By Mwende Katawiwa
A note from adrienne maree brown: Mwende Katwiwa, based in New Orleans and Kenya, makes clothing from gathered textiles, and poems that open the heart. Mwende works with young people to pull their poetry forward.
self-portrait as the ocean or Fofie’s wisdom
study the tides of
the ocean shored by your skin
each ripple each wave
know not all water
is meant to quench dry throats or
to be waded through
know not everything
that is left in the waters
is an offering
reminders for my (impatient) selves
don’t force what won’t come
what is for you is either
coming or waiting
closed mouths (and full ones) don’t get fed
ask for what you need
ready yourself to receive
as well as release
a lesson learned from June
i been wrong…and still
wrong ain’t never been my name
pronounce me correct
pronounce me (w)hol(l)y
won’t answer to all i’m called
act accordingly
train your timid tongues
sound out all my syllables
i been a mouthful
you are your own
because you were both
the cost and the one who paid
a terrible price
Mwende Katwiwa, who performs as FreeQuency, is a storyteller, organizer, host, workshop leader, chaos collagist, youth worker, and performance artist. FreeQuency is a gender-renegade Kenyan immigrant who is masculine-off-center, femme-adjacent, an “AunTea” and/or a prettyboi. FreeQuency’s anti-disciplinary work interrogates and occupies the in-between while exploring the nuances and stark contradictions of existence under racialized capitalism.
