Our Better Half

Our guest this time is James Wilson, the Executive Officer of the Theatre and Performance program at the City University of New York Graduate Center. His research and teaching interests include African American theatre and performance, gender and sexuality studies, and musical theatre history. He is the author of two books and today we’ll be talking about his book Bulldaggers, Pansies, and Chocolate Babies: Performance, Race, and Sexuality in the Harlem Renaissance. His essays have appeared in numerous academic journals and chapter anthologies. He is a voting member of the Drama Desk, nearly 60, and a lover of Broadway. His thoughts and reflections on Florence Mills, Gladys Bentley, and other queer performers in the Harlem Renaissance are spell-binding and we think you’ll truly enjoy him like we did! Not only does he shed light on the often overlooked LGBTQ contributions to the era's creativity and fights for justice, he does so with gusto and great research! If you’d like to purchase his book, please go to y