ALAIN LOCKE (d: 1954) An American writer, editor, philosopher, educator and patron of the arts was born on this date. He is best known for his writings on and about the Harlem Renaissance. He is unofficially called the "Father of the Harlem Renaissance." His philosophy served as a strong motivating force in keeping the energy and passion of the Movement at the forefront.

In classic same-sex “culture carrier” mode, Locke promoted African American artists, writers, and musicians, encouraging them to look to Africa as an inspiration for their works. He encouraged them to depict African and African American subjects, and to draw on their history for subject material. Locke edited the March 1925 issue of the periodical Survey Graphic, a special on Harlem and the Harlem Renaissance, which helped educate white readers about the flourishing culture there.

Later that year, he expanded the issue into The New Negro, a collection of writings by African Americans, which would become one of his best known and seminal works.

His philosophy of the New Negro was grounded in the concept of race-building. Its most important component is overall awareness of the potential black equality; No longer would blacks allow themselves to adjust themselves or comply with unreasonable white requests. This idea was based on self-confidence and political awareness. Although in the past the laws regarding equality had been ignored without consequence, Locke's philosophical idea of The New Negro allowed for real fair treatment. Because this was just an idea and not an actual bylaw, its power was held in the people. If they wanted this idea to flourish, they were the ones who would need to "enforce" it through their actions and overall points of view. Locke has been said to have greatly influenced and encouraged Zora Neale Hurston.

CLAUDETTE COLBERT, French-born actress born (d. 1996) Long rumored to have been one of Marlene Dietrich’s many lovers, most of Colbert's estate, estimated at $3.5 million and including her Manhattan apartment and villa in Barbados, was left to a friend, Helen O'Hagan (1931- ), a retired director of corporate relations at Saks Fifth Avenue, whom Colbert had met in 1961 on the set of the actress's last film.

ROBERT INDIANA (born Robert Clark) (d:  2018) was an American artist born on this date, associated with the pop art movement . His "LOVE" print, first created for the Museum of Modern Art's Christmas card 1965, was the basis for his 1970 LOVE sculpture and the widely distributed 1973 United States Postal Serives "LOVE" stamp. He created works in media including paper (silk screen) and Cor-ten steel.

Indiana's work often consists of bold, simple, iconic images, especially numbers and short words like EAT, HUG, and, his best known example,  LOVE. In his EAT series, the word blares in paint or light bulbs against a neutral background; he regularly paired “EAT” with “DIE”. In a major career milestone, the architect Phillip Johnson commissioned an EAT sign for the New York State Pavilion at the 1964 New York World's Fair. The sign was turned off one day after the opening of the fair because visitors believed it to mark a restaurant. Andy Warhol's contribution to the fair was also removed that day. Other well-known works by Indiana include: his painting the unique basketball court formerly used by the Milwaukee Bucks in that city's MECCA Arena, with a large M shape taking up each half of the court; his sculpture in the lobby of Taipei 101, called 1-0 (2002, aluminum), using multi-colored numbers to suggest the conduct of world trade and the patterns of human life; and the works he created in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks and exhibited in New York in 2004 called the Peace Paintings.

Between 1989 and 1994, Indiana painted a series of 18 canvases inspired by the shapes and numbers in the war motifs paintings that Marsden Hartley did in Berlin between 1913 and 1915.

Indiana was also a theatrical set and costume designer, such as the 1976 production by the Santa Fe Opera of Virgil Thompson's  The Mother of Us All, based on the life of suffragist Susan B. Anthony. He was the star of Andy Warhol's film Eat (1964), which is a 45 minute film of Indiana eating a mushroom. Warhol also made the brief silent film Bob Indiana Etc. (4 minutes, 1963), a portrait of the artist with appearances by Wynn Chamberlain and John Girono.

In 1964, Indiana moved from Coenties Slip in New York City to a five-story building at Spring Street and the Bowery. In 1969, he began renting the upstairs of the mansarded Victorian-style Odd Fellows Hall named "The Star of Hope" in the island town of Vinal haven, Maine, as a seasonal studio from the photographer Eliot Elisofon. Half a century earlier, Marsden Hartley had made his escape to the same island. When Elisofon died in 1973, Indiana bought the lodge for $10,000 from his estate. He moved in full-time when he lost his lease on the Bowery in 1978.

Indiana died on May 19, 2018 at his home in Vinal haven, Maine,  of respiratory failure at the age of 89. One day before his death, a lawsuit was filed over claims that his dealer had isolated him from family and friends, and was marketing unauthorized reproductions of his works.

 NELL CARTER, American actress, born (d. 2003) a Tony Award-winning American singer and film, stage, and television actress. She appeared alongside Bette Davis in the 1974 stage musical Miss Moffat, based on Davis' earlier film The Corn is Green. The show closed before making it to Broadway. She broke into stardom in the musical Ain't Misbehavin, for which she won a Tony Award in 1978. She also won an Emmy for the same role in a televised performance in 1982. Additional Broadway credits included Dude and Annie.

In 1979 she had a part in the Miloš Forman-directed musical film adaptation of Hair. Her famous vocal talents are showcased throughout the motion picture soundtrack. One of the more memorable moments in the film involves her rendition of the song "White Boys" where she can be seen dancing playfully as she performs the song. Carter died from heart disease complicated by diabetes and obesity on January 23, 2003. She was 54 years old.

She is survived by her two adopted sons (Joshua and Daniel) and a daughter (Tracy), conceived during a rape in her teens, as well as by her partner Ann Kaser. Sadly, her sexuality and relationship with Kaser did not become public knowledge until after her death.

SIR FRANCIS SCOTT KEY wrote “The Star-Spangled Banner” on this day. We celebrate this as a moment in Gay history because the theme of the anthem is based on the then popular “Anacreon in Heaven.” Ahhhh...Anacreon. Who was Anacreon? Born in Teos, Ionia circa 570 BCE, Anacreon was one of the nine Lyric Poets of the golden age of Greek poetry. And being the good and manly Greek he was, Anacreon’s poems and odes were largely about the beautiful boys he loved or longed for or held in his arms as he cooed lyrical poetry to them. He kisses and tells; he names names: Smerdis, Leukapsis, Smialus, Eurylus and Bathyluss, probably the boy band of the day.

The structure of his poesy was so popular in its own time that others imitated the eponymously named “Anacreontics.” Anacreon was rediscovered by English poets in the 19^th century and they swooned for him like a well-oiled boy in the gymnasium. The vogue for Anacreontics in English culminated in the popular song “Anacreon in Heaven,” the famously un-singable tune for the American national anthem. There have been attempts to convince Congress to seek a new national anthem, something a tad more accessible vocally for the masses. Our bet: if you want to accelerate this movement, just whisper in the ear of the Moral Majority the story of the foreign fay and his poems about “dipping his flagpole” in young men. That ought to do the trick.