Richard Bruce Nugent

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Richard Bruce Nugent (also known as Richard Bruce and Bruce Nugent) (July 2, 1906 - May 27, 1987) was a writer, painter and important figure in the Harlem Renaissance. Nugent was born in Washington, DC to a prominent African American family. He spent a large part of his life in New York City and died in Hoboken, New Jersey.

He was the first African American to publish a story that featured unabashedly homosexual characters and desires. He collaborated on the groundbreaking literary publication, Fire!!.

He is a principal character in the 2004 film Brother to Brother, in which it is said that Langston Hughes - a very important figure in the Harlem Renaissance (and, like Nugent, also a gay one) - wrote the poem "Song for a Gifted Child."

In 2002 Duke University Press released Gay Rebel of the Harlem Renaissance: Selections from the Work of Richard Bruce Nugent which included examples of his writing and artwork.

He was a contemporary of Langston Hughes, Aaron Douglas, Wallace Thurman and Zora Neale Hurston.