As their faces appeared on a Zoom webinar on Tuesday, November 9, Jamal Jones asked Billy Porter how he was feeling. Hundreds of attendees listened as Billy Porter said, “I feel good. I’m working on my audio book right now, and it’s interesting because I didn’t really understand how difficult it would be.”

Porter proceeded to explain the challenge of reading and essentially confronting his memoir. He called the experience “transformative.” That moment began the event and the hour of discussion between Porter and Jones.

The event was called “Unprotected: An Evening with Billy Porter, with Jamal Jordan.” It was hosted by Family Action Network (FAN), an organization that runs speaker series.

Porter is an actor, singer, director, composer, and playwright from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Porter played Lola in the original Broadway cast of “Kinky Boots.” He is a celebrated artist and director having won many awards including a Tony and a Grammy. Porter is the first openly gay black man to ever be nominated for and win a Primetime Emmy, which he did in 2019 for his lead acting on the show Pose. 

At the event, Porter’s conversation was with Jones who is a multifaceted artist, occasional professor, and author of “Queer Love in Color.” He has also worked with major news outlets including The New York Times and NBC News.

On October 19, 2021, Porter’s memoir, “Unprotected,” was published. The memoir tells the story of Porter’s traumas and how he has been healed and saved, most notably by his art, talent, and perseverance. His new book served as the subject of the FAN event on November 9.

“In ‘Unprotected,’ Porter’s voice on the page aptly matches his go-for-broke vocal instrument,” R. Eric Thomas wrote in the New York Times Book Review, “he holds little back, never shying from raw emotionality, but avoiding histrionics.”

Over the course of the event, Porter shared about his experiences, his book, and broader sentiments on big topics like racism, homophobia, art, and politics.

Porter said that after he was abused as a young kid, he discovered that he would have to take care of himself because no one else knew how, including “the religiosity that surrounded” him. He said that art saved his life.

Theatre and Technical Manager Tom Moster said that Parker was connected with FAN, and the two organizations soon realized that they could collaborate on their speaker events. Parker has hosted many FAN speakers in the auditorium since about 2018.

Senior Kindergarten teacher Kirk La Rue said the FAN events usually featured “high profile speakers,” including accomplished novelist Colson Whitehead.

La Rue and Moster heard about the event with Porter in a professional development newsletter. “I was super excited,” La Rue said, describing himself as a fan of Porter and his work.

La Rue said that the greatest takeaway from Porter’s event was the power of art and how it is able to convey deep truth and political ideas. “I think Billy Porter is someone who makes art for a reason,” he said. “It’s a purposeful decision.”

In a more intimate post-event discussion with Porter, La Rue asked Porter about what he would tell himself as a kindergartner. The question brought Porter to tears as he considered what message he would have given himself.

“I think he grew up in a time and started performing in a time when being black and gay were strikes against you,” La Rue said, “and has found a way, not only to perservere but really turn those things into assets and sort of have the world appreciate them as assets.” La Rue hoped that one day Porter could speak in the Parker auditorium.

Moster said that Porter’s authenticity was one of the most interesting things about him. He thought that the event was unique in the way Porter and Jones interacted. It was not a formal interview but rather a casual conversation.

Porter explained why he wrote his book and how that connected to his identity and personal journey. “The only thing I’ve ever wanted to do was to be able to express my truth through my art, express my authenticity through my art, heal my trauma through my art, which was the objective of my book,” he said, “when I sat down to write it, that was the only thing that I was interested in.”