Whitman students sing out for social justice

Freedom Songs again harmonized about social justice on Wednesday at Harper Joy Theatre. Check out this photo gallery for glimpses of some of the student singers and spoken-word artists who furthered discussion of diversity and inclusion at Whitman. The annual event also included dance.

Before the show, Whitman a cappella groups rehearse the finale, “Ella’s Song,” by Sweet Honey in the Rock, by breaking into voice sections to get the harmonies right.

The Freedom Songs logo.

Dorothy Mukasa ’19 (left), Freedom Songs creative director and a rhetoric studies major, and Esther Ra ’19, editor in chief of the related "Freedom Zine" and an English major, open the show.

Sirens of Swank, Whitman’s all-female a cappella group, perform “Rise” by Solange.

Ricardo Vivanco ’18, a math and economics major, takes a solo in “Rule the World,” by Michael Kiwanuka, backed by the Testostertones, Whitman’s all-male a cappella group.

Freedom Singers cover “Black Gold” by Esperanza Spalding.

Danielle Hirano ’19 (left), a rhetoric and studies major, and Anna Zheng ’18, a gender studies major, recite the spoken word, “Dear White Boy/Dear Whiteness.”

Whitman’s co-ed a cappella group, Schwa, renders a mash-up of “She Really Don’t Care” and “One Love” by Alicia Keys. Natalie Grace Andreen ’19, a film and media studies major, is out front.

Zheng executes a solo for “Holy War” by Alicia Keys with the Freedom Singers.

Adyiam Kimbrough ’19, a politics major, interprets a section of “Holy War” with the Freedom Singers.

Ra, from Seoul, South Korea, recites her spoken-word “Hankuk.” “I feel heartbroken every day to think of my people going through all those human rights violations and prison camps in North Korea.”