Richard Bruce Nugent

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Richard Bruce Nugent (July 2, 1906 – May 27, 1987), aka Richard Bruce and Bruce Nugent, was a gay^[1] American writer and painter in the Harlem Renaissance. He was born in Washington, DC to a prominent African American family. Spending a large part of his life in New York City, he died in Hoboken, New Jersey.

He was the first African American to publish a story (Smoke, Lilies, and Jade) that featured unabashedly homosexual characters and desires. This story appeared in the first and only issue of the art magazine Fire!!. He collaborated on this story with other authors. From 1926 to 1928 he lived with the writer and his partner Wallace Thurman at 267 W 136 street in Harlem, New York. Their house 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.