In 1926, Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, Wallace Thurman, Aaron Douglas, Richard Bruce Nugent, Gwendolyn Bennett and John P. Davis created the first and
only issue of the black literary journal FIRE!!, which included Nugent’s explicitly gay poem “Smoke, Lilies and Jade.” Longtime activist, scholar of African American studies, and friend of the Bureau James Wright discusses FIRE!! in the context of the Harlem Renaissance, plus catch a screening of “Brother to Brother,” a dramatic film about the life and times of Bruce Nugent.