Raised in the suburbs of Metro-Detroit, John Zak Woodward studied printmaking in Kalamazoo where they first encountered the devastation of the tar sands industry, and the people's resistance to it.

This experience led to a series that ultimately directed attention toward the popular movements resisting environmental destruction and the Indigenous lifeways that make that resistance possible.

A student of history, and believer in beloved community, Woods is now a resident of Detroit's East-side community where they work in early childhood education at the James and Grace Lee Boggs School.