Best Worst Year
Life gives you a box; a set of perimeters designed by society to keep things neat and in their place. But people are nuanced creatures, across a spectrum that can’t be condensed into units. We have a breadth of identity that only magnifies with time and experience. We are deep and wide and asymmetrical. We don’t condense easily into straight lines and orderly queues. To be human is to be complex, colourful, creative and on a continuum of difference.
Nevertheless we are still put into boxes. And to step out and do things differently takes courage, guts, and it takes looking into your true you. But when you do take the road less travelled, there are treasures available to you, you would never have imagined possible from inside that box. And thank goodness for that.
Best Worst Year
My Brave New Girl podcast guest Angelica Black this week dared to step out of their box and into the light. And all good things came to pass.
Angie Black, is the singer-songwriter & co-founder of the band STRABE who signed with the record label PIAS in 2021. They had moved to London in Lockdown 2020 & unable to start gigging, Angelica took an inward journey to explore their sexuality & gender, knowing they were gay but also then understanding that they identified as non-binary.
In 2017 Angie's dad passed away, and they starting writing songs to process their grief. They moved to Dublin, formed their band Strabe and their song Acid Love was born; later releasing the prophetic Best Worst Year
Musicians and performers really struggled during the pandemic, & Angie came to London in lockdown. There were no gigs but as it turned out from what could have been seen as the worst few years, came some of the best things.
Angie took the time to dig deep into their grief and a life long anxiety, and in doing so came to find their true self; which wasn't the box society had prescribed them.
In 2020 they came out as gay, and then started to explore gender, eventually coming to the realisation that they identified as non-binary.
In sharing their story they hope to positively impact others who are going through their own explorations.
Thank you so much Angie for talking so openly about your journey of self-discovery, so others may not feel so lonely and confused when they find they don’t fit into the tight bands of binary sexuality and gender. Also for showing us that we don’t need to be confined to straight and narrow boxes, and that when we connect deeply with ourselves we discover we are far greater than any definition would constrain us to.
You can follow Angie on Instagram @strabemusic
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