Richard+Bruce+Nugent

Cody Reuschel

Richard Bruce Nugent was not only a poet, but a artist as well. Many of his poems and artworks were very emotional. His art and poetry often involves eroticism. His artwork is still very elegant and often times has extravagant colors.

Richard Bruce Nugent was born in 1906 to a family with a lower than average income. His father died when he was 14, soon after his mom moved to New York. A few months later Richard moved to join his mother. He had many jobs, but the one that started it all was when he was a Van Dresser, which gave him his first taste of art. A while later he told his mother that he wouldn't take any jobs besides artist. His mother sent him to live with his grandparents in Washington after getting this news, probably because she didn't want to deal with it.

There he became favored by a middle aged poet named Georgia Douglas Johnson. In June 1925, in one of Georgia's famous salons, Richard met Langston Hughes. Alain Locke who was a scholar and professor who's mother was good friends with Richards grandmother, and who often went to the salon, included Nugent's story "Shadji" in the New Negro in 1925. This was the cornerstone of the entire Harlem Renaissance. Hughes wrote to Carl Van Vechten, a famous homosexual novelist about Nugent. In October 1925 Hughes recovered Nugent's poem "Shadow" from his wastebasket, sent it in to get publicized, and it caused quite a stir. People thought it was about race, Nugent later said it was about being lonesome because he is homosexual.

In 1925 he teamed up with other very famous artists of the time such as Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, Wallace Thurman, Aaron Douglas, Gwendolyn Bennett, and John P Davis to create the first issue of FIRE!! which they hoped would inspire the younger generation with art. That was the only issue released due to financial problems, but it was a great achievement of the Harlem Renaissance, getting new art out there. Nugent released 2 drawings and "Smoke, Lilies, and Jade" which was the first literary work on an openly homosexual theme to be published by an African-American writer.

Silhouette On the face of the moon Am I A dark shadow in the light A silhouette am I On the face of the moon Lacking color Or vivid brightness But defined all the clearer Because I am dark Black on the face of the moon A shadow am I Growing in the light Not understood as is the day But more easily seen Because I am a shadow in the light
 * __ Shadow __**


 * __ Analysis __**

At first this seems to be about his race. It talks a lot about shadow's and color. This leads most people to think it is about how he is a black person in a white society, who is misunderstood, who is under-appreciated, who is sticking out. This can especially be seen in lines 9, 15, and 16. It talks about how he is dark (11). All these things lead me to believe that it is about discrimination to black people.

After reading about his life and his art styles, I think it is about him being homosexual. The darkness is symbolism for homosexuality. In line 16 it talks about how he is not going to hide that he is homosexual and that he is proud of it.

"Chronology." //Richard Bruce Nugent//. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Apr. 2011. . "Richard Bruce Nugent - The Black Renaissance in Washington, DC." //DC Library Labs |//. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Apr. 2011. .