Survivor Out Loud

We partnered with music artist, Tonya Mitchell who wrote this beautiful song that many survivors can relate to. Watch her music video below. She shares that abuse is also mental, emotional, and financial, not only physical, and we don’t always see or know what victims are facing due to the isolation they experience.

Watch Tonya's video here

Creative work shared by survivors - on our own terms.

Survivor Out Loud is a creative space for survivors who are members of the National Alliance of Domestic Violence Survivors to share art, writing, music, and other creations on our own terms. This space is about expression, agency, and creative voice.

As survivors with full identities and worth, we share our creativity for its own inherent value. There is no pressure for survivors to share, it is a choice. We want survivors to have a place to show up as our full selves and feature our shared humanity.

**Contributors choose how they are identified and what they share including their name, pseudonymous, or if they remain anonymous. Submissions are reviewed to ensure they align with our community values and safety guidelines.

Would you like to be featured?

To apply to feature your art, poetry, creative writing, a book, photography, music, or other creative endeavor, please fill out the form HERE

For questions, please email us: info@NADVS.org

Survivor Artist Features

SHAMĀIAH

Acrylic Painting with 3-D Artificial Flowers A multicolored, expressionistic portrait of a woman with layered brushstrokes across her face and shoulders. Her bold red headwrap and blooming fabric flowers symbolize redemption, healing, and strength rising from pain, a visual interpretation of Isaiah 61:3 how God can give beauty from ashes.

Author Bio

Shamaiah began creating art at the age of four, discovering early on the power of creativity as both expression and healing. Over the years, her work has become a profound means of transforming grief, loss, and trauma into hope and resilience. Through every brushstroke, she seeks to communicate the possibility of renewal and the strength found in vulnerability. Shamaiah’s art serves as a reminder that persistence and passion can turn dreams into reality.

www.shamaiah.com

Alicia Living

As an artist, mother, and survivor of domestic violence, my work is rooted in lived experience. This acrylic painting shows the powerful moment just before freedom—the quiet, courageous pause where survival begins to transform into hope.

The soft willow blossoms are the very first sign of spring in the grey stillness at the end of winter. Like survivors, willows embody an inner strength that endures through the harshest of seasons. The bird, poised and waiting, represents freedom. This painting is a testament to the moment when survival turns into possibility.

Proceeds from this piece directly support the National Alliance of Domestic Violence Survivors (NADVS), a 501c3 non-profit dedicated to empowering survivors of domestic violence. By purchasing this painting, you are not only collecting a work of art—you are investing in hope, resilience, and the belief that every survivor deserves a future filled with light, warmth, and renewal.

Freedom’s First Season (2022) Acrylic Painting