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Impressive Bio. Thanks for sharing Rhuta Bhayga! 👏🏽🇺🇸💙💎🗽🌈 #2Spirits #2SLGBTQ+ #LGBTQ #BLM #Pinks #Women #Indigenous #Latinas #GirlPower #RadicalWomen #NoFasciat #NoMAGA #NoHomophobia #Haters #LionPrideResisters
rhutabhayga.bsky.social Rhuta Bhayga @rhutabhayga.bsky.social · Dec 30
Gladys Alberta Bentley (August 12, 1907 – January 18, 1960)[1] was an American blues singer, pianist, and entertainer during the Harlem Renaissance - a non-conforming icon of the 1920s.

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Gladys Alberta Bentley (August 12, 1907 – January 18, 1960)[1] was an American blues singer, pianist, and entertainer during the Harlem Renaissance - a non-conforming icon of the 1920s. At age sixteen she moved from Philadelphia to New York after being harassed in her community for dressing in boys’ clothes and having feelings for her female teacher. Bentley heard that Harry Hansberry’s Clam House in Manhattan was looking for a male pianist – so she dressed in a tuxedo, auditioned, and got the gig, where she was backed up by a chorus line of drag queens. With the repeal of Prohibition, and the decline of the Harlem speakeasies, she relocated to southern California, where she was billed as "America's Greatest Sepia Piano Player" and the "Brown Bomber of Sophisticated Songs". She was a multi-talented musician who also regularly performed as a blues singer and was known to belt songs about male exploitation and domestic abuse. A black lesbian who often cross-dressed, Bentley famously pushed the boundaries of gender and sexuality while creating spaces of inclusivity. Today, she is recognized as one of America’s most successful black entertainers of the 1920s.
December 30, 2025 at 5:37 PM