Queer Harlem Renaissance Women in The Soviet Union: Travels of Louise Thompson Patterson, Dorothy West and Constance White

Unpack the previously underexplored perspective of Louise Thompson Patterson, Dorothy West and Constance White during a historic trip to the Soviet Union in 1932. Undergoing transformational experiences during the trip, they found pathways to become liberated and discovered new facets of their intersectional identities. Queer Harlem Renaissance Women in the Soviet Union: The Travels of Louise Thompson Patterson, Dorothy West and Constance White explores the experiences of three prominent African American women before, during and after a trip to Russia in 1932. Louise Thompson Patterson, Dorothy West and Constance White underwent gendered, racialized and sexualized transformations as a result of the trip, which they documented in works such as interviews, postcards, letters and magazine articles. Powell argues that it is salient to the historical record to re-story this trip through the lens of women, as it has predominantly been understood through a man’s gaze.. This book reviews how the perceivable, rigid, white and cold country of Russia provided a place of solace for three marginalized women