Newspapers / University of North Carolina … / March 6, 2018, edition 1 / Page 12
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Poet FreeQuency comes to UNCA’s campus for slam Mm' ' \: ^0^ jjf J TAYLOR SEXTON News Staff Writer glanius@unca.edu Excited chatter and laughter bounced off the Highsrnith Grot to’s walls before going silent just as poet FreeQuency opened her mouth and let out her words of power. Mwende Katwiwa. better known as FreeQuency, is a 26-year-old queer Kenyan immigrant, who is also a speaker, performer and poet. Her work deals with social justice topics such as reproductive jus tice, LGBTQ-t- advocacy and Black Lives Matter. She ranked third in the 2015 Individual World Poetry Slam and in 2017 was also a TED- Women speaker. / Katwiwa emphasizes the point of her writing and performing' seeks to get her message across ;'and to start a conversation based op truth. “Fm trying to think whpt came first, the poetry or the activism? And I think the activisij) came first." Katwiwa said. "Poetry for me has never been like artifor art's sake, about like, you know, the sky is blue and the trees are green. We can say. OK. 1 know that, but w hat else out there needs to be named?" Katwiwa said. ' One piece Katwiwa performed, titled "The .loys of Motherhood." gave a glimpse into the harsh real ity of being an African-American mother and the fear of' bringing a child into this world —/a child who will constantly be discriminated against for the color of their skin. In the piece. Katwiwa discussed police brutality and referenced Trayvon Martin, as? well as how’ most African-AmeHcan women who were either murdered by po lice or unjustly tried are often never even discussed in the media. "1 ha\'e written too many poems about dead, black children to be na- PHOTO BY EMMA JORDAN ive about the fact that there could one day be a poem written about my kids, but 1 do not want to be a mother that gave birth to poems, I do not want a stanza for a son nor a line for a little girl, 1 do not want children who will live forever in the pages of poetry yet ean't seem to outlive me." Katwiw'a ended the piece with a final line, leaving the audience in stunned silence. Julia Quigley, a sophomore new media major, was part of the team w'ho helped bring Katwiwa to UNC Asheville’s campus through a pro gram called National Association for Campus Activities. Quigley and others traveled to a conference in Chattanooga, Ten nessee W'here there were different performers showcased. Here they chose who they w anted to come to UNC A and they decided on Fre eQuency. "We just got chills from her per formance. She had the audience in tears," Quigley said. Quigley said the team felt Fre eQuency's content wx>uld be appre ciated by many students on campus and would also be supportive to many of the population who go un noticed at the university. One of the many people in atten dance at this event was junior pho tography student Hannah Locklear. This was her first time attending a slam poetry event. "She's really powerful. I think the piece that got me most was the one about how she started to doubt her faith, because 1 relate to that." Locklear said. “1 was Raised in a strict Christian householcl and the moment that 1 started to doubt what 1 was taught was a really big one. And her quote, she said. ‘Once the seed of doubt is planted in turn, always thirsty,' really stuck also." After this event, Locklear said she plans on attending more events CONTINUED ON PAGE 28
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