The Chicago singer and poet Jamila Woods explores themes of Black identity, religion, self-love and feminism in her work. And as a community organizer, she promotes youth involvement in the arts as the Associate Artistic Director of Young Chicago Authors.

Jamila Woods recently released her sophomore album “Legacy! Legacy!”  which you should definitely check out. Each song pays tribute to an influential artist and the themes and meanings behind each song are incredibly powerful. In this article with Pitchfork, she goes through each song, showing the amount of thought put into all of her lyrics. Of the overall concept she says, ““I thought of it not so much as writing songs about these people, but thinking of the songs as self-portraits. I was looking through the lenses of these different people, their work, things they said.”

But I first became drawn to Woods’ work on her 2017 album HEAVN. Dr. Brene Brown, a social worker and public speaker, says that “Courage starts with showing up and letting ourselves be seen.” This is something I really appreciate about Jamila Woods’ music. Sometimes it’s angry, responding to injustice in the world. Sometimes it’s joyous, celebrating her culture, and the strength of her people. And sometimes it’s sad, because sadness is a natural part of life. It can be beautiful to acknowledge that.

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