Jamila Woods

Jamila Woods writes from Chicago, where her songs and poems keep returning to the same questions: what it means to inherit Black ancestry, how Black feminism shapes a life, and how a city can hold both pride and grief. Her poetry came first, with a 2012 chapbook, The Truth About Dolls, and work in several anthologies, before she moved into music. Her singing carries that poet's attention to language, and her recurring concerns, self-love above all, give her records a steady, personal centre.

After studying at Brown, she formed the soul-pop duo Milo and Otis with Owen Hill, releasing The Joy in 2012 and Almost Us in 2014 before the group disbanded. Her profile grew through guest verses on Chance the Rapper's "Sunday Candy" and "Blessings", and she signed to the Chicago independent label Closed Sessions in January 2016. That year she released her debut album Heavn, which drew critical attention and was later re-released with Jagjaguwar in 2017. Her second album, Legacy! Legacy!, arrived on Jagjaguwar on 10 May 2019, with each song named after a Black creator.