VALDOSTA – Chances are, if you have driven through Valdosta, you have seen him.

Kevonta “Tay” Browne, a local street performer, is 21. In a short time he has the kind of life story that affirms the power of faith and perseverance.

Of hope.

And joy.

But first, trauma. He had to learn to hang onto hope, no matter what.

“I used to be homeless,” he said. “This stopped the homelessness. It helped me get a home. Street performing helped me to pay for my car insurance.”

His pretty companion, Anisia Banks from Savannah, met him in Valdosta and has been helping him promote his performance by holding a classic sign he’s used to relay his story to passers by. The sign is a repurposed campaign sign, flipped to the blank side with various messages written on it.

Tay doesn’t know his family, never knew his father, and has fond memories of the man whose name he only knew was “Grandpa.”

Tay remembers how when he and his older brother were taken away and into foster care, Grandpa died two weeks later.

“We was his joy,” Tay said as people drove past yelling support, waving, blowing their horns.

He smiled.

And he dances.

“I’m self-taught,” he said, adding that he dances in Tallahassee, in Atlanta, in Orlando.

And he’s collecting a fan club.

Kids, he said, love him. “It brings me so much joy, he beams, “giving them happiness and seeing them smile.”

Some people aren’t so kind. Some people, he said, say ugly things – but he doesn’t let that hold him back.

Tay doesn’t stop.

“I love what I do,” he said. “It don’t matter what anybody says. I’m going to dance. It’s what I do.”

Videos of Tay dancing are found on Instagram where he has a growing following, and a strengthening #taythelitmaster. He is influenced by rappers like Young Thug and has a song coming up called “Who Knew.”

“It’s about how I came from nothing,” Tay texted the writer Friday afternoon. “…but went through alot nobody knew…”

You can follow him Taythelitmaster on SoundCloud, Twitter and Google. To be a patron you can stop by most afternoons on the corner of Park and Ashley to tip him or visit him on Cash App as$taythelitmaster07.

On Instagram (@taythelitmaster), he posted, “I will make history.”

Tay, you just did.

R