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Billy Porter has a new, deeply personal kids’ book on the horizon, Songbird in the Light The book hits shelves next spring, and PEOPLE has an exclusive look inside”I realized the power that was in these vocal cords,” Porter says, “And it changed everything for me.”

When Billy Porter discovered the superpower that is his voice, it became his salvation. Now with his new children’s book, Songbird in the Light, he hopes to give other kids that same hope.

“My voice is my savior, the gift from on high,” Porter tells PEOPLE in a conversation about the new book, coming from Abrams Books for Young Readers next spring. “It’s my weapon, it’s my solace. It’s my peace. It’s my hope. It’s my joy. When I was a kid, it was all of those things. The reason why I’m alive is because I could sing.”

Billy Porter is an actor, singer, director, composer and playwright, as well as the winner of the 2019 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series for his portrayal of Pray Tell in Pose — which made him the first openly gay Black man to be nominated and win in any lead acting category. He’s also the winner of the 2013 Tony, Grammy, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Awards for his performance as Lola in Kinky Boots.

Billy Porter.

Abrams

But before all of that, he was a little kid with an oddly shaped head getting “bullied mercilessly” in school. “My original version of this book was called ‘Rockhead Bill’ because when I was a kid, for a couple of years, my head grew larger than my body, and I got made fun of a lot,” he shares.

“There was a lot of trauma in my childhood, and so when I tried to sit down and start writing this book … the inciting incident is somebody throwing a rock at my head. Kids can be the worst.”

That’s when Porter realized that his original idea was too violent for the target audience, and “learned very quickly  that I actually could not do it alone, because I don’t really understand how to write for [kids].” He teamed up with children’s book author Chris Clarkson and Coretta Scott King/John Steptoe New Talent Award and Children’s Africana Book Award–winning illustrator Charly Palmer to bring a young Porter’s story to the page.

‘Songbird in the Light’ by Billy Porter, with Chris Clarkson and illustrated by Charly Palmer.

Abrams

In Songbird in the Light, Mama says her little boy is a songbird with a voice bigger than his whole body, an official synopsis reveals. But at school, his classmates make fun of him, which makes him feel like a songbird too shy to sing. But with the support of his choir teacher, he realizes his voice is unique and distinct and when the school showcase comes around, he’s finally ready to share his talent with the world.

That’s almost exactly what happened to a young Porter. “I was bullied mercilessly from like the first to the fifth grade,” Porter explains. After he signed up for — and won — his school talent show, “I realized the power that was in these vocal cords. And it changed everything for me.”

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When working with Clarkson and Palmer, Porter wanted to create not just a kids’ book, but a lasting work of art. “When you’re a child, you relate to [a book] in one way, and then when you grow up, you look at it, and it’s a piece of art,” he explains. “The art in this book, I think, is extraordinary. And I wanted it to not pander, but to elevate.”

A spread from ‘Songbird in the Light’.

Abrams

It was also important to the creative team to help Black families see themselves on the page, and to pay tribute to Porter’s mom Cloerinda Jean Johnson Porter-Ford.

“I had lots of strong Black women in my life that sort of circled around me and gave me life,” Porter explains. “When I was coming up, they told my mom she probably wouldn’t live past 30, and she probably would never be able to live on her own, and she defied all the odds. She birthed me and my sister and raised us. She lived on her own until she was 71 years old. She died at 79 because her body gave out. Her mobility gave out, but her mind was always there. So I wanted to make sure that that was depicted in this art.”

Another spread from ‘Songbird in the Light’.

Abrams

Visually, Porter says the book “really captured it so beautifully.”

“The African American-ness of it, visually, is important. The fact that the hair of my character is in plaits, that’s very, very specific and necessary for us to be able to see ourselves,” he said. “Also, you know, he’s really kind of fashionable, too.”

As he looks forward to the book’s release, Porter hopes it serves as the kind of guide he didn’t have himself, growing up.  I created this book for my younger self,” he says. “To be the thing that I did not actually have.”

Another spread from ‘Songbird in the Light’.

Abrams

“You could be different and succeed, and be present and have hope,” he adds, of the book’s central message. “There is hope, and there is light, even when it doesn’t feel like it.”

Songbird in the Light comes out March 17, 2026, and is available now for preorder, wherever books are sold.