Singer, poet and South Side native Jamila Woods has been using music as a tool for self-healing for most of her life. She first found the power of an artistic community in her grandmother’s church choir and now finds a similar solace through connections with fans and musicians alike.

“I would see people in church transmuting heavy emotions,” Woods said. “I would (hear) my choir director telling us stories of Martin Luther King Jr. requesting certain gospel songs that would give him the energy to keep going.”

Woods is using her voice this weekend in what’s known as a sound healing experience. The event, called “The Listening Field,” is presented by Black chamber music collective D-Composed; it will be held at Kehrein Center for the Arts in the Austin community.

“Right now more than ever people need a place to just exist,” said Kori Coleman, founder and executive/artistic director of D-Composed. “Sound healing to me — when you think about it — we might think of singing bowls or chimes, but I like to think of it as music allowing you to reflect, look inwards and kind of look within yourself.”

The event is inspired by Zora Neale Hurston’s novel “Their Eyes Were Watching God” and based around the Kehrein Center’s “Our Nature” series, which explores different themes in the classic book.

“The Listening Field” takes inspiration from those themes and reinterprets them through poetry and the music of Black composers.

“Oftentimes when people are thinking of classical music, they aren’t thinking about the contributions of Black classical musicians or composers,” Coleman said. “Our goal is to really redefine and reimagine that narrative and imagine a future where classical music is really Black.”

Woods and D-Composed started working together in 2020 when they collaborated on Woods’ single “Sula (Paperback).”

“We were talking about news days where your story might get pushed out, and so that day was Jan. 6 (2021) and they ended up not pushing (Sula) out but rather using it as a kind of balm at the end of a very heavy moment,” Woods said. “It just speaks to the power of music to be able to soothe and allow folks time to process whatever’s happening.”

“The Listening Field,” a sound healing experience, takes place at 6 p.m. Sunday at the Kehrein Center for the Arts.

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