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'I needed a new home': how Debris Stevenson left Mormonism for grime

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Her musical Poet in da Corner brought raving to the Royal Court. Now the writer and performer is exploring first love. She talks Mormonism, trauma and teen dreams

Debris Stevenson’s first public performance, at the age of 15, sounds like an impetuous act of courage. For years she had been bullied, but she found herself at the school disco emboldened enough to “grab the mic”. The lyrics poured out of her. “It should have been scary but I was full of adrenaline. Whether it was good or not I couldn’t tell you.”

Until then, she kept the grime poetry she’d been writing in the library and “spitting out” on the way home from school secret. She often sat in the library and watched the world go by, struggling with dyslexia and tormented by trying to square her queer sexuality with her parents’ strict Mormonism.

I love a lot about Top Boy but what other stories are we going to tell?’

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