Queen Latifah as Hattie McDaniel

The rapper turned actress appears in Ryan Murphy’s latest Netflix series, Hollywood, portraying the Oscar winner Hattie McDaniel. The show touches on one of McDaniel’s many sapphic relationships. 

Bessie Smith

Nicknamed the Empress of the Blues, she was the most popular female blues singer of the 1920s and 1930s. 

Born in Chattanooga, Tennessee as one of seven children. Smith experience a tremendous amount of loss at a young age. Soon she turned to the arts as a means of financial gain and coping. She began to perform as a street singer, until 1912, when she  began performing as a dancer in the Moses Stokes minstrel show. This is where she encountered blues vocalist Ma Rainey, who took Smith under her wing, and over the next decade Smith continued to perform at various theaters and on the vaudeville circuit.

Her first recording, for Columbia Records was “Downhearted Blues”, it sold an estimated 800,000 copies and established her as the most successful black vocalist of her time. More than any other performer, she was responsible for introducing the blues into the mainstream of American popular music.

She made 160 recordings for Columbia, often accompanied by the finest musicians of the day, notably Louis Armstrong, Coleman Hawkins, Fletcher Henderson, James P. Johnson, Joe Smith, and Charlie Green. By the end of the 1920s, Smith was the highest-paid black performer of her day, and had earned herself the title "Empress of the Blues." 

Bessie Smith was a famously promiscuous bisexual, she is noted for having numerous female lovers throughout her lifetime.

Smith was critically injured in a car crash while traveling along U.S. Route 61 between Memphis, Tennessee, and Clarksdale, Mississippi. She died of her wounds in a Clarkdale, Mississippi hospital. She was 43. 

Smith's grave was unmarked until a tombstone was erected on August 7, 1970, paid for by the singer Janis Joplin and Juanita Green, who as a child had done housework for Smith.

Since her death, Bessie Smith’s music continues to win over new fans, and collections of her songs have continued to sell extremely well over the years. She has been a primary influence for countless female vocalists—including Billie Holliday, Aretha Franklin and Janis Joplin and has been immortalized in numerous works including an award winning HBO film starring with Queen Latifah.

Mo'Nique as Ma Rainey

The Academy Award winning actress was nominated for a Primetime Emmy for her portrayal as the“Mother of the Blues” in the Dee Rees directed,HBO film Bessie. Rainey was a noted bisexual,even going as far as alluding to her intimate relationships with women in her song "Prove it on Me Blues.

Amiyah Scott as Cotton

The Instagram famous & fabulous actress plays the transgender daughter of Queen Latifah’s character Carlotta on the Empire spinoff Star, which premieres tonight on FOX.

Queen Latifah as Liz Bailey

The actress played a sexually ambiguous nightclub singer and best friend to Holly Hunter’s Judith Nelson in 1998′s Living Out Loud. 

Tika Sumpter as Lucille

The actress starred as Bessie Smith’s (Queen Latifah) lesbian lover in Dee Rees’ 2015 biopic about, the famously bisexual 1920s jazz songstress, Smith.

Samantha MacLachlan as Ursula

The actress played better half to Queen Latifah’s Cleo in F. Gary Gray’s 1996 film Set It Off. 

Queen Latifah as Bessie Smith

The 2015 Dee Rees directed, HBO TV Film Bessie, features Latifah shining in the titular role as the famously bisexual Jazz singer. 

Queen Latifah as Cleopatra “Cleo” Sims

Set It Off is a black American classic. And Queen Latifah’s Cleo was the first black lesbian many African-American families let into their homes. She was strong and demanding. Ready to do whatever for the almighty dollar and unapologetically gay. Because of the film’s tragic ending, it’s been a few years since I’ve viewed it. But Latifah’s brilliant portrayal of Cleo still haunts me even after all of this time.