Queer Harlem Renaissance AR App
By Abri Aiken and Terry Vallery
Reviving an Erased Past
The 1920s Harlem Renaissance had a thriving Queer Culture that has been lost - both historically and spatially. The Queer Harlem Augmented Reality Phone Application helps bring these spaces back to life - through AR, the spaces can be experienced through an audio and visual reconstruction of the past. Individuals can walk through the doors of the Rockland Palace and see the grand Drag Balls that once took place, then attend the Rent Party at the Ni*eratti Manor, phallic paintings on the walls and all. Together, we can reconstruct, experience, and remember this disappearing queer history.*
Lafayette Theatre
The Lafayette Theatre (1912-2013) was located at 132nd Street and 7th Avenue (now Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard) in Harlem. In 1913, the Lafayette became the first major theatre to desegregate. Notable queer performers included Bessie Smith and Ethel Waters. Bessie Smith, the “Empress of the Blues,” was known to belt without a microphone and speak truths of real-world struggles that shook audiences to their core. It is noted that Ethel Waters performed in “Hello, Alexander” in 1919 at the Lafayette Theatre and greatly impacted audiences on the stage, and throughout Harlem, during her illustrious career. Queer artists, especially these infamous stars, played a large role in attracting audiences for the Harlem Renaissance and perpetuating the culture of the time period.
Lafayette Theatre was a two-story building, with three-story buildings flanking it between 131st Street and 132nd Street. Victor Hugo was the architect in charge of the theatre’s construction, which was designed in a Renaissance style. It opened in November 1912 as a theatre, cinema, and space for vaudeville performances, with a capacity of 1,500 guests.
Savoy Ballroom
The Savoy Ballroom was a legendary dance hall on Lenox Avenue between 140th and 141st Streets in Harlem, New York. It was known as “The World’s Finest Ballroom” and “Home of Happy Feet.” From 1926 to 1958, its twin bandstands showcased the world’s finest jazz musicians. Opened in 1926, The Savoy Ballroom was characteristic for welcoming Black and interracial audiences. According to Norma Miller, it was the first place in the world that Blacks and Whites walked through the door together. Owned by Moe Padden, it was located near a cluster of clubs called Jungle Alley. The Ballroom was accepting and welcoming to a thriving queer subculture, hosting Drag Balls from late into the night until sunrise.
The Savoy was a two story ballroom, with the entry leading downstairs to the main floor. It had two bandstands, coloured spotlights, and a rectangular dance floor (coined “the track”) that was over 10,000 square ft. of spring loaded wood. It had a capacity for 4,000 to 5,000 people, where usually 15% was white and the other 85% Black. In the 30s the cover charge was between $0.30 to $0.85.
Hotel Olga
Hotel Olga was located at Lenox Avenue and 145th Street, first built and used as the North End Hotel. In 1920, when around 500,000 African Americans lived in Harlem, businessman Ed H. Wilson opened a small hotel expressly for Harlem’s African-American clientele. Hotel Olga served a critical use – as a safe destination for Black individuals. Its feature in Victor Hugo Green’s Negro Motorist Green Book bolstered its status as a noteworthy destination and furthered the hotel’s reputation. The Hotel Olga owner, Ed H. Wilson, was the brother-in-law to heiress A’Lelia Walker, an infamous queer ally. The familial connection between Wilson and Walker led to many queer artists of the Harlem Renaissance utilizing Hotel Olga as a safe haven and respite, as well as a space for intellectual liberation.
Designed by architecture firm Neville & Bagge, the hotel was a 3-story building with 40 rooms, lounge space, a library, and reading rooms. Signage played a large role in the building's identity; a large extended banner announced the entrance to the hotel lobby and displayed the hotel’s name. Throughout all the name changes, the signage was updated and when the space no longer served as a hotel, the banner was removed.
The Manor
Far in Harlem, near St. Nicholas Park, lies the lost brownstone for the literati. 267 West 136th Street, colloquially called “Niggerat(t)i Manor,” looked like the typical townhouse in the area. The manor’s title arose as an ironic and self-given name for the group of historic residents and their inner circle of artists—““Niggera(t)ti”—a combination of the terms “literati” and the derogatory “nigger”” was purposely created for both a shocking and humorous effect by the group. As an enlightened cooperative enclave, the residents at the manor bestowed this title on themselves, supposedly created by Zora Neale Hurston, who affectionately “proclaimed herself ‘Queen of Niggerati’.” The townhome’s Black female owner, Iolanthe Sydney transformed the space when she allowed a group of literary and visual artists to live in her building for free, or nearly free. Sydney wanted the artists -who were predominantly queer - to fully devote themselves to their work, without the burden of worrying about rent or incomes to hinder their endeavors.
Forensic architecture suggests it was similar to the taller brownstones of Harlem, with unique fenestration, a front porch, and an elevated first level with a total of five floors. The interior of the brownstone is assumed to be of a similar layout to many current Harlem townhouses on the market today. Individual units in the townhome were leased out as SROs (Single Room Occupancy), for various residents, and interior spaces were used as dual living and working quarters. Furthermore, spaces of the manor were used for small parties, literature discussions, or salons.
Claude McKay
The apartment of Claude McKay, located at 147 West 142nd Street, just adjacent to 7th Avenue, was a crucial space for the development and understanding of the underworld and queer scene in Harlem and, moreover, the identity of the Black middle class of Harlem and abroad. As presented by Shane Vogel, the space was denominated as a “Cabaret School” where Claude McKay performed as host and instructor. McKay was a person who, with the interventions housed in his apartment, challenged, “the calcification of racial and sexual identities and the use of those identities in strategies of social order and control by dominant white society as well as by the ideologies of normative life.”
Claude McKay’s apartment exemplifies the typical brownstone typology, and the segment of 142nd Street where the building is located reflects a classic New York City apartment block, with one way traffic lined with brownstones and row houses. Amendments to the tenement law in 1919 enabled the division of single-family row houses into multi-unit housing, which altered the way in which these structures housed individuals. For artists and bohemians in Harlem during the 1920s, rent parties were a norm and an instrumental element of the arts, culture, and queer scenes of Harlem at that time. Parties that raised money to cover rent costs by charging admission fees to social, musical, and artistic events hosted within the apartment. Claude McKay frequented others’ rent parties and hosted his own.
Rockland Palace
At the corner of 155th Street and Frederick Douglass Avenue, there was a sought after venue which offered a safe haven for queer spectators and performers from all corners of New York City. The history of this building runs parallel to the history of the Harlem Renaissance, prohibition, the Great Depression, and more. In its lifespan, the space was inhabited by a wide array of figures, from celibate Christians to drag queens, showcasing its extraordinary place in Harlem history.
The Rockland Palace was a Romanesque-style theater building that housed a grand event space for political rallies, sermons, banquets, sporting events, roller rinks, concerts, and extravagant drag balls. The space itself consisted of a large auditorium with a stage and an overlooking balcony. Depending on the function, its configuration could accommodate rows of chairs, dining tables, or anything in between.
Clam House
Jungle Alley, the 133rd Street of Harlem, was a cluster of clubs, ballrooms, venues, speakeasies, and spaces dedicated to nightlife, music, dance, culture and entertainment. Beginning in the 1920s with the Harlem Renaissance, this locally activated area also became a tourist destination for upper Manhattan whites and the Black community throughout the nation, having been described as the “epicenter of [the Renaissance’s] thriving nightlife.” One of the most renowned spaces was Edith’s Clam House (also known as Harry Hansberry’s Clam House or Gladys’ Clam House). Having opened in 1928 at 146 West 133rd Street, it was considered one of the most important speakeasies on the block due to Gladys Bentley, who could be found “performing in a signature white top hat, tuxedo and tails, [singing] raunchy songs laced with double-entendres that thrilled and scandalized her audiences”
As part of the network composing the Jungle, important cultural spaces included Barron’s Exclusive Club, Connor’s, Bill’s Place, Cotton Club (formerly The DeLuxe), and Connie’s Inn. One of the most renowned spaces was Edith’s Clam House (also known as Harry Hansberry’s Clam House or Gladys’ Clam House). Having opened in 1928 at 146 West 133rd Street, it was considered one of the most important speakeasies on the block due to Gladys Bentley, who could be found “performing in a signature white top hat, tuxedo and tails, [singing] raunchy songs laced with double-entendres that thrilled and scandalized her audiences” Similar to the other speakeasies on 133rd Street, the upper floors of the brownstones were residential, while the ground floors or basements were used for retail and bars. Signage played a significant role in identifying the commercial nature of these lower floors and announcing to the public that these spaces existed, as exemplified by the Clam House overhang.
