Every 40 seconds, someone dies by suicide… but what happens a decade after someone survives?

In this emotional TEDxChicago performance celebrating Nikki Lynette’s 10 years as a suicide survivor, she blends personal storytelling with bold, artistic visuals and stunning clips from her documusical Happy Songs About Unhappy Things. Through music from her buzzed-about new stage show GET OUT ALIVE and raw reflections on recovery, she transforms mental health advocacy into an unforgettable theatrical experience. It’s vulnerable and visually striking, and the ending just might pull at your heartstrings. If you’ve ever struggled with your mental health, this talk offers something you may not expect: hope.

Nikki Lynette is a suicide survivor and multi-hyphenate artist who fuses mental health activism into her performance art, films, and visual work, creating a lane entirely her own. Her advocacy began in 2016 when she returned from a long hiatus and made public her private struggle with depression and suicidality at a time when such openness was taboo. She went on to write widely circulated articles on mental health for major media outlets. While opening for Pussy Riot’s first U.S. tour, Nikki developed the material that became GET OUT ALIVE, her musical about depression. The show made history: in 2019 she became the first Black female playwright produced by the American Music Theatre Project; in 2022 she became the first Steppenwolf LookOut work selected for NAMT’s Festival of New Musicals.

Her passion for bold, mental health centered storytelling is at the core of her second film, Happy Songs About Unhappy Things.