Waymon Hudson

The Quiet Work of Queer Witnesses A hymn for the quiet ones — the watchers, the carriers, the keepers of queer memory, and the queer kids who learned to read a room before they learned to read a book.

Read the full essay + watch the lyric video:
👉 open.substack.com/pub/waymonhu...

And while you’re there:
my holiday single “Christmas in the Quiet” drops Friday.
Teaser + pre-save link inside.

#QueerArt #Broadway #LGBTQ #SpeakeasyTheMusical #MessyReinvention

If you’ve ever learned to read a room before you learned to read a book…
or been loved in silence instead of in daylight…
or carried the weight so someone else could run...
I think this one will hit home.

It centers on “The Watchers,”
a sacred duet from my musical Speakeasy,
sung by two queer characters across generations
who finally see, and soften, each other.

This week’s Substack is about them.
About lineage.
About chosen family.
About the people who stayed in the shadows
so the next generation could stand in the light.

The Quiet Work of Queer Witnesses A hymn for the quiet ones — the watchers, the carriers, the keepers of queer memory, and the queer kids who learned to read a room before they learned to read a book.

There are fighters.
There are survivors.
And then there are the watchers...
the queer elders and quiet protectors who carried more than their share
so the rest of us could exist at all.

open.substack.com/pub/waymonhu...

#Essay #writing #survivors #LGBTQ #Queer #Gay #LGBTQCommunity

The Things We Had To Unlearn Reinvention isn’t just about becoming someone new... it’s sometimes about undoing the person the world trained you to be.

✨ Read: The Things We Had to Unlearn: open.substack.com/pub/waymonhu...

Reinvention is messy.
But damn, it’s worth it.

#reinvention #queerwriter #expatlife #selfgrowth #messyreinvention

In my latest essay, I talk about the things I had to let go of to become the version of myself writing from the Costa Rican jungle today.

If you’ve ever felt too loud, too soft, too queer, too ambitious, too much… this one is for you.

The real work of reinvention is unlearning the rules we followed for safety.

We grow up learning:
— queerness must be quiet
— joy must be earned
— ambition must be softened
— art is optional
— survival is the goal

None of that is truth.
It’s conditioning.

The Things We Had To Unlearn Reinvention isn’t just about becoming someone new... it’s sometimes about undoing the person the world trained you to be.

Reinvention isn’t always about becoming someone new.

Sometimes it’s about unbecoming the person the world trained you to be.

open.substack.com/pub/waymonhu...

#reinvention #essay #Survival #lgbtqia #gay #queerartist #joy #unbecoming #messyreinvention

The People Who Carried Us Messy Reinvention isn’t a solo act — it’s a lineage.

If you’ve ever had someone carry you — a teacher, a drag queen, a neighbor, a cousin, a stranger — this essay is for you.

💛 Read it here: open.substack.com/pub/waymonhu...

🎭 + new Speakeasy blog
🎧 + “Stolen Glances (Reprise)” lyric video
💃 + “Talk With Your Hands” is out now

I tied this into my Speakeasy musical this week: especially Miss Addie.
Her first solo, “Stolen Glances (Reprise),” is all about passing the torch to the next generation.

Her love. Her history. Her survival.
All of it matters.

Queer survival has always been communal.
Someone held the door open.
Someone kept the light on.
Someone whispered “keep going.”

We don’t reinvent alone... we reinvent because someone paved the way before us.

For me, it was my grandmother.
She let me sew, sing, play Barbies, and be soft in a world that punished softness.
She didn’t know the word “queer,” but she knew how to protect me.

The People Who Carried Us Messy Reinvention isn’t a solo act — it’s a lineage.

This week’s Substack hit me harder than I expected.

It’s called “The People Who Carried Us”... and it’s about the quiet, powerful figures who helped queer kids survive long before we knew we needed saving.

open.substack.com/pub/waymonhu...

#LGBT #Gay #Queer #LGBT #LGBTCommunity #Politics

When Queer Broadway Characters Refuse to Stay Supporting From La Cage aux Folles to Fun Home to to Speakeasy, these are the moments when queer characters stop apologizing and start taking up space.

It’s a song about being seen beyond the spotlight.

About wanting love that doesn’t fade when the music stops.

🎭 Read the full *Behind Broadway* blog: www.waymonhudson.com/post/queer-b...

#QueerBroadway #LGBTTheatre #SpeakeasyMusical #BehindBroadway #QueerVisibility #QueerRepresentation

YouTube video by Waymon Hudson All That I Am – Official Lyric Video | Speakeasy: A New #Broadway Musical by Waymon Hudson

In my musical Speakeasy, Merc — the Velvet Boot’s glittering emcee — finally drops the act with “All That I Am.”

It’s his reclamation. His moment to say,

“I’ve got bruises shaped like praise… and hope that hums on quieter days.”

All that I AM Lyirc Video: youtu.be/qdrq8CsUqxQ

From *La Cage aux Folles* to *Fun Home* to *The Color Purple*, those “I Am” songs are really about something deeper:

Visibility. Survival. Worth.

When Queer Broadway Characters Refuse to Stay Supporting From La Cage aux Folles to Fun Home to to Speakeasy, these are the moments when queer characters stop apologizing and start taking up space.

There’s a cost to being adored.
Sometimes, it leaves bruises.

Broadway has always known this — especially for queer characters.

www.waymonhudson.com/post/queer-b...

#Broadway #musicals #broadwaymusicals #theatre

I've Got Bruises Shaped Like Praise When the world loves you for what you give, not who you are.

My new essay digs into this — how queer survival became a performance, and what happens when we finally stop playing nice.

✨ Read Bruises Shaped Like Praise → open.substack.com/pub/waymonhu...

If your support ends where my humanity begins — keep your applause.

Don’t cheer for me at Pride and vote for hate in November.
Don’t call me brave while your silence bankrolls my oppression.
Don’t love my art and ignore the life that made it necessary.

I spent years turning pain into punchlines and truth into glitter.
It made me safe.
It made me consumable.

But it also made me small.

I've Got Bruises Shaped Like Praise When the world loves you for what you give, not who you are.

The world loves palatable queerness.
Be funny. Be fierce. Be fabulous.
But don’t be angry. Don’t be political. Don’t be too much.

🧵 A thread about performative acceptance & conditional love.

open.substack.com/pub/waymonhu...

#lgbt #LGBTQ #queer #gay #politics #culture

“Talk With Your Hands” — Waymon Hudson’s Dance Pop Anthem About Touch and Connection Deaf artist Waymon Hudson turns silence into rhythm with Talk With Your Hands — a dance pop track where desire and communication move through touch.

🖤 Read the Behind the Music blog → www.waymonhudson.com/post/dance-p...

🎧 Stream Talk With Your Hands → distrokid.com/hyperfollow/...

#TalkWithYourHands #WaymonHudson #ThroughMySkin #DancePop #DeafArtist #QueerMusic #NewMusicFriday

This song is a love letter to that kind of connection — the kind that doesn’t need translation.

You don’t hear it. You *feel* it.

On the dance floor, nobody can hear each other.
Everyone’s speaking in movement — in looks, in rhythm, in touch.

That’s the great equalizer.

🎧 Stream Talk With Your Hands → distrokid.com/hyperfollow/...

“Talk With Your Hands” — Waymon Hudson’s Dance Pop Anthem About Touch and Connection Deaf artist Waymon Hudson turns silence into rhythm with Talk With Your Hands — a dance pop track where desire and communication move through touch.

My new dance pop anthem "Talk With Your Hands" — out now.

It’s loud. Flirty. And the most fun I’ve ever had writing a song.

But it’s also about something deeper: how I connect with the world as a deaf artist.

www.waymonhudson.com/post/dance-p...

#music #Newmusic #newmusicfriday #pop #dancemusic

Costa Rica Expat Challenges: The Hard Stuff No One Posts on Instagram From potholes and power outages to language barriers and missing conveniences, here’s the honest (and hilarious) truth about expat life in Costa Rica — and why it’s still paradise.

New post: Costa Rica Expat Challenges — The Hard Stuff No One Posts on Instagram.

👉 www.waymonhudson.com/post/costa-r...

But the trade-offs?

Sunsets that make you cry.
A community that actually cares.
And a pace of life that feels like breathing again.

🚗 Driving is part obstacle course, part meditation.

🐜 Ants will move in rent-free.

📦 Amazon Prime? Doesn’t live here. (The jungle name is VERY deceiving)