmarks long gone and still standing that illuminate the a fabled part of New York. Past and Present LGBTQ+ Harlemites have played a leading role in defining Harlem's artistic significance. So in addition to enjoying the outstanding architecture of structures like All Saints Roman Catholic Church, you'll visit the homes of poets Langston Hughs and Countee Cullen, of beauty products heiress A'Lelia Walker, and and of actress Edna Thomas—where Thomas lived with her husband Lloyd and her lover, the English aristocrat Olivia Wyndham. It was also in the Thomas apartment at 1890 7th Avenue that night club singer Jimmie Daniels and his lover Philip Johnson, the future architect, carried on their passionate romance.

This was the place, along with Greenwich Village, where blacks and whites first dared to become friends and even to fall in love. Come and rejoice in the love and joy—and the heartache too—of Homo Harlem.

Speaker Bio

Born in Akron, Ohio, Michael Henry Adams is an accomplished writer, lecturer, historian, tour guide, and activist, living in Harlem. A Fine Arts graduate of the University of Akron, Michael trained in Columbia University's graduate historic preservation program as well as studying English country houses at the Attingham Summer School. His books include Harlem, Lost and Found: An Architectural and Social History, 1765-1915 (Monacelli Press, 2001) and Style and Grace: African Americans at Home (Bullfinch, 2002). Currently, he's at work on the forthcoming Homo Harlem, A Chronicle of Lesbian and Gay Life in the African American Cultural Capital, 1915-1995.