By: Kaillaby

Congratulations to Texas’ own Jaljuda, the winner of this year’s Soul and Salsa spotlight competition! Jaljuda is a comedian straight out of St. Augustine who has been making her way through the comedy circuit for nearly ten years. Her blue style of Comedy has graced stages from Los Angeles to Fort Worth and notably at the “In The Spirit Entertainment/Dallas Jazz Collective” concert for Juneteenth. 

Jaljuda has a chivalrous spirit; she lives vicariously through her favorite bible verse, Jeremiah 29:11 “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” 

She doesn’t just make people laugh with her raw, unfiltered self-deprecating humor “I already planned out my funeral. I was like, look, don’t y’all let my sister fall in that casket with me. You gotta get in here and stay here. You not going to be going in and out of my casket. [laughs]” she teaches people lessons through her real-life experiences. If she had it her way, the youth would learn from her past mistakes, and she would advocate for the increasing homeless population in Texas. “We have so many empty buildings. Why doesn’t somebody buy one of these buildings and get a grant and set it up to where people can have somewhere to stay and help people get on their feet? There’s not a lot of those programs around here.”

The stand-up comic used her platform to touch on conversations that are on everyone’s minds but not on enough lips. Like the significance of discussions about health amongst black families and how it affects future generations, “And now I’m dealing with having to get on the transplant list [for kidney failure]. It’s something that runs in my family, and I had no idea until I started dealing with it; this is why black people need to sit down and have a conversation about health”. 

We had the pleasure of speaking with Jaljuda about her flourishing career post-COVID, where she is taking advantage of virtual platforms like Clubhouse “it’s so crazy how Clubhouse has gotten me more comfortable performing or auditioning. In ways that I never would have thought before.”

Read on to learn about why her comedy career is here to stay, the inspiration behind her first book, and how she’s raising awareness for a life-altering health condition that affects not just her but black and brown people at alarming rates.

Read the one on one conversation with Jaljuda in Soul and Salsa Magazine