Billy Porter hopes new memoir 'Unprotected' will help others 'release the shame and choose yourself'
The singer and actor honed his theme finishing the book during the pandemic.
Tony, Emmy and Grammy winner Billy Porter has added author to his already impressive resume.
In his new memoir, "Unprotected," Porter candidly opens up about race, sexuality, art and healing, and how his past and determination to survive helped him get where he is today.
"I had been working on it literally since 2014, the inception of the idea for this memoir," he told "Good Morning America" about the theme of overcoming adversity. "But it was the lockdown that helped me laser it helped me get specific about what that meant."
Porter explained once he honed in on his "own specific trauma" that "the theme shifted to healing my trauma through my art."
"That specificity sort of came into play during the lockdown and the title came, which is 'Unprotected' -- about being unprotected in the micro, which is my own personal life -- but also watching the world, and watching us all be unprotected in the macro, which I thought would be a great way to expand it and make my journey universal," he said.
He also opened up about instances of bullying in his life and how one incident left him hospitalized. Porter said he doesn't "have to say anything" to those attackers.
"Success is the sweetest kind of revenge, if 'revenge' is even the word," he said. "All I have to do is keep on living in my truth. That is all I have to say, and that changes the world and it makes it a safer place for those who come behind me."
The Grammy winner also has a new disco-infused single, "Children," that goes into his life and journey.
He called the track "the infusion of my personal story into my music."
"This is a song about empowerment. It's a song about, you know, owning who you are, being authentic, and it's time to let the children know what time it is, and the time is now for the embracing of all people without apology," he said.
As Porter has worked through his own trauma, he hailed this new book "as a daily practice is releasing the shame of everything."
"Shame is a silencer. Shame is a murderer. And my hope that is for anyone who is reading this book, anyone who comes under the sound of my voice and experiences my art in any way to understand how to release the shame and choose yourself," he explained. "It's the only way to heal."
