Sex parties, queer relationships, and multiple partners were not unusual during the early 20th Century in African American neighborhoods in Philadelphia and New York. Young black women led that social-sexual revolution. The book “Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments” looks at how those women have challenged and transformed ideas about love, marriage, and family -- even before the Jazz Age and the Harlem Renaissance.
Cover image of “Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments.” Credit: W. W. Norton & Company.