Canadian singer-songwriter shares her sex-abuse story for good
WINNIPEG, MB—Many people shy away from speaking about childhood sexual abuse, but not Ingrid D. Johnson. The singer-songwriter is not afraid to share her story through her music, spoken word, books and films.
"I don't speak about it from a place of feeling ashamed or angry, I speak about it knowing that it was in my past and it's dead and buried," says the 37-year-old, a childhood victim of sexual abuse. "I bring it up because I know other people are going through it and God gives me the courage... The more people talk about childhood sexual abuse and its impact, the less it will be something people shove to the side."
This past October, Johnson released her latest album, What About Love? The songs on the disc fuse together elements of jazz, pop, blues, gospel and R&B, with lyrics that talk about relationships—lack of love in relationships, relationships between friends, relationships between spouses and Johnson's own struggles through different relationships.
One song, "Come Back," details a time in her life when she was not feeling especially close to God.
"That song is about His plea for me to come back and be with Him," Johnson says.
Johnson works full time as a support worker, but hopes to someday focus all her energy on In the Closet Productions, a socially and spiritually conscious music, entertainment and production company she founded in an effort to be a "voice for the voiceless."
"If [it] happened to me, it must have happened for a reason," Johnson says of her approach to life. "Anything that happens to you in this life, God wants you to make good out of it—to use it for some sort of good that will honour Him."
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