Freedom Speaks: the poet, was born and raised in Jamaica, Queen, and has dedicated her life to uplifting her community through writing and performance. People often describe her work as being "powerful" and "insightful," and she is said to be "wise beyond her years."

 

Under the name, Keena Diaspora, Freedom's work has been published internationally, such as in The African Journal of New Poetry, in June 2006. She also has work scheduled to be published in the anthology "Black Women Reflect on the N-Word" along with other forthcoming anthologies.

 

The twenty-nine year old mother's themes center on education, liberation, and self-empowerment, and she is cherished for her down-to-earth attitude. As champion of her very first poetry slam, the HBO Def Poetry Jam Slam, Freedom Speaks earned the opportunity to open for Russell Simmons' Def Poetry Jam on Broadway at Atlanta's Fox Theater in November 2003, formally introducing her to the Atlanta Spoken Word Community. Other notable performances include the 2003 Spoken Word Expo in St. Louis, Mo., Proctor & Gamble's 2004 Pantene Total You Tour in Atlanta, Ga., the 9th Annual World Natural Hair and Beauty Show, and she was a guest performer and judge at V103 and Littel Concepts' First Word Youth Slam.

 

Flourishing in any setting, she has opened for the 2005 U.S. Human Rights Network's National Conference, opened for Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney's Sister to Sister Workshop, and was the featured spoken word act at "Girls in the Night," during Atlanta's 2004 Gay Pride Festival. As a motivational speaker, she has facilitated her "Promises" workshop at The Dekalb Senior Center during Women's Health Week 2006, and she recently appeared on Robert Townsend's "Spoken" on The Black Family Channel. She was also a performer and panelist at Oakhurst Medical Center's Hip Hop Health Summit held at the Tupac Amaru Shakur Performing Arts Center. Freedom Speaks' poetry products include her debut album, Roadblocks to Righteousness and Revolution, an EP and a DVD titled A Taste of Freedom, and two poetry books, Soul Witness (Completely Revised) and Speak, Poet! while her "Live Spoken Word or Die Unheard--" t-shirts continue to be a national Spoken Word commodity. I

 

n the community, the former New York State NAACP Youth & College Division President is now the Artistic Director of Griotsville Foundation, a community organization dedicated to educating and empowering indigenous people/people of African Descent using spoken word as a medium. As a professional writer, editor, and self-publisher, she founded Freedom Speaks Ink in 2003, which offers writing, editing, proofreading, and consulting services. Her newest company, Sun Cycle Publishing focuses on converting desktop chapbooks to paperbacks, manufacturing self-health and holistic healing books, and publishing books written for and by children. Currently, Speaks looks forward to the release of her debut and sophomore novels, Manjani and Initiated Men. On stage and off, Speaks continues to be an invaluable asset to the African-American Literary and Performing Arts communities.

 

You can email Freedom Speaks by clicking here.