Naomi Westwater is a High Priestess of Tenderness, a channel for grief, a mourning dove singing. Their work brings the threads of music, poetry, tarot visual art, spells, spirituality, and gathering together. To experience her art is to open yourself up to your feelings.
Through ritual and storytelling, Naomi aids nature in the end of capitalism and the return to community, creativity, and collective joy. Her artist speaks to the margins. Their identity as a Black, queer nonbinary, chronically ill, witch is the spark for much of their work, and the lens through which they view the world.
Naomi holds a Master of Music in Contemporary Performance and Production from Berklee College of Music. They are a six time Boston Music Awards nominee, and have been featured in Basic Folk, The Boston Globe, Under The Radar, GBH, The Bluegrass Situation, Spirituality Magazine, and more. They are a WBUR 2024 Make, a 2024 artist-in-residence at Château d'Orquevaux in France, and part of The Club Passim Folk Collective.
Naomi is a Cultural Curator, she led the Boston Chapter of We Make Noise for 5 years, where she created We Make Noise Fest and We Make Noise Camp as tools for gender equity in the Boston music scene. Naomi has also produced shows at The Apollo Theater, The Beacon Theatre, The Bell House, and more. Currently, Naomi is producing a series called Reclaiming Folk: Celebrating of People of Color in Folk Music and has received over 20 grants to tour the series. They are the creator of Juniper Fest, an annual music festival for their dog.
Naomi is on faculty at Club Passim and is a NERFA board member. Her latest concept record, Cycle & Change is out everywhere. She lives in Boston, MA with her partner, their garden, and two dogs where she sings ans cries daily at her ancestor alter.
photo by Sasha Pedro
“The Massachusetts folk artist unfurls tendrils of compassion for a weathered world”
— Victoria Wasylak, The Boston Globe