ST. LOUIS — A St. Louis woman is using her music to help heal herself and others from trauma.
On June 5, 2010, Kayla Thompson’s life was turned upside down when her father was shot and killed by two 18-year-old robbers.
“It made it stressful, depressive, anxious,” said artist Kayla “KVtheWriter” Thompson. “It was difficult being in St. Louis for a while.”
Then, June 9, 2016, tragedy struck Thompson for a second time when her brother Tyrell was gunned down by robbers in the Central West End.
“Losing my dad and brother changed my life for the rest of my life,” said Thompson. “In some ways in a positive way. It made me decide to do whatever I wanted to do in life.”
During a 2016 interview with Art Holliday, Thompson discussed the outlet she discovered.
“I started blogging just to stay sane really,” said Thompson. “Writing is very cathartic to me. I’m able to release all of the emotions I have bottled up.”
These days she’s still writing, but instead of a blog, she’s writing lyrics.
“I released a lot of songs about grieving, stress, and depression,” said Thompson.
One of her favorites is a song she wrote about losing her loved ones.
“I want people to understand that grief isn’t linear,” said Thompson. “You’re going to go back and forth some days you’re going to have good days and some days you’re going to have bad days, but your loved ones are always going to be there.”
With each song she’s expressing the one thing that she believes can truly change St. Louis.
“Art is healing,” said Thompson. “I feel like art is very therapeutic. I feel like if we invested a lot into the arts, not just music, but visual arts and performing arts we could really change and transform communities.”
Saturday, March 26, Thompson will be performing under her stage name “KVtheWriter” at the DarkRoom at the Grandel. Doors open at 9 p.m. and tickets were still available as of Friday afternoon.
If you would like to pitch a story you can email Holden at hkurwicki1@ksdk.com or text us at 314-425-5355.