The Power of Owning Your Story with Brian Broome

In this episode, I'm talking about something that is key to recovery and growth for a lot of people; it’s about owning your story, living your truth, declaring your truth and doing it from a place of grace and patience something that our guest, Brian Broome understands and embodies.

Brian Broome is the writer behind the book, Punch me up to the gods, an incredible memoir; Brian shares his story- the early years growing up in Ohio as a dark-skinned Black boy struggling with his sexuality with his father, friends, and other important people in his life forcing him to conform to a very restrictive definition of how a black man is supposed to behave, dress, and even think leaving no room for honest self-expression.

This book is gut wrenching and heartbreaking but it’s also glorious, strangely uplifting and despite the very painful story that has been shared in it, deeply relatable. This story is about a gay, black man who spent years trying to make sense of what the world expected of him and trying so hard and failing to find a point of reconciliation between all those expectations and everything that his heart and soul yearned for and we all have at least some understanding of what that feels like; we’ve all denied our truth for more acceptance and in doing so, lost our identity and our individuality in the struggle that followed. Brian lost himself too in drugs, alcohol, and sex but in today’s conversation we learn a little bit about how Brian found the courage to take ownership of his story, and make his way back to sanity and a place of truth where he was able to accept his past and make room for a future that’s truly his own.

Brian is an award-winning writer, poet, and screenwriter, and K. Leroy Irvis Fellow and instructor in the Writing Program at the University of Pittsburgh, and today he is sharing with us some of what he has learned from his struggles and how we can all begin our own journey towards living a more honest life.

Resources mentioned in the episode- 

Moonlight

I May Destroy You

I’m Telling The Truth But I’m Lying by Bassey Ikpi

Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri

Rick and Morty

The Secret Lives of Church Ladies by Deesha Philyaw