Big Freedia

Starred review from August 1, 2015
He was born Freddie Ross in Baltimore and raised in New Orleans, but today he is better known as Big Freedia as he performs a type of hip-hop called bounce. In his entertaining and down-to-earth memoir of a life lived on the margins, he notes that he knew he was different early on. At 10, when his friends were listening to Michael Jackson and Bobby Brown, he turned to the church and gospel music. More significantly, he reveals, I knew I was gay pretty much right from the start. He came out to his mother when he was in eighth grade and came out soon thereafter to the world. He writes about clubbing and making records and about personal challenges, such as the death of his beloved mother and the time he was shot in the arm, as well as a few surprises, including his opening for the indie band Postal Service, to the bewilderment of their almost exclusively white fans. Big Freedia also describes being trapped on the roof of his house during Hurricane Katrina before making his way to the chaos of the New Orleans Convention Center. Fans of bounce will be fascinated by Big Freedia's many-chaptered story and his struggle to remain true to himself.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)