Jamila Woods

Jamila Woods is a poet, songwriter, and performing artist from the south side of Chicago. Her first solo album, HEAVN was released by JagJaguwar Records in 2017 to critical acclaim. Her sophomore offering, LEGACY! LEGACY! (2019), features 12 tracks named after writers, thinkers, and visual artists who have influenced the creator’s life and work — including James Baldwin, Nikki Giovanni, and Sonia Sanchez.

An award-winning poet, Jamila’s work often blurs boundaries between poem and song. As cultural critic Doreen St. Felix writes in her review of HEAVN, “It makes you wish all singers were poets.” Describing her creative process, Jamila says, “I think of songs as physical spaces. Writing a song is like decorating your apartment with things that comfort you and represent who you are.” Songwriting–like poetry– is a process of personal excavation.

An internationally touring artist, Jamila has been featured on NPR’s Tiny Desk, CBS This Morning, and The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. She has shared stages with Corinne Bailey Rae, Rafael Saadiq, Bonobo, Common, Chance the Rapper, Brittany Howard, Macklemore, and many others. Her most recent project, Water Made Us, was released by JagJaguwar Records in October 2023.