Billy Porter赢得了赞誉扮演角色的守护神是谁ger than life. He won both a Tony Award for best leading actor in a musical and a Grammy Award for best musical theater album for his performance as the drag diva Lola in the 2013 musical “Kinky Boots” and an Emmy for his role as ballroom emcee Pray Tell on the FX series“Pose.”

Now, in his new album and tour, both titled“Black Mona Lisa,”Porter is shedding the characters and going back to basics — or as basic as the red carpet fashion icon gets.

“I feel like I’m coming home as myself,” said Porter, 53, from New York. “It’s just up here as Billy; I’m not playing a character.”

Porter is taking his tour to 25 cities in the U.S., with engagements at the San Jose Center for the Performing Arts on May 4 and San Francisco’s Golden Gate Theatre on May 5. The performer, writer and director plans to sing his hits including his breakout song “Love Is on the Way,” which was featured in the 1996 film “The First Wives Club.” In 2019, Porter’s song “Love Yourself” hit No. 1 on the Billboard Dance Club Songs chart.

The Chronicle spoke to Porter by phone from New York about his multifaceted career, his musical roots and his LGBTQ activism, including his thoughts on the current wave of anti-drag legislation in many states.

The conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

Q: I heard you on “The View” today talking about Tennessee’s drag ban. Are you surprised by these moves in many states to try to ban or limit drag performances?

A:We’ve been in a progressive cycle for over 50 years. None of what’s happening right now is new. It’s a blueprint for what existed prior to the progress.

What I’m trying to use my platform for is to speak life into all of us. Our news cycles are all negative because that’s what gets the ratings — if it bleeds it leads. I find that we’re not talking about the positive things that are going on enough. The only thing that’s happening is that there are a bunch of scared people trying to hold up the progress, but that’s all they can do is hold it up.

“The world only spins forward,” as Tony Kushner says in “Angels in America.” We show up, we engage, we come together, we participate in our democracy and we make sure that what’s right is what’s happening.

I wrote a song on my album called “Can’t Sing This Song Again” and it’s my answer to “A Change is Gonna Come” by Sam Cooke. This is a fight for our entire lives from the moment we’re born to the time we die. We have to stop taking a bag of popcorn to a gunfight, though. It’s time for some tough love in this world.

Q: You’re an artist who has integrated your social activism and beliefs into your projects as a performer and creator. Where does your new album, “Black Mona Lisa,” fit into the Billy Porter agenda?

A:My first dream growing up was to be the maleWhitney Houston. I started singing in church when I was 5. Everybody knew that the voice was special.

I was bullied every day of my life until I sang at the talent show in fifth grade, and all of a sudden the bullying stopped. Growing up in Pittsburgh, there’s no music industry, there’s really only theater and dance and I was bit by the theater bug. I’ve existed in all of these worlds.

My first Broadway show was in ’91, and I just went from Broadway show to Broadway show. At the same time, I was working on trying to get a record deal. My first R&B album (“Billy Porter”) came out in 1997, when the business was very homophobic and they kicked my Black faggot ass out. But I kept going, and now I’m back, signed to the No. 1 label in the business and doing it on my own terms. For the first in my life, my music is exactly what I want to say and how I want to say it. It is all of me from the church to R&B, soul, to the theatrical. I want this show to be a celebration of life, hope, joy and love. I want people to come in and leave changed.

Q: How would you describe the aesthetic of the tour? Coming from Broadway and “Pose,” you’re a performer who is often in the middle of big productions.

A:Actually, it’s going to be simple. I’m stripping it down because the reality is, I don’t have the Beyoncé budgets yet. I want to focus on getting back to Billy Porter, the singer.

I spent 25 years at the beginning of my career trying to get people to take me seriously as an actor. Now, I read things like, “Oh, I didn’t know you could sing!” Because I exist in so many different spaces, those audiences don’t always speak to each other. I’m hoping music as the universal language will bring all of my audiences together.

The video packages will be doing most of the talking. I’m putting it together right now, the set list is growing because everybody I talked to has a request. The other day I did (the game show) “That’s My Jam,” and I sang “Stronger.” It went viral and now everybody wants me to sing it in my concert. We’ll see.

Q: How did you arrive at the title “Black Mona Lisa” for the tour and album?

A:I was working with Justin Tranter (who has written songs for artists such as Britney Spears, Gwen Stefani and Justin Bieber) and his teams who are just pop songwriting geniuses. For the first couple of weeks when I was writing with them, I was telling stories and I don’t remember who came up with “Black Mona Lisa,” but it is genius.

What I love about it is that it speaks to something being classic. I’m a classic, right? But when you see the Black part, it means I’m out of the box. I’m a classic moving toward the future. I’m busting out of the screen. I’m not confined to the frame.

Reach Tony Bravo: tbravo@ sfchronicle.com