Turning Pain Into Art: Sheila K. Blackwell Shares Her Musical and Healing Journey on 'The Day With Trae'

The Day With TraeTrae HolidayArts & Culture

Aug 3

On a recent episode of The Day With Trae, host Trae Holiday sat down with Seattle artist, music minister, and entrepreneur Sheila Kay Blackwell (known artistically as Sheila Kay) to discuss the upcoming release of her album, Dancing Naked, and the mission behind her company, Inspirational Productions.

For Blackwell, this record is a raw sonic archive of her personal journey and a symbol of the transformative power of vulnerability. During the interview, Blackwell opened up about how a major life event catalyzed a deep shift in her creative purpose.

"Inspirational Productions is an idea that came to me say back in 2022 after I had a car accident, and I just had sort of this awakening to do something where we could tell our stories in our community to benefit each other," Blackwell said.

After navigating the professional and emotional drought that local artists faced during the pandemic, she recognized the collective need for communal recovery.

"I remembered it’s always been people’s stories that have inspired me. So I said, how can I incorporate that not only as entertainment, but a way of healing our community?” she said.

Blackwell's musical roots run deep, stretching back to the 1960s and 70s when she grew up surrounded by the sounds of Motown, James Brown, and Earth, Wind & Fire, alongside formal training in the church. After years spent raising five children as a single mother and serving faithfully as a music minister, entering her fifties and sixties brought about a spiritual and identity shift.

This evolution ultimately led her to write her own music as a means of emotional processing. Reflecting on the creative process for Dancing Naked, Blackwell noted that aging often forces a confrontation with buried trauma.

"When you’re younger…we're kind of taught to repress our pain and our issues, but they don't go anywhere," she said. "But when you get older, there's no more room for any more of that and so it starts coming up... How can I process this pain?"

Inspired by NPR Tiny Desk performances, specifically an interview where singer Madison McFerrin discussed persevering through a heavily criticized performance, Blackwell adopted a definitive mantra for her current chapter: "Turn your pain into art."

The track "So Alone" encapsulates the record's heavy yet necessary focus on self-examination. Blackwell described the track as a reminder that feelings of isolation are often part of the therapeutic process.

"Sometimes…it is the dark night of the soul until you get to the other side of that," Blackwell said. "Letting them know it's okay to be sad. It's okay to feel alone. It's not okay to isolate necessarily, but sometimes we need that time to sit with ourselves and look at some things in order for the healing to happen."

Ultimately, Blackwell views her musicianship as a spiritual responsibility and a shared vessel for the public good.

"For me, it's like a conduit, and so I channel," she said. "It becomes this conduit of…spirit coming through you, helping you release that through a song,” she said. “And at the same time, you're reaching other people and touching their hearts and letting them know you understand what they're going through and that, you know, we're all in this together."

The community will have the opportunity to experience that collective healing firsthand. The album release party for Dancing Naked is scheduled for August 8th at The Royal Room in Seattle, running from 8 PM to 11 PM.

Attendees will be able to join an exclusive digital access signup sheet for CDs at the release party. Blackwell will be backed by an exceptional lineup of live musicians that you won’t want to miss. Get your tickets here.

For updates on the release and future projects from Inspirational Productions, fans can connect with Blackwell directly via her website inspirationalproductions.net or on Facebook at Sheila Kay Blackwell.

Catch “The Day With Trae” Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays at 11 a.m. on all Converge streaming platforms.