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Bulldaggers, Pansies, and Chocolate Babies shines the spotlight on historically neglected plays and performances that challenged early twentieth-century notions of the stratification of race, gender, class, and sexual orientation. On Broadway stages, in Harlem nightclubs and dance halls, and within private homes sponsoring rent parties, African American performers of the 1920s and early 1930s teased the limits of white middle-class morality. Blues-singing lesbians, popularly known as "bulldaggers," performed bawdy songs; cross-dressing men vied for the top prizes in lavish drag balls; and black and white women flaunted their sexuality in scandalous melodramas and musical revues. Race leaders, preachers, and theater critics spoke out against these performances that threatened to undermine social and political progress, but to no avail: mainstream audiences could not get enough of the riotous entertainment. James F. Wilson has based his rich cultural history on a wide range of documents from the period, including eyewitness accounts, newspaper reports, songs, and play scripts, combining archival research with an analysis grounded in a cultural studies framework that incorporates both queer theory and critical race theory. Throughout, he argues against the widely held belief that the stereotypical forms of black, lesbian, and gay show business of the 1920s prohibited the emergence of distinctive new voices. Figuring prominently in the book are African American performers including Gladys Bentley, Ethel Waters, and Florence Mills, among others, and prominent writers, artists, and leaders of the era, including Langston Hughes, Wallace Thurman, Zora Neale Hurston, and W. E. B. Du Bois. The study also engages with contemporary literary critics, including Henry Louis Gates and Houston Baker.

American drama --- African Americans in the performing arts --- Theater --- African Americans --- Harlem Renaissance. --- African Americans in literature. --- Race in literature. --- Sex in the theater. --- Afro-Americans in the performing arts --- Negroes in the performing arts --- Performing arts --- Afro-Americans --- Black Americans --- Colored people (United States) --- Negroes --- Africans --- Ethnology --- Blacks --- New Negro Movement --- Renaissance, Harlem --- African American arts --- American literature --- Afro-Americans in literature --- Negroes in literature --- Erotica --- Sex in the performing arts --- African American authors --- History and criticism. --- History --- Intellectual life. --- Harlem (New York, N.Y.) --- Intellectual life --- Stage sex --- History and criticism --- 20th century --- New York (State) --- New York (N.Y.) --- African Americans in literature --- Race in literature --- Sex in the theater --- Belasco, David --- Waters, Ethel --- Mills, Florence --- Bentley, Gladys --- Black people