Candace Goodwin is making music and making waves

I first encountered Candace Goodwin when she was singing in her otherworldly voice during a Rosh Hashanah service at the JCC East Bay. As the Senior Program Manager at Jewish Studio Project, she helps people connect to themselves and the divine—and I would argue that her music helps us do that as well! 

A San Francisco native, Candace told me some incredible tales of growing up in the Fillmore, how she got started as a musician at such a young age, and the choir she sings in now. Over Zoom, we chatted about all of this and more. Our conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity.

Candace! I know you’re a local—what was growing up here like?

I grew up in San Francisco, in the Fillmore, which was amazing—I got access to a lot of amazing things, like exposure to arts and culture and a diverse community. In elementary school, I had so many different friends from different backgrounds and religions. 

Also, I got to go to so many shows, and see opera, musical theater, ballet, pretty much anything you can think of. I also grew up doing theater, at the Buriel Clay Theater, which still exists—and I was a theater major. 

So cool. I first encountered you as an incredible singer. How did you get into music? 

My mom used to always say that I’ve been singing since I was two years old, and even writing songs since that age—from whether I was tying my shoes and making up a song about that, I’ve been singing since I could remember. Because of that, I sang in elementary school and did talent shows, and then I joined choir when I was in high school. I was also in a jazz trio, and I took any opportunity I could get to sing. Through that, I started acting as well and doing musical theater. 

When I was in elementary school, I had a lead role in this play called The Nutmeg, which was basically the African-American version of The Nutcracker. It was written by the late Robert Henry Johnson, who was an amazing dancer, composer and writer. 

Wow, that sounds amazing. Say more?

When I was growing up, my uncle owned a nightclub called The Upper Room in San Francisco. and was probably the youngest person in there. It was an 18+ club with no alcohol with music and dancing—I got to see so many different styles of music, like jazz, hip hop, R&B, soul. I got to be in the mix. It was a cool place at the time, so famous folks would come through. There’s a lot of rich history there. 

My mom sings, my dad sings—I just grew up in a musical household. My siblings also sing, and we used to put on shows for our parents.

A question I like to borrow from Krista Tippett of On Being, what was the spiritual background of your childhood?

It was very unique—my mom was a spiritual counselor, so in her lifetime, she helped tons of people throughout the world with their spiritual journeys and healing. My father is a master astrologer. I also have an uncle who is a Yoruba priest. So I grew up with exposure to the Yoruba religion and rituals, and I also had a lot of friends who were Jewish and I got to participate in their holidays as well, which is how I learned so much about Judaism and Jewish ritual.

Also, I have another uncle who was the pastor of the largest Baptist church in California, Allen Temple, in Oakland. So there’s Yoruba influence, general spiritual influence, astrological influence, Baptist influence—because of all that, I’m not necessarily a religious person necessarily, but I’m a very spiritual person. And I believe in God and I can celebrate that with anyone, which is why I lead services, right?

Right! I think a lot of people may know you from leading beautiful High Holiday services with Jewish Studio Project (JSP) at the JCC East Bay for the past several years.

I love leading services. I really enjoy it, and it’s really meaningful that I can lead spiritual grounding and prayer and connection, and be a vessel.

My grandparents on my father’s side were farmers, so they tended the land and what sustains us. My grandparents on my mother’s side were morticians. I didn’t really think about that before but—on one side, there’s the land and growth and birth and then on the other side, there’s death and care. 

I would even connect that to your current work at Jewish Studio Project (JSP), which to me seems about how we make it through each day, from birth to death.

Yes—when the opportunity came for me to get involved with JSP, I was like, what’s this organization about? What’s this all about? And then as I learned and deepened more within JSP, and then got hired full-time working for JSP, my friends were asking, what does this organization do? 

I would say, well, they use art and creativity to connect deeper to yourself and to the divine. They’d say, that’s amazing, and of course this is the perfect thing for you to be doing. I’m so blessed to be able to do this work and let folks know more about it.

Tell us more about your work at JSP and what you love about it.

I’m their Senior Program Manager, which I really love because I get to work with facilitators on programs that we provide to the public. We usually have two programs a month for free. It’s amazing to help people dive into their creativity, especially people who say, I’m not creative.

It’s a low-barrier way to get people to get in touch with their creative side. JSP’s motto is we are all created creative. I love helping to plan those programs, to help people to keep delving deeper into themselves to see what’s there.

I also sing and do spiritual grounding for certain sessions, and I love being able to do the Jewish Studio Process. It’s been really helpful for me over time—you can bring anything to the process, any kind of grief or anything you’re feeling to work through and use that as a tool to see what comes up.

And I know you’re in a super-cool choir! How did you get started with that?

In college, I was in the UCSC gospel choir, which was a class you could take and we would perform every quarter. One of my close friends from college, and a few other folks, got together to sing and we were getting some gigs. Then, when we were playing at Oakland School for the Arts, I first met Cava Menzies, who is a brilliant musician and choir director. A few years later, my same friend from college told me that Cava was trying to start a choir for adults, and he said, you should do it.

It’s called CO-LLAB Choir, and it’s a group of singers, songwriters, musicians. We write together, do covers together, sing each other’s songs and arrange them, and we do vocals for professional artists as well. We’ve done quite a bit of backgrounds for Empire Records, for different artists. It’s been pretty amazing. We’ve gotten these great opportunities—we ended up singing at Shoreline, at Paramount Theater, Yerba Buena. Our last couple shows were at SFJazz.

And I’ll be leading Shabbat services at Urban Adamah this coming week!

Amazing. Now onto our in-house Proust Questionnaire. Tell me any movie, book, play, song or piece of art or media that you love! 

That’s a hard one—I’ve been listening to Willow a lot. I’ve really been loving her album, Empathogen. It’s an eclectic mix of jazz and soul. 

What’s the Bay’s best-kept secret? 

It might not be a best-kept secret but I love the garden at Cafenated [on Vine] in Berkeley. And diagonal to that, is the Epicurious Garden, it’s really sweet. You go through and there are all these different kinds of restaurants, you go through a little nook.

And when was a recent time that you felt a spiritual connection?

I feel like every month in my [JSP] programs! We started doing our first first open studio at JSP [in their physical space in Berkeley]. I got to be in the studio, and do some of the Jewish Studio Process and make something [shows painting on camera]. It was really beautiful and flowing.

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GatherBay Profiles is our interview series spotlighting the vast array of community members doing rad things! Released twice per month, the series aspires to celebrate GatherBay’s greatest treasure—the people around us. Want to be profiled? Email info@gatherbay.org.