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Billy Porter looks forward to sharing his music on Miami Beach Pride’s main stage

Legend to present ‘Black Mona Lisa’ on South Beach stage

MIAMI BEACH, Fla. – Actor Billy Porter, a musical theater legend and advocate who has been living with HIV since 2007, was celebrating Pride in South Beach as a singer-songwriter and performer.

Porter, 54, said it was his first time at the Miami Beach Pride festival with the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer community in South Beach.

“I am so happy and grateful to be here. You know, I love the sun, and it has been a long winter, so I am feeling very blessed,” Porter said. “This is the first time I am headlining with my own original music.”

The two-time Tony Award winner and Broadway veteran said he was looking forward to headlining his show on Sunday night on the festival’s main stage.

FILE - Billy Porter arrives at the Oscars in Los Angeles on Feb. 24, 2019. Porter has broken his silence over his HIV diagnosis, saying he no longer wants to live under a cloud of shame. The Pose star said in an interview published Wednesday in The Hollywood Reporter that he told nearly no one for 14 years, fearing retaliation and marginalization in his industry. (Photo by Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP, File) (2019 Invision)

Porter’s music career as singer-songwriter started with “Love Is On the Way,” a song released on the 1196 film “The First Wives Club” soundtrack and covered by Celine Dion’s “Let’s Talk About Love” album. Late last year, he finally released his “Black Mona Lisa” album as a “celebration of life.”

“It has been out since November,” Porter said. “I am like you know, out in front of the people and sharing, you know, this message, sharing my message of love and hope and resilience, and self-love and compassion.”

FILE - Billy Porter attends The Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute benefit gala celebrating the opening of the "Camp: Notes on Fashion" exhibition in New York on May 6, 2019. The 2021 Met gala will be held at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York on Monday, Sept. 13. (Photo by Charles Sykes/Invision/AP, File) (2019 Invision)

Porter grew up with a mother who was a member of a Black Pentecostal church in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and with a stepfather who sexually abused him. He revealed that and more in his memoir, “Unprotected” a few years ago.

Porter identified as a gay teenage boy when the global epidemic of HIV/AIDS started. He also wrote that musical theater saved him while he was a student at the Taylor Allderdice High School, the Pittsburgh School for the Creative and Performing Arts, and Carnegie Mellon University.

This image released by FX shows Billy Porter in a scene from "Pose." The program was nominated for an Emmy Award for outstanding drama series. (Michael Parmelee/FX via AP) (Copyright 2019, FX Networks. All Rights Reserved.)

Porter took his dreams to New York City. He eventually landed the lead roles of Lola in the Tony and Grammy award-winning “Kinky Boots” and Pray Tell in the Emmy award-winning “Pose” series on FX.

On Saturday, Porter said all of these experiences prepared him to share his joy at Miami Beach Pride. His “Black Mona Lisa” performance is set for 10 p.m., on the main stage at Lummus Park, at 1130 Ocean Drive.


About the Authors
Alexis Frazier headshot

Alexis Frazier joined the Local 10 family in April 2020. The Fort Lauderdale native came to WPLG from the ABC affiliate in Columbia, S.C., WOLO-TV. She's glad to be back in South Florida.

Andrea Torres headshot

The Emmy Award-winning journalist joined the Local 10 News team in 2013. She wrote for the Miami Herald for more than 9 years and won a Green Eyeshade Award.

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