In 2015, Jamila Woods' band M&O broke up, and she wrote in her journal about feeling lost on what it meant to make music alone. The following year, that uncertainty became Heavn — an album first released on SoundCloud, and the true starting point of what would later be known as her career as a "solo artist." Ten years on, she reflected on it herself on Instagram: "The project that showed me another version of myself is my first child."
Heavn touched on police violence, Black womanhood, and self-healing, all delivered through an R&B language that felt gentle to the point of being soothing. The album later landed on Pitchfork's list of the 50 Best Albums of 2016, cementing itself as an unavoidable starting point in Woods' creative journey.
To mark the album's 10th anniversary, Woods has lined up a short but tightly routed tour across the US. It kicks off on November 16th at Lodge Room in Los Angeles, followed by San Francisco's August Hall, Portland's Wonder Ballroom, and Seattle's The Crocodile, before arriving at Music Hall of Williamsburg in New York on November 22nd. The run wraps up back home in Chicago at Thalia Hall on December 6th.
From a solo battle on SoundCloud to, ten years later, carrying the same album across six cities before returning to Chicago — the journey itself becomes an extension of what Heavn was always trying to say: that making music alone can, in fact, bring you closer to your own city, and to everyone else.
