Jamila Woods: Mapping Lineage (Writing Legacy)

Call & Response

Jamila Woods carries a lineage in her music— artists like Jean-Michel Basquiat, Zora Neale Hurston and James Baldwin filter into her song lyrics. She channels their voices in her critically acclaimed album, LEGACY! LEGACY! not speaking for them, but instead, singing through them. On this week’s Call and Response, Adia sits down with Jamila to talk about how they each draw strength from the artists who’ve come before them, and using these pandemic times to recenter home, rest and stillness in the creative process. For the playlist of songs curated for this episode, visit http://bit.ly/cr-jamila

/ Show Notes /

Adia and Jamila discuss Zora Neale Hurston’s essay, How It Feels To Be Colored Me. They also reference this Muddy Waters interview.

You can find recordings of Zora Neale Hurston’s singing at the Library of Congress and an interview with Tori Morrison on her writing process, here.

Adia references the song, “Window Seat” by Erykah Badu. Jamila and Adia discuss Lucille Clifton’s poetry and Toni Morrison’s Sula.

Jamila has been playing Deborah Vandyke’s Chords of The Cosmos, Tasha’s “Lullaby” and serpentwithfeet’s “Fellowship,” to lean into rest.

/ Music In This Week's Episode /

70’s Blues, Betty Davis

Goin’ Down Slow, Howlin’ Wolf

VRY BLK, Jamila Woods

Blues at Midnight, Sun Ra

Sweet Home Chicago, Robert Johnson

It’s Hard Sometimes, Frankie Knuckles

Honeybee, Muddy Waters

Smile, Saba

/ Credits /

Call & Response is a Sonos show produced by work x work: Scott Newman, Jemma Rose Brown, Adia Victoria, Babette Thomas and Megan Lubin. Our engineers are Sam Bair and Josh Hahn of The Relic Room.