Spotlight On: JAMILA WOODS
ABOUT this week’s podcast guest + radio hour featured interview:
The human body is made of an average of 60% water. of all of our organs, the brain and the heart are two that contain the most water - up to 85%. thoughts and emotions can flow or flood us. And what does this say about love? On her third album, Water Made Us, the artist, poet, singer, and musician Jamila Woods investigates the patterns and pathways of her own relationships, and some of the universally familiar phases of how we fall in and out of love, heal and grow. A native of Chicago, Jamila was surrounded by music at home, and sang in her church choir. After graduating from university where she studied theater and performance, she formed a musical duo called Milo & Otis who put out two albums in 2012 and 2014 before disbanding. 2012 also saw Jamila publish her first chapbook, and the community of poetry slams became a key to finding and sharing her voice. She became the Associate Artistic Director of Young Chicago Authors, and helped to organize the renowned Louder Than A Bomb poetry slam festival, all the while staying connected to music, and collaborating with artists like Chance The Rapper and Macklemore & Ryan Lewis. Then in 2016, Jamila released her solo debut Heavn, which led to her record deal with Jagjaguwar who re-released the album in 2017, followed by her critically hailed second album Legacy! Legacy! in 2019. The pandemic years gave Jamila time to look inward, and dive into the deep waters of relationships as source material for her most vulnerable, and most collaborative, album to date. We celebrate the release of Water Made Us, and welcome Jamila Woods as this week’s SHERO in the Spotlight.
A condensed version of this interview is featured on the SHEROES Radio hour this week. Here’s what else you’ll hear:
New songs from Brittany Howard and Big Thief.
And we celebrate some SHERO BIRTHDAYS:
Wanda Jackson 10/20
Natalie Merchant’s 60th 10/26
Listen to the syndicated public radio SHEROES Radio hour, below: