Jamila Woods Releases Video for "Baldwin"

Off of her critically acclaimed album, LEGACY!LEGACY!, Woods has released a music video for the song “Baldwin.”

The official music video addresses and takes a keen look at the current state of the underfunded and often neglected Chicago Public School system. Throughout the video, the school system is transformed into Hogwarts and the children are given the books, attention, and support they deserve.

Jamila explains: "The song is inspired by James Baldwin's "Letter to My Nephew." In that spirit the film revolves around a group of Black youth in an imagined school on Chicago's South Side, like Hogwarts--but Black.  To outsiders, the school appears to be abandoned - one of the 50 public schools closed under Mayor Rahm Emmanuel's watch in 2013. However, for Black people in the neighborhood this space is a gem, an oasis of Black learning and radical education for young people. We shot part of the film documentary-style, to include young people's perspectives on what they would want their dream school to be like."

The video was directed by Vincent Martell of VAM STUDIO and released by Jagjaguwar in partnership with Closed Sessions.

Watch the full video here.