With his new memoir Unprotected out on the shelves, actor and broadway star Billy Porter joined Stephen Colbert on Thursday for a frank conversation about trauma and the ability to heal through the power of art.
“My hope is that my story and my journey will free somebody else, and set somebody else free,” says Porter. “Because it sets me free.”
Porter goes on to talk about the importance of truth and speaking it to power, before the conversation turns to his 2007 HIV diagnosis and what it meant for Porter to talk about it publicly.
“Shame is a silencer, and silence is a murder,” says Porter. “Shame is a murderer. I was dying a very slow death, and I have too much work to do for that.
“So I had to let it go. I had to let it go, y’all.”
