TheDeavine1 Conducts Life with Light

Walking down a shadowy blue hallway toward Angela Frazier’s music classroom feels like approaching light at the end of a tunnel. The room, filled with a plethora of colors from costumes and posters, welcomes you as the laughter and singing of children fill the air. The rhythm and blues embrace every listener's soul.

Dressed in a bold pantsuit of black and white with large, pink Happy Face emoji earrings framing her face, her infectious smile immediately telegraphs her intent.

A music teacher by day, Frazier is a conductor of light to kindergarten kids at the Idea Burke School in San Antonio. At night she’s the embodiment of glitz and glamor as “TheDeavine1,” a platinum-record selling singer of gospel and soul.

The spirit of her two personas are held together by her devout love for Christ and her faithful practice in Christianity. 

“My faith puts me in a place where I believe that I can go further than where I'm at. My faith keeps me grounded, keeps me rooted,” Frazier said. “It allows me to keep a smile on people's faces when I walk through the door, and to hold on when I feel like I am ready to give up or break.”

Having been teaching students throughout many areas over 30 years, a career in education has always been a dream for Frazier. 

“Children make a difference and we make differences in their lives,” Frazier said. “They help me and I help them. To give back what God gave me, be it singing, be it teaching a child how to read or write, it's always been a dream of mine to be a teacher and educator.” 

Conducting the class, a puppet in her right hand sings along while Frazier stands up and dances with the children. Their little bodies jump around, moving from head to toe with their eyes fixating on Frazier, encapsulated by her passion. 

“I use my energy, I use my talent, my voice,” Frazier said. “I use all the gifts that God has given me in order to bring that to a child or a person that may not be getting that in their life.”  

Frazier works tirelessly to prepare her children with confidence to perform and to be themselves wherever they go. 

“Every day I work on trying to build confidence in these young people. If I see that they have a gift, I push it,” Frazier said. “Bringing that to the school has given me so much joy. My job is to push them to be better, to push them to learn. I'm here to give back that part of me.” 

Pouring her soul into everything she does, Frazier wants to leave an inspiring impact on her students.  

“I would like to leave this earth knowing that I have given each and every child or person the confidence to know that they can do all things through Christ who strengthens them,” Frazier said. “That they can do whatever they put their mind to and go for it, just go for it.”

Frazier’s teaching and love for her students doesn’t go unnoticed according to her colleague Stephanie Rivera, a kindergarten reading teacher.

“She just genuinely cares, loves and respects the kids,” Rivera said. “She wants to see them grow. She wants to see them learn. She has this personality that makes the kids want to go to her and want to learn from her. She's very joyous and brings them a lot of happiness in their day-to-day.” 

Frazier said she sympathizes with these young kids because she sees herself in them. Music helped her throughout challenges she faced growing up. 

“As a child I was bullied really badly, and singing allowed the bullies to leave me alone just for a little while,” Frazier said. “And that's what made me feel very confident to keep going.”

Her childhood and background in music has equipped her with the means to be the teacher she is today.

“I've always written. I've been writing for years,” Frazier said, reminiscing on the start of her music career. “It started as a kid, writing poetry and then I would write a song to it.” 

It was when Frazier first performed at 10 years old singing “This Christmas” by Donny Hathaway in a holiday program where she found out about her gift and love for singing. Embracing her love for poetry and song, she performed in an oratorical speech competition with the poem, “When Malindy Sings” by Paul Laurence Dunbar. 

After proudly humming the poem she performed over 30 years ago, she went on to explain that she won the competition and slowly began to see the potential in herself. 

“I won, and I started winning, then I took it higher.” Frazier said. As her voice got more mature, she continued performing in NAACP Act-So competitions during high school. “I took silver and a bronze medal in singing and theater. And then in high school I wrote a play." 

The play had collected dust for five years before Frazier’s aunt Patricia found it and made Frazier finish what she started. 

“I said, ‘Oh man,’ and read over it,” Frazier said. “I sat in the tub and the Holy Ghost said, ‘Write.’” Frazier paired with her partner at the time and together they created music for the eight songs she wrote. “That's how it really all started, around 2007 is when I really started believing in my music to where I'm like, ‘Okay, this is really who I am.’”

Believing in herself, Frazier used the backbone instilled in her by her family and inspirations to push her forward on this new aspiring career. She sold out the first show of her play “God Saw It” in her hometown of Chicago. A venue of about 700 seats filled up to watch the play consisting of different music from jazz to blues starring multiple members of Frazier’s family. 

“I used a lot of my family and friends, my cousins. We flourished down there. We sold out, and it felt amazing,” Frazier said. They brought the show down to San Antonio when Frazier moved in 2009, selling out another smaller venue. Since then, the play has yet to be touched.

Among one of the star cast members was Frazier’s middle son, Deavon Frazier. Deavon enlisted in the United States Navy on his birthday at 18 and served as an Aviation Ordinance E3 until his death in 2022 saving a child’s life from drowning. 

“I just haven't picked it up ever since. If I were to do it again, it would be in memory of my son now,” Frazier said. “He was a fantastic, phenomenal actor. Rest his soul.” 

Following the death of her son, Frazier still had her God-given outlet to turn to for comfort. Frazier released her first album, “A Hero’s Promise” under her performing name, TheDeavine1, a combination of her son and her spiritual side. 

“Divine comes from God, because He is the Almighty Divine One. And with the divine blessings that he has given me, that's where I got divine one from,” Frazier said. “But, my son's name is Deavon, so I kind of put both of them together. It was all in divine order, however God wanted it to be, that's how God wanted it to be.” 

Although a devout Christian, Frazier’s faith has been well tested through the loss of not only her son, but her sister and her father. Yet, she stays strong for herself and her family by using music as a source of comfort. 

“She uses her gifts and her music in a lot of different ways,” said Isryael Frazier, Angela’s youngest daughter. “She'll tell me everything that happens is all in God's will, and all the things that occurred in her life, were either a lesson, or something to grow from.”

Even when losing Deavon, Frazier would remind her daughter of God’s promise to replace hard times with something better and to keep you in a foundation where you will never lose your joy, Isryael said. 

“She would always use her music as that coping mechanism because it brings her grace, it brings her security, it makes her feel closer to God. The gift that God has given her, makes her keep going.”

Isryael said her mother inspires her to not give up, even in the roughest parts of life.

“I think that it's very important to have some kind of music in your life. When you're feeling down, when you're feeling happy, when you're feeling depressed, music, it gives you a sense of feeling better,” Frazier said, through her pearly white smile. “You feel better about yourself when music is around, you feel joy, you feel peace. When I was going through grieving my son, music helped me to just breathe, think, and it gives you a sense of love.”

Frazier uses inspiration from her parents and the likes of Gladys Knight and Luther Vandross to make soul and gospel music of her own to inspire others and heal herself. 

“It feels good to be able to tell your story, things that you've overcome that can help somebody else,” Frazier said, going on to say a lesson she teaches her own kids,“I say, ‘you’re one person away from your blessing.’ That means that whatever door is supposed to be open for you in that season of your life, that door is going to be open. And the people that are here sent to help you, are going to be here to help you.”

Part of her calling is finding balance between teaching, performing and caring for her family, she said.

“I work my tail off, muscles, knees, everything hurts and then go get on the stage and it feels like it's an adrenaline rush,” Frazier said, with light catching in her gaze, “I get on stage and it goes away.”

Her faith propels her.  

“God is going to give you the talent,” Frazier said. “God is going to give you the energy. And when you know and trust in him, there's nothing that you can't do. God's going to open up doors. You just gotta walk in.”