I liked this! Chatty and inviting. Just a little taste but a lovely one. Gorgeous illustrations. 

I really enjoyed this, even though I’m not really the target audience, and I would have been very happy to read a much more in-depth book. It’s a series of short profiles of various queer Black writers, artists, and performers of the Harlem Renaissance. Johnson profiles people like Langston Huges, Claude McKay, and Josephine Baker, but also some people I didn’t know about at all, like Jimmie Daniels. 

The profiles are short and mostly hover on the surface, but Johnson weaves their own reflections and feelings into each one, writing about when they first learned about some of these people, and relating their own life experiences to the lives of these artists. Their style is open, inviting, informal, chatty. Each profile has a loose structure, as Johnson jumps from theme to theme, following what interests, upsets, or excites them. 

I was a little meh for the first few profiles, but once I got into it I was delighted by this book and read it in one sitting. The artwork is gorgeous. Don’t come to this for in-depth Harlem Renaissance history; come for a loud and riotous celebration of Black queerness written directly to young people. Also come to get excited! I’ve read books by many of the people in this book, heard about many of them, and listened to some of their music, but after I finished this book I was like, okay, sign me up for a queer Harlem Renaissance class.