YouTube / Chris Conde
While we anxiously await this next slate of Tiny Desk Contest winners, NPR is sharing selected entries on Twitter.
"Each day in May, we’re sharing a #DeskOfTheDay to celebrate the wide range of creative Tiny Desk Contest entries we receive," NPR Music tweeted on May 1.
On Wednesday, the entry NPR chose to showcase was from San Antonio's Chris Conde, who also happens to be a Current contributor.
In his video submission, Conde literally sat at a tiny desk with an acoustic guitar while singing his queer anthem "Growing Up Gay."
Our #DeskOfTheDay for May 6:
— NPR Music (@nprmusic) May 6, 2020
Influenced by the Pulse night club shooting in Orlando, artist @chrisconde sings of being a proud queer person of color in his Tiny Desk Contest entry, "Growing Up Gay." https://t.co/ja84aw25E2
"I woke up to a notification from NPR Music on Twitter and I couldn’t believe it!" Conde told the Current in a Facebook message.
"This was my second year submitting (I submitted once in 2017), and I was super stoked to get a little love from a rad platform like NPR."
"What I’m also grateful for is that them shouting out this particular song gave visibility to the QPOC narrative," he continued.
"'Growing up Gay' is about processing internalized homophobia and navigating my early years as a queer brown boy," he added. "I wrote it the week of the Pulse night club shooting because I felt like people were talking about the incident, talking about queer culture and not really understanding what gay pride really means and the journey. A lot of LGBTQ people have to walk through their own gay shame (because we’ve been conditioned by our families, society, religion to believe that there’s something wrong with us) before we walk into acceptance, love ourselves and finally celebrate that aspect of our lives. My queerness does not define me but it is something I celebrate."
Stay on top of San Antonio news and views. Sign up for our Weekly Headlines Newsletter.
