Born Angel Elmore to missionaries in Atlanta, Bat Dawid grew accustomed to moving as her parent’s ministry mandated. From Georgia to Kentucky and Kenya, the family finally settled in Chicago’s south suburbs where she would go on to study clarinet and music education at Moody Bible Institute and Roosevelt University, respectively.

Inspired by everything from the poetry of Margaret Burroughs to the music of Yusef Lateef and even Mozart, Bat Dawid made her debut, The Oracle, with International Anthem to wide acclaim in 2019. Eschewing conventional labels, even those as open-ended as “jazz,” Bat Dawid describes her work in no uncertain terms: "This is Black Music.” On The Oracle, she echoes ancestral agonies that she translates to blues and spirituals, a conversion theory she attributes to the late Milford Graves. Though the joy of survival never overcomes the inequity and deep-seated injustice imposed on Black life in America, Bat Dawid is outspoken in her commitment to telling the stories that will eventually turn the tide. A new voice rumbles with clarity and intention from Chicago’s Southside, reminding us that the past is still the present and the future is full of radical hope.