Following her LEGACY! LEGACY! album last year, Jamila Woods returns with some more smooth sounds with “SULA (Paperback).” The record is inspired by the late Toni Morrison’s 1974 novel of the same name. She honors both the author and characters on the mellow track, that sounds like a quiet summer day.
Here’s what she said about the song:
“Sula was the first Toni Morisson novel I ever read and it inspired the first chapbook of poems I ever wrote. The novel shows the evolution of a friendship between two Black women and how they choose to navigate society’s strict gender roles and rules of respectability. On Sula, Toni Morrison wrote, “Living totally by the law and surrendering totally to it without questioning anything sometimes makes it impossible to know anything about yourself.” Returning to the story several years later, it gave me permission to reject confining ideas about my identity designed to shrink my spirit. It reminded me to embrace my tenderness, my sensitivities, my ways of being in my body. This song is a mantra to allow myself space to experience my gender, love, intimacy, and sexuality on my own terms.”
OS REWIND: Jamila Woods – BALDWIN [Music Video]