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" 'HEAVN' is about black girlhood, about Chicago, about the people we miss who have gone on to prepare a place for us somewhere else, about the city/world we aspire to live in. I hope this album encourages listeners to love themselves and love each other. "

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" They say Chicago is for haters. No one will just sweat each other and say, 'Oh, you're so good,' if you're not. Which is another reason I'm inspired to stay. "

Jamila Woods

You

Say

Haters

" I like to borrow forms and quotes and use a lot of allusions, in both poetry and music. "

" When I started writing poetry, it was always in very hip-hop influenced spaces: Someone would teach a Nas song side-by-side with a Gwendolyn Brooks poem, and we'd talk about the connections between those things. "

" Part of what I like about living in Chicago is it's not easy. The breath of the city, the everyday challenge of it, is good. It forces you to grow and push yourself. "

" There is a lot of history buried in Chicago that I still have yet to discover. "

" My mentors were very good. "

" I read this book when I was young. It's about a black girl growing up in Heaven, Ohio. The cover has a black girl with clouds behind her. It was the first book cover I ever saw with a girl that looked like me. "

" In church, the music is for everyone. People are singing off tune, loud; they're not ashamed - it's for their healing. That's kind of just what I strive for, that feeling. "

" I have a band called M&O. We were working on our first album in 2011 or 2012. We were looking for people to collaborate with, and I met Chance through a Young Chicago Authors poetry slam. "

" It's important to me that there's not just one story told about our city. 'LSD' is an ode to Chicago, a song for the complicated love I have for my city. "

" I wish that more people, especially young people, were taught about self-love at a younger age. "

" I don't sound like other people. My voice isn't as loud and can't do certain things athletically. "

" I read 'Song of Solomon' by Toni Morrison in college, and it just blew my mind. "

" There is so much talent in Milwaukee, and such diversity. "

" My mentor made me say a poem over and over. 'Stop! That's not your voice. Start again.' I was sobbing by the end, but it drilled into my head that my voice is important. "

Jamila Woods

Voice

Start

" When I was a kid, getting on Lake Shore Drive from the south side to go downtown was magical. "

Jamila Woods

Lake

Drive

" My hope is that 'Blk Girl Soldier' is a freedom song for black women today who are fighting the macro- and microaggressions of daily life in our city/country/world. "

" Part of our pedagogy is, you report on what's going on in your neighborhood and your city. "

" With lyrics, being a poet gave me a different approach than other people. "

Jamila Woods

Poet

People

" I'm interested in figuring out what freedom songs would sound like in 2016. "

" For black and brown people, caring for ourselves and each other is not a neutral act. It is a necessary and radical part of the struggle to create a more just society. Our healing and survival are essential to the fight. "

" When you're in a choir, it's about blending into how everyone else sounds. "

" I think of music as creating a space. I like to put things in that are comforting to me and are nostalgic. To me, that's what sampling does in songs; it's making deeper layers for people who know where it comes from, but also referencing another part of my history and my memory or a memory that I have. "

" It was through poetry I learned just to appreciate my own voice and to not think of my voice in terms of what it needs to be able to do, but what it can do. "