Androgynous Rhythm and Blues singer Jackie Shane rose to fame in the early 1960’s in Montreal and amassed a huge Toronto fan base. While his rise to fame could be credited to his Canadian following, Jackie was born and raised in Nashville Tennessee and grew up around music. The home of country music developed a growing jazz movement in the 1950’s and in his teenage years, Jackie lived with Nashville’s Queen of the Blues Marion James.
Gladys B
entley was a Harlem Renaissance blues singer and pianist famous not only for her roaring talent and vivacious stage performances but also for embracing her sexuality and living openly, for most of her life, as a lesbian.
“Models pose in clothes. People live in them” was the mantra of revered fashion designer Willi Smith. His designs pushed the boundaries of fashion from as early as 1976 creating affordable street-wise clothing that rejected the notion “we the rich can dress up and have fun, and the rest can dress in blazers and slacks”
My Queer Agenda 