‘Tell the world your truth’ Will Thompson

Written By Brittany Hailer

Will Thompson was driving late after having a few drinks. A car came out of nowhere and slammed into his. Thompson’s license was suspended. He knew he was going to jail.

What he didn’t expect was three years in prison.

“A lady hit me and my license was suspended. My alcohol content wasn’t high, but I wasn’t supposed to be on the road,” he said.

Thompson hired a lawyer after he was offered a plea deal. He’d have to spend a year in prison if he took the plea. After two years of legal fees and court proceedings, Will was sentenced to three years in prison.

“That’s why I got the maximum penalty, because I fought it and I lost,” he said.

Does Will think his conviction was racially motivated?

“To a point, yes,” he continued, “She was a white woman, but there were other factors at play. I needed that time. I lost a lot of people at that time. I could have died. It could have been worse. The universe told me that I needed to sit it down.”

Before his DUI, Will had a clean record. Two years before the car accident, Will involved himself with people who “ran the street.” Looking back now, Will says he was on a path to ruin, to greater trouble. Both of Will’s parents struggled with addiction and he also wonders what would have happened if he hadn’t gone to prison.

“Incarceration helped me evolve with art a lot. All I had was four walls and time to think,” he said.

His DUI was defi nitely unjust, he said, but he has to look at the positive.

He has to tell himself things are meant to be, even if they are unfair.

‘Tell the world your truth…’

In prison, Will started taking himself seriously as an artist.

Will grew up making music and art in Braddock. He remembers watching family dancing and singing in the kitchen while doing chores.

“I wanted to become a singer and serenade the ladies,” he said.

There was just one problem.

“I was terrible,” he said.

Will was always a writer, though. He started writing music when he was around 11 years old. For his fourteenth birthday, his mom threw a “freestyle contest” where different folks in the neighborhood would rap improvisationally. He won the contest much to his own mother’s surprise.

In prison, Will started to brainstorm and dream. His lyrics and music changed. He started to write honestly about pain and his life.

“I wrote music, which is a form of poetry. But to me, I wrote it in musical form and I’m truthful about my life. And that’s therapeutic in itself. As an artist, if you’re not being truthful about your life, then the stuff you write doesn’t mean anything. Someone, somewhere, should relate to the situations I’ve been through because I am not the fi rst or the last person to have gone through this.”

Eventually, Will branched out to poetry, which is also autobiographical. Poetry allowed him to

access feelings and memories he’d never articulated before.

“A lof the that stuff I’ve never talked about. I never talked about my relationship with my Dad. He’s alive and I don’t talk to him. That shit’s hurtful. That was really hard to read out loud. Those things are therapeutic because at the end, when you’re done reading it, you don’t feel weighed down. You felt like you told the world your truth, your pain, your suffering. At the end of the day, that’s all you can do.”

‘The City of Bridges connects everything’

And Will had one more dream in prison, he wanted to bring people together, artists from different mediums and different walks of life. He wanted to get out of those four walls and bring everyone together.

“My goal was to throw an event called “Art is Life” that involved every kind of art,” he said.

Will wears a microphone necklace everyday as a reminder to dedicate himself to his art and the art of his community. When he returned home, he knew he wanted to give back. He started teaching and collaborating with artists younger than him. Eventually, he coordinated open mic nights for poets, musicians, and hip hop artists all over Pittsburgh.

“It’s kind of a Pittsburgh thing; the city of bridges connects everything. When you look at Pittsburgh, it’s a giant circle. That’s what I do. I connect the dots. I

connect people together. That’s my gift. I’m satisfi ed knowing I tried. I gave it my all. I’m satisfi ed knowing I provided opportunities and knowledge for others. I may not make it, but I may help the next person succeed in their dreams,” he said.

Will Thompson has hosted music and poetry events at Remedy, Spirit, Sharp Edge, Level Up and other venues in Pittsburgh.