In 2014, Naima Shalhoub impacted the lives of hundreds of incarcerated women every week through her radiant voice. Naima would come once a week to the San Francisco County Woman’s Jail and sing to these women. This quickly became more than just a time for signing, it created a community as well hope. She transformed the lives of hundreds of women and gave them a second chance at life after imprisonment. Naima recorded her first album live in the prison with the young women there singing along. It’s uplifting and it not only encourages people to learn more about what really happens after people leave jail but it highlights how little access they have to the real world, Naima even says it’s as if they are, ‘incarcerated for life.’ This five minute video captures the attention of anyone who is passionate about justice and even beyond that, Naima intentionally point the attention towards the audience (the person watching the video) and says, ‘it could be anyone.’ The speakers in this story the women in prison actively going to these weekly sessions and gaining/sharing their experience whereas the author is Naima. She is the one helping, supporting, and telling their stories through her experience as well. Naima’s whole point in sharing her stories and the stories of others is one; to have the audience (us) question the systems that we have and how they fail to support/include previous incarcerated women, two, to prove how much music can change lives when sharing it, and three, her hope of wanting her music to resonate with people and wanting people to feel heard by her music and the message she portrays.
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