Woods keeps her activities close to Chicago, where she still resides, another life decision she came to through her educational experience, this time at Brown University. “I got advice from a mentor who visited our senior class,” she says. “I asked them if I should move to New York or LA. They asked me where I was from and I told them about Chicago and YCA and everything. They said I already have a great community. In these other cities, I would have to start from scratch and probably be very broke and have to do an unpaid internship. They kept it very real and I felt privileged to be able to come home to a place that wanted to hire me, and being able to build from being a teaching artist, which I think is the ideal career path for someone who wants to be an artist and is just starting out.” It’s a long time from when Woods started out, but she still makes YCA a priority. In fact, she is in her fourth week of twenty sessions with Bomb Squad, a five-week summer apprenticeship for twelve students who made it through the rounds of Louder Than a Bomb. Her schedule permitting, she visits high schools to play her album and speak about the people that inspired it, with the intention of giving students access to what they might not be exposed to otherwise. “It was necessary for my personal development for me to have other experiences during school,” she concludes. “When we would get together at Gallery 37, it was all the weirdos from our respective schools who were now together. We felt free to be ourselves and talk about the nerdy poetry stuff we love. That was very affirming. “But I’m grateful for all my school experiences. They definitely shaped me in different ways. At each school, there was one extroverted person who would decide I was going to be their best friend. I always had one ride-or-die friend. I need to write a poem about that.”
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