Artist Poet Raja Belle Freeman’s Exhibit “Consider This Your Trigger Warning” Demands Attention

“Consider This Your Trigger Warning” is Raja Belle Freeman’s collection of political poetry presented with her visual art. The mixed genre aesthetic both reminds the audience to look and listen. “Trigger Warning” presents juxtaposed imagery, one side shows society uplifting the black man, respecting and loving him, and seeing his beauty. On the other side, society’s complacency with the black man’s destruction in the most gruesome and public way. Coupled with striking poetry this exhibit seeks to sensitize society once more and to fight for what should not be buried.

“I found myself regularly discussing the cyclical nature of the consumption of Black bodies in the media. Someone was killed, we'd mourn them collectively, our passion for them would dissipate, someone new would be killed, and again, and again. My work focuses not only on this cycle, but on how it leads to collective desensitization when it comes to the destruction of people of color. Plainly, we can see a person of color die on our phones in the morning and still be right back to our day before the afternoon. I try to make this clear in my poems while capturing the way that it affects me personally, how it changes the way I navigate through the world, and how important it is to continue to call out injustice before we lose the will to fight anymore.” - Raja Belle Freeman

An opening reception for Raja Belle Freeman’s “Consider This Your Trigger Warning” will be held at Akron Soul Train Gallery on Friday, November 10, from 5:00 PM - 7:30 PM.

The exhibit is free and open to the public November 8 - December 16, 2023 in the CapSOUL Gallery.

About the poet and artist Raja Belle Freeman:

Raja Belle Freeman is a performance poet and visual artist. She realized her passion for writing at Twelve Literary Arts where she became a teaching artist. Now she teaches at Lake Erie Ink, a youth writing space. Raja is a member the board of directors of South Euclid’s community development corporation One South Euclid. She graduated from Cleveland State University with a BA in Creative Writing and a minor in Black Studies. Freeman has been quoted in several outlets including Scene Magazine, WKYC, The Pittsburgh Post Gazette, and others. Raja Belle Freeman’s poetry can be found on various YouTube channels.