Deep storytelling instinct. Disarming honesty.
Songwriter. Storyteller. Advocate.
Kelli Caldwell is an award-winning songwriter whose mixed-genre music weaves wit, warmth, and emotional truth, bridging the worlds of humor, healing, and humanity.
Kelli has dedicated much of her work to shining light on and telling stories for children through song.
Now, Kelli has begun to share her own story.
Advocacy
Mental illness & gun violence
"Much of my life has been shaped by the struggle to help family members with mental illness, navigating broken mental health and legal systems, as well as surviving the intersection of guns by my mother whose multiple co-occurring severe mental illnesses kept her in living fear and us in chaos. There is much to say." - Kelli
It's taken a long time to start telling some of our stories, but The Marshall Project recently published my essay, "Mom's Last Gun," edited by Pulitzer-Prize winning reporters Leslie Eaton and Manuel Torres. I'm so grateful to TMP's team for helping my family start to share all that happened.
March 6, 2026 | The Marshall Project
READ: Mom's Last Gun: My mother has severe mental illness. Our family has spent decades trying to keep her from using firearms to hurt herself and others.
By Kelli Caldwell
March 13, 2026 | OPB's Think Out Loud with Dave Miller
LISTEN: Portland resident chronicles battle to confiscate firearms from mother with mental illness
"Portland resident Kelli Caldwell’s mother suffers from severe mental illness and episodes of psychosis. She also had access to multiple firearms and other weapons. As her mother's mental illness progressed, the responsibility fell on Caldwell and her family to remove the weapons so her mother wouldn't harm herself or others. Caldwell tried appealing to law enforcement, social services, healthcare agencies and courts for help in removing weapons from her mother’s possession. But help has rarely become available to her. Caldwell recently wrote about her decades-long journey navigating systems of law enforcement, social services and healthcare agencies for The Marshall Project. She joins us for more details."
April 30, 2026 | Armed with Reason by GVPedia
READ: The Revolving Door of Mental Health Struggles and Access to Guns: One woman's ongoing ordeal of getting guns away from a mother with severe mental illness
"A fellow advocate recently referred us to an amazing article by a gun violence survivor whom she originally became acquainted with through a community of children’s music makers. The essay, “Mom’s Last Gun,” by Kelli Caldwell, was recently posted at the criminal justice journalism site, The Marshall Project. It lays out a sad, scary, but vital story of an adult daughter’s long discovery and dealings with her mother’s mental illness and dangerous fascination with firearms. The article gives extremely frank insight into the familial and legal situations that arise when guns are brought into the life of a family beset by mental health issues. It’s the kind of story that could no doubt fill a book, so we caught up with Kelli Caldwell to find out more about her story and her attempts to inform others about the frustrating roadblocks to getting guns away from those who should not have them."