Chicago poet and R&B songstress Jamila Woods will release her sophomore full-length LEGACY! LEGACY! on May 10 via Jagjaguwar. Each of the 13 tracks on the album is named after and inspired by an influential cultural figure who has made an impact on Woods, including people like poet Nikki Giovanni and singer/actor/activist Eartha Kitt.
Our Song of the Day is “ZORA,” an early single named after author Zora Neale Hurston, An influential author of African-American literature and an anthropologist, she’s most known for her 1937 novel Their Eyes Were Watching God.
“It’s about refusing to be essentialized and not allowing your identity to be put in a box,” Woods said of the song in a statement. “You contain multitudes. You are ever-evolving. A song to get free from stereotypes & assumptions, inspired by the writing of Zora Neale-Hurston.”
LEGACY! LEGACY! follows 2016’s HEAVN and features production from Chicago’s Peter Cottontale, OddCouple, and Slot-A, with features from rappers Saba and Nitty Scott, trumpeter Nico Segal, and more. Woods will make a stop in Seattle on Wednesday, June 26 to play the Crocodile.
Below, watch the video for “ZORA,” filmed at Johnson Publishing Archives at Chicago’s Stony Island Arts Bank.
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