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Virtual Travel

Billy Porter Gives Voice to The Queer Harlem Renaissance

Billy Porter Narrates Queer Harlem Renaissance Film ‘Smoke, Lilies & Jade’

A new film from the directors of The DL Chronicles debuts this weekend at Outfest Los Angeles and we have the trailer.

Donald Padgett

August 13 2021 2:00 PM EST

May 26 2023 12:46 PM EST

Award-winning actor, singer, and star of Pose, Billy Porter narrates the film Smoke, Lilies & Jade, which debuts Saturday, August 14, at the 2021 Outfest Los Angeles Film Festival.

Directed by the Black gay married couple Deondray and Quincy Gossfield, the creative geniuses behind The DL Chronicles, the short film is an adaption of gay writer and painter Richard Bruce Nugent’s short story about the life of Alex, a poetic artist who encounters Beauty, a Latinx man, while cruising Harlem during its famed Queer Renaissance during the 1920s. Beauty quickly becomes the object of Alex’s desires.

In addition to Porter’s narration, the film stars Xavier Avila as Alex and trans actress Alexandra Grey, declared a “rising star” on the cover of Out Magazine, as his female love interest. Ernesto Reyes portrays Beauty.

You can learn more about Smoke, Lilies & Jade 2021 and 2021 Outfest Los Angeles (which is partially virtual) here or watch a trailer for Smoke, Lilies & Jade below.