Jamila Woods: 10 Years of HEAVN

About This Event

A hometown finale for the tour marking a decade since HEAVN, the Chicago poet-singer's breakout debut — still one of the sharpest, most specifically-Chicago records to come out of this city's scene. Limited-edition signed vinyl on offer for anyone who wants more than a ticket stub out of the night.

Woods grew up on Chicago's South Side, singing in her grandmother's church choir and the Chicago Children's Choir before a high school poetry class gave her a second voice entirely. She released HEAVN for free on SoundCloud in July 2016 — a soul record built in part around bell hooks' 2001 book Salvation: Black People and Love, featuring Chance the Rapper, Noname, Saba, and Donnie Trumpet, all part of the same Chicago scene she came up in. Pitchfork named it one of the best albums of that year; Jagjaguwar and Closed Sessions gave it a proper label re-release in 2017.

Beyond music, Woods has spent years as Associate Artistic Director of Young Chicago Authors, teaching poetry to kids around the city — this tour closer at Thalia Hall is as much a homecoming as a tenth-anniversary lap. Worth knowing: tickets start around $51, doors around 7 PM.