Billy Porter - "Love is on the Way"

In honor of Black History Month all the posts for this month will feature artists of color.

This is the image of a human being living in their full space. This person, in the last two years, has begun to show the world just how incredible they are; giving all of us the permission to be just as flawed, free, and fabulous in their wake.

Before Pose and before American Horror Story, and before the broadway sensation of Kinky Boots, Billy Porter was already a performer to reckoned with. He had star turns in small independent movies and different broadway shows, always with a voice that was something to behold. We met a few times in NYC and he was always charming, and witty, and unabashedly himself. The beauty is that through doing this, through staying true to himself despite a world that would try to put him in a box in so many different ways, he was able to blow the boxes apart and create a world of shapes all his own.

This song will always be a little special to me, having performed it for a number of years, I fell in love with Billy’s raw, rough, and passionate voice. His magic, which I liken to other icons like Bette Middler and Billie Holiday, is that he knows how to use his entire instrument to connect with his audience. He can easily become each and every one of us, and that is gift not many possess.

I have to believe that his incredibly queer, unapologetic, fiercely free energy is part of what has made him rise from icon to legend.

So today, with the wings of angels beating round my head, I choose Billy Porter’s “Love is on the Way” as my, jump beyond the fire, like Eliza on the Ice, change the dice, song for a, believe it to be true, double down, I’m here - get used to it, Monday.

As reference, this is how he pays homage to the legend that was Hector Xtravaganza.