Individual World Poetry Slam Finals 2015 - FreeQuency "Dear White People"

FreeQuency performing at the Individual World Poetry Slam Finals in Washington, D.C.
Mwende "FreeQuency" Katwiwa is a Kenyan born, New Orleans based spoken word artist, organizer and youth worker. Known for her social justice work and poetry, FreeQuency has been described as 'challenging', 'dynamic', and it has been said on numerous occasions that "the room isn't the same after hearing FreeQuency spit".
A Queer, Black Immigrant Womyn poet, FreeQuency has been featured on Upworthy, the New York Times, the Huffington Post, Everyday Feminism, BUST Magazine, Melissa Harris-Perry's Anna Julia Cooper Project on Gender, Race and Politics in the South, the National Journal, All Def Poetry, Button Poetry, BalconyTV and other sources for her work on and off the stage. She has been invited to to speak/perform at various conferences including Melissa Harris-Perry's Gender, Sexuality and Hip Hop Conference, TEDxTU, and the Courageous Conversations on Race National Summit. In 2013, FreeQuency was voted the RAW New Orleans Performing Artist of the Year and the WhoDat Poets Rookie of the Year. A 2014, 2015 & 2016 member of Team Slam New Orleans (ranked 3rd nationally in 2014), FreeQuency placed 5th at the 2014 Texas Grand Slam Poetry Festival, 3rd at the 2014 SouthWest ShootOut Individual Competition and 10th overall at the 2015 Women of the World Poetry Slam. Most recently, FreeQuency 3rd at the 2015 Individual World Poetry Slam
In addition to writing and performing poetry, FreeQuency has published articles in The Grio, For Harriet, the Feminist Majority Foundation's Campus Leadership Network and is currently a founding member of the New Orleans chapter of the Black Youth Project 100 (the first BYP100 Southern Chapter), a founding committee member and host of the New Orleans Youth Open Mic (NOYOM), a board member for Patois: The New Orleans' International Human Rights Film Festival, a blogger with the AfroFashion and Culture Blog Noirlinians and a member of Wildseeds: The New Orleans Octavia Butler Emergent Strategy Collective.
In 2014, FreeQuency graduated from Tulane University with a dual degree in Political Economy (with International Perspectives) and Africa & African Diaspora Studies, receiving top honors in both departments and numerous institution wide awards for service, leadership and scholarship. In college, she was also named the Feminist Majority Foundation's Campus Leadership Program inaugural Feminist You Should Know (2013) and was responsible for resurrecting and hosting Tulane's largest and most successful Black Arts Festival to date at the time (2014). She currently works at Women With A Vision, a social justice non-profit whose major focus areas include Reproductive Justice outreach, HIV+ Women's Advocacy, Sex Worker Rights and Drug Policy Reform.

[@loukianaaa]

“we know the future belongs to those who prepare for it & you have been getting us ready for centuries” WHEEWWWWWW

[@thycolourfulshadow4998]

"How i wish my toes could touch the ocean without stepping on the bones of my ancestors"... woah👏

[@miseciara]

"Dear white people: Why do you hate being called racist more than you hate racism?" (Can't get enough of FreeQuency's amazing poems.)

[@prayerdube9368]

"Dear white people, every time we've written 'white people,' we've written it in lowercase because we are tired of you Capitalizing on our pain..." Kudos girl! Impassioned rhetoric, love it.

[@EllaRickie]

I wish I could go back in time a tell this to younger me this "whenever your teacher starts talking about slavery, and everyone turns to look at you swivel your head and turn around and search for what the fuck they clearly can't find ."

[@EXSkywarp]

I was not ready to be woken up like this. Like fr, I felt something inside me come alive after hearing this masterpiece. This poem didn't just have teeth, it had razor sharp fangs, and I do not feel bad for the colonizer who feels the life-ending bite around their throat.

[@diegojimenez6087]

Damn that inspired me to start writing my Dear Half White People poem.

[@thealmightybucket5930]

holy shit this woman is incurable. so many lines just had me speechless.

[@komarovosevastopol]

When you are not self aware that you are racist

[@grannybemx6729]

I for one I am willing and ready to be uncomfortable. Discomfort proceeds change I for one am ready to create change.

[@TheYoungReezy87]

Cue the Jill Scott GIF

[@Jace30981]

she fucking killed this🤘🏾

[@samiraahmed1434]

Looove that shes Kenyan lovely poem🖤

[@matthewduncan1691]

having come from the Bronx, I can easily understand the perspective and respect the conversation...unfortunately right now the only color of concern is green, those that have and those that don't...because they that have are manipulating and crushing the rest of us out of existence

[@ogonna8545]

I’m here from Tik tok

[@hashimmuhammad1808]

DEEEEEP... I LOVE IT

[@javiercastaneda2555]

She had time today!!! ♥️

[@yassyw6939]

I LOVEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE THIS

[@kaziekamik8554]

I forgot how to breathe watching this AMAZING holy crap 💖💖💖💖

[@berfinhezal4575]

Beautiful poem