Desiree Dawson is a Vancouver-based singer songwriter and the 2016 winner of CBC’s Searchlight Talent Contest.  In our conversation Desiree opens up about her childhood as a mixed child in a small beach side community with few black people.  We talk about the pressures she felt to shut off parts of herself and the careful balancing act she had to play in order to self-preserve.  However, the process was not a victimless one. The residual effects of these childhood memories is something she still reckons with today. Have a listen.