Kayla wins Love Arts Leeds Performing Arts Award

Love Arts Awards recognise the contribution of people, groups and organisations in Yorkshire who have made a real difference to people’s mental wellbeing through the arts. Our awards are a fantastic way of giving something back, with five categories to nominate individuals and organisations for including Arts Volunteer, Performing Arts, Visual Arts, Arts in Health and Judge's Choice. Nominees were shortlisted to a final three, with the overall winners announced at the awards ceremony on the 29th of October in Leeds.

Kayla was announced as the winner of the Performing Arts category: A fantastic performance (this includes film, theatre, dance, music) that raises awareness of mental health and/or learning disabilities whilst challenging stigma and discrimination.

Community Ventures' Chief Executive, Nigel Fenny presented the Performing Arts award to Kayla Kavanagh:

“I first bought Kayla’s CD last year when I was diagnosed with BPD, it was as if I had written the lyrics myself. I’ve seen her perform live and she is amazing, playing a whole range of different instruments and using music as part of her recovery. She is the only person out there fighting the stigma of BPD and does it amazingly through music”

Taking home a beautiful trophy, Kayla was delighted to have been recognised for the work she has been doing in music and mental health, and thanked all who nominated and supported her this year.

Kayla wins "Creative Hero - Professional" Mental Healthy Award

Mental health organisation www.mentalhealthy.co.uk has recognised the fantastic achievements of some of the country’s finest heroes, who selflessly and tirelessly look to improve the lives of others. In 2011 they joined forces with some of the biggest names in mental health to recognise these unsung heroes.

Kayla has been announced as the joint winner of the Creative Hero - Professional Award, which recognises professional artists and performers that have contributed to the field of mental health, by raising awareness, educating, speaking out about, campaigning, or inspiring mental wellness through their work. Since being diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder in 2009, Kayla has worked hard to promote awareness and challenge stigma through her recorded and live music, articles in the national press, her YouTube, blog and tours around the UK.

Creator of Mental Healthy Charlotte Fantelli said “The humbling work individuals and organisations are doing across the globe takes my breath away. Every single Mental Healthy Hero Award winner has done something extraordinary in an area that is not glitzy or glamorous and that takes great strength and human kindness, not only the winners but every candidate is a hero that deserves recognition."  

Emergence Press Release

Emergence is today celebrating! Kayla Kavanagh – a Knowledge & Understanding Framework (KUF) trainer, singer/songwriter and mental health activist – has won the Creative Hero Professional Award in the first ever Mental Health Hero awards.

Award categories included ‘Community Hero’, ‘Professional Hero’, ‘Business Hero’ and ‘Creative Hero’ and amongst the winners are some incredible local, national and global organisations and individuals.

Kayla Kavanagh said: “I am thrilled about winning and must thank Emergence for nominating me – it was an honour even just to be nominated and when I found out I had been shortlisted for the award I couldn’t believe it!

“Since receiving my diagnosis of Borderline Personality Disorder in 2009 Emergence has been absolutely crucial in my development both as an artist and now as a Senior KUF trainer. I can’t believe that I’ve actually won the award and am truly humbled to have been recognised by the judging team of such high profile mental health organisations.

“Music has been the key to my wellbeing living with personality disorder, allowing me to focus the chaotic emotions into lyrics, music and song. Having had the opportunity to record an album and perform at events across the UK has allowed the positive message to ‘go viral’, and I am delighted to be launching the second album on the May 1, of which 10% of the crowd sourced funds go to Emergence.”

Kayla has become an ambassador for awareness of illnesses such as BPD, and has been interviewed on BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour about how music has provided a positive outlet for the overwhelming emotions associated with living with a mental health condition.

Kath Lovell, Emergence managing director, said on hearing the news: “Kayla works tirelessly for Emergence to help us fight the stigma that is associated with personality disorder. Her music always features at all our events and she brings much joy with it. We are thrilled for her!"

Kayla wins national "Poetry in Mind" competition

Kayla has taken joint first place in a national poetry competition!

Launched in Feb 2011, POETRY IN MIND 2011/2012 was open to all Writers who have been diagnosed with or treated for a Psychological Illness and their carers in the UK. The announcement of joint winners Kayla Kavanagh and Jane MacCallaugh was made on December 1st, with each winner receiving £125 and their Poetry published within the charity, MIND’s, own associate literary project titled ‘Testimony’ and within the POETRY IN MIND own publication. The Publication will have a place in the British Library, and the winners have the chance to read their Poetry/ Have their Poetry read at the Prestigious Hay Festival, 2012.

POETRY IN MIND allows either aspiring or already practicing Poets, who experience mental health illness to artistically express their experiences. The Themes of the competition this year are ‘Treatment and Care’, so Poets will be encouraged to write as freely as they wish about what care and treatment they receive, (negative or positive) and their feedback will be taken into full consideration, ensuring positive change for within the mental healthcare system, to better all patients.

The lead Patron and Judge for POETRY IN MIND is the Poet, Larry Westland, CBE. POETRY IN MIND is supported by: Mind, Sane, NHS, Priory Hospitals, Hay Festival (Hay-On-Wye Festival), The Poetry Library, The Poetry Society.

Kayla's winning entry:

White Bird ~ Kayla Kavanagh

White bird with a broken wing

Crying freedom from your long~abandoned cage of fear

With eyes clear and understanding

Yet faraway and distant all the same.

How your soul speaks out in song

From behind the bars so strong and unyielding.

How pretty you are my love ~

I have watched you dance upon the waters,

As angels have tended your side

And kissed you goodnight.

Would that the moon should rise

Pouring cool beams upon your wizened frame,

To breathe the fresh night air,

Bathed softly in twilight's misty glow.

Walk barefoot upon the sandy shore

Let the gentle waves lap softly at your feet

Caressing the pain, washing the wounds,

Tracing a finger of healing across your heart

The clatter of hooves on the dry silt

Brings a new morning, bids dawn to break,

And the memory fades, and the image dissolves…

White bird, wakened in the cold and empty cage

With a gutteral sigh you unwelcome the morning.

Nominate Kayla for Mental Healthy "Creative Hero" Award

The Mental Healthy Awards are open and Kayla would be delighted if you would consider nominating her for The ‘Creative Hero’!

The Creative Hero (Amateur) award recognises people who have made a real difference to the lives of others through their creativity. Since being diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder in 2009, Kayla has worked hard to promote positive awareness and challenge stigma surrounding misunderstood conditions like PD through her recorded and live music, articles in local and national press, YouTube channel, Blog and Tours around the UK.

In the past two years, Kayla has put herself in the public eye campaigning in newspapers, on the internet, at events and through her music to a worldwide audience. Kayla is committed to working with organisations such as Emergence Plus and Rethink Mental Illness, through whom she has had the opportunity to speak out through the media and at events across the UK, challenging the stigma so often associated with conditions like Personality Disorder.

Kayla would be very grateful if you would consider nominating her for this prestigious award, which recognises those who have used creativity to help raise awareness and campaign for better understanding of mental health conditions. If you feel that her work deserves recognition, please take a moment to nominate for the "Creative Hero (Amateur)" category. To nominate, simply click on the link below where you will be asked for your name, email address and a short paragraph about why Kayla should win the award. You can leave out the first few fields asking for Kayla's Date of Birth/Phone No/Address etc - just fill in the ones with the red asterisk.

Select "Nominate" under Creative Hero 'Am' (Amateur - as the majority of Kayla's work is done on an unpaid/charitable basis, not being a primary source of income): http://www.mentalhealthy.co.uk/creative-hero

Where it asks for a relevant website, you may wish to include any of the following depending on which area of Kayla's creativity you feel the judges should look at:

Kayla's music: http://www.kaylakavanagh.com
Kayla's article on Mental Healthy: http://www.mentalhealthy.co.uk/psychology/bpd/living-with-borderline-personality-disorder-bpd.html
Kayla's blog: http://kaylakavanagh.blogspot.com/2011/05/its-borderline-personality-disorder.html
Kayla on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rh5iXg6l1bo

Kayla has never been nominated for or won an award before, so your vote would really make a difference ... thank you for your support and please comment below if you have voted! x

Kayla's 2nd album needs you!

Join me in recording my second studio album! 2009 saw the Mental Health Awareness single “On the Borderline” released, followed by the debut album “Stranger than Fiction” in 2010. Both CDs were a huge success and I have a list of emails from folks asking when the next album is being released …. which is where you come in :) Both releases to date have been self-funded, and studio time was kindly donated by my partner (Nigel Pease ~ Selva Sound). The coffers are empty after our nationwide tour, and we’d love to get back in the studio to start recording, but need your help.

For just £1000 we can cover the cost of duplication, mixing and mastering ~ without it, the songs stay in my head. Which isn’t the most useful place for them, as it makes sharing them quite difficult (short of coming round to your house and playing them to you personally, more on that later …). So if you’ve enjoyed any of the music to date, and would like to hear more, please consider pledging. Even if it’s only a tenner. £12 will get you a copy of the album as soon as it’s off the press. £15 gets a signed copy with some free Kayla Kavanagh postcards/badges/plectrums. £50 gets your name on the album itself (quite exciting), and £250 means I will go to a venue of your choice, anywhere in the UK and perform a set of your choosing for you and your mates.

Please pledge whatever you can, however small - all details and pledge info below!