billy woods and Love Higher at The Adam Space
On Friday, November 21, 2025, the second edition of the series curated by Hanif Abdurraqib called “I Guess It Was My Destiny To Live So Long” came to an end with a free show featuring a DJ set by Love Higher and a performance by billy woods. Before woods took the stage, Hanif introduced the rapper to the stage and shared that he only had one artist in mind when curating the music night* and that artist was woods, and expressed gratitude that he said yes.
I missed billy woods’ previous performance in support of his new solo record, Golliwog at Knockdown Center in late September since it was the same night as Fat Dog at Market Hotel and I figured since NYC is his hometown, he’d perform again soon, so I saw the band from London instead. Thanks to Hanif’s stellar curation, it happened a lot faster than I thought and I knew I had to be there that evening. I’m so grateful to Hanif and the BAM team for letting me document billy woods for them. He’s an artist I admire and have been capturing for years and it’s always challenging and fun to come up with new ways to photograph him. woods brought along special guests of DJ Haram, his Armand Hammer partner ELUCID, and vocalist Yolanda Watson, who appears on the Golliwog track, “A Doll Fulla Pins.”
This was the second year of the “I Guess It Was My Destiny To Live So Long” and images of one of the nights last year can be found here. I’m truly looking forward to seeing what Hanif does for this series when it returns in 2026.
*there were also events earlier in the week featuring poets m. nourbeSe philip, Sarah Kay, Anis Mojgani, Clint Smith, and Abdurraqib, and a film screening of Going To Mars with readings of Nikki Giovanni’s work