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Richard Bruce Nugent (July 2, 1906 – May 27, 1987), aka Richard Bruce and Bruce Nugent, was a writer and painter in the Harlem Renaissance. He was born in Washington, DC to a middle-class African American family. He was the oldest child of Richard H. Nugent, Jr., a train porter, by his wife, Pauline. Spending a large part of his life in New York City, he died in Hoboken, New Jersey.

In 1926 Nugent published "Smoke, Lilies, and Jade," a short story regarded by many scholars as the first publication by an African American to depict homosexuality openly. The story, on which he collaborated with other authors, appeared in the only issue of the art magazine Fire!!. From 1926 to 1928 he lived with the writer Wallace Thurman at 267 W 136th Street in Harlem, New York. The apartment complex in which they stayed was known as "Niggeratti Manor," and the walls were decorated by Nugent with murals representing homoerotic scenes.

He is a principal character in the 2004 film Brother to Brother.

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.

This author page uses material from the Wikipedia article "Richard Bruce Nugent", which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0