Billy Porter on Bringing Blackness, Queerness and Fullness to Art
Notes from America with Kai Wright
WNYC Studios
4.4 • 1.5K Ratings
🗓️ 19 December 2022
⏱️ 34 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
What does a next level victory look like for an Emmy, Grammy and Tony winner? For actor Billy Porter - it’s an authentic sense of self.
Actor and singer Billy Porter has spent decades bringing his full Black and queer self to his art. From Kinky Boots on Broadway to FX’s Pose, the actor credits his success to one huge victory–finding meaningful spaces for himself. But these spaces didn’t come until later in his life. Host Kai Wright speaks with Porter about his journey to healing, mental health and claiming spaces for himself. Read more in Unprotected: A Memoir.
Check out our holiday playlist here! We’ll keep compiling your suggestions, so keep them coming all season long.
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Transcript
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| 0:01.0 | I |
| 0:02.0 | Came with a message of hope today. I want you to turn to your name. We're insane |
| 0:08.0 | Children what's that sound everybody look what's going on? |
| 0:14.0 | I'm not my father |
| 0:26.0 | I'm |
| 0:30.0 | Baby |
| 1:01.0 | It's notes from America. I'm Kai right and welcome to the show |
| 1:15.0 | It's the first night of Hanukkah and the solstice is coming this week, which means the Persian celebration of Yalda |
| 1:21.8 | so love to all of you who celebrate both of those holidays |
| 1:26.6 | It's a time of reflection and my guest tonight has been reflecting on his life quite publicly in recent years |
| 1:34.3 | Billy Porter has won an Emmy a Grammy and a Tony so he's just an Oscar shy of that rare group of artists with all four awards |
| 1:42.9 | But that recognition has come only after decades of work as an actor and a singer and a life that has had its struggles |
| 1:52.0 | He reflects on that journey and the particularity of it as a black queer HIV positive man and his memoir unprotected |
| 2:01.0 | It is now out in paperback and I recently got to talk with him about the book about how art saved him and about his engagement in this perilous political moment in our history |
| 2:12.2 | Billy Porter. Thank you so much for this time. It is just a pleasure and an honor to spend some time. Thank you |
| 2:28.5 | I want to start where you start your memoir |
| 2:31.4 | Okay, because you open it with the closing lines of Tony Kushner's |
| 2:38.5 | Epic show Angels in America and they those lines strike me to my core every single time this you know |
| 2:45.3 | We won't die secret deaths anymore the world spins forward |
| 2:51.9 | And you know, of course I immediately think of your role on pose |
| 2:56.8 | As a character to pray Tal and you kind of to me, you know, right like you portray an angel in America |
| 3:04.0 | Yeah, over you know looking out for queer kids of color, but I mean for you |
... |
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