58 Quotes by Jamila Woods

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

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.

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

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.

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

My artistic manifesto exists in the world as poetry. So even though most of the things that I've done have been on other people's projects or could be pigeonholed in certain ways, that's not how I perceive myself.

I'm nearsighted, in part, because I would read past my bedtime in the dark. I didn't want my mom to see that I was still awake.

I'm creating art that can be healing. Art that can make you feel like you're not alone, like you're not an outsider. Art that is useful.

I love how music and chants were used in the Civil Rights movement to help people keep marching. How songs were both a balm and a call to action.