About Kwyn

Kwyn Townsend Riley “Kwynology” is a poet, speaker, and organizer from the Southside of Chicago. She has been writing for as long as she could remember, first performed on the mic in high school and has been in love ever since. Her writing helps others heal as well as herself.  As a black woman, she has experienced many poems to preach on ;  racialized violence, womanism, gentrification and womanhood, homophobia and more. She has performed all across the world from Germany to California. As a speaker, she has interviewed for CBS, WBEZ, Windy City Live and the Late Night Tammi Mac Show. As a organizer, she is passionate about justice for all black people, especially black queer and gender non conforming folks.

Kwyn is an author of two books “And She Wrote” and “and She Will”. Kwyn loves her family, Chicago and french fries.

 

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oRGANIZER

Kwyn is a organizer, abolitionist and a fighter for Black Queer Feminist liberation. Her roots into organizing began at the University of Dayton, during her undergraduate career. As a full time student leader, Kwyn had a heart for real change for the black students who attended the University of Dayton. She wrote her play “UNNOTICED” that launched her activism front stage for Black History Month and Women’s History Month. Her campaign against ” I Heart UD” month, overshadowing Black History Month programming, resulted in cultural awareness for the campus. Moreover her articles against the use of the word “ghetto” for neighborhood housing landed her on news sites throughout Dayton. Her contributions through art, writing and protesting resulted in her winning the Nancy Bramlage Award, Visionary Student Leadership Award and numerous leadership awards. Upon graduating, she continued her passion for social justice by getting involved with #LetUsBreathe collective, Chicago Votes Democracy Corp Program and BYP100. As a CBS Black History Month Maker and Pride History Month maker, Kwyn is persistent about achieving liberation by organizing through a Black Queer Feminist Lens. 

 

Poet

As a Chicagoan, Kwyn channels her Southside experiences into her writing. Audiences have referring to her writing as “inspirational” and “eye- opening”. Most of her poems are center on many social justice issues including racism, sexism, rape culture and gun violence.  To Kwyn, poetry makes the truth sound beautiful and less painful. It serves reality a little warmer to those who are hopeless. She has released poetry videos on her youtube channel   that have gone viral. Her poetry has been featured in the Huffington Post, BLAVITY, ForHarriet, The Chicago Reader and a host of others. She has performed at many college campuses including but not limited to California State University at Monterey Bay, University of Cincinnati – Blue Ash, and University of Chicago. The author of two books has hosted countless workshops for various schools and programs including the Chicago Public Library. Currently, she is writing. 

 

Speaker

Kwyn is a known speaker that influences her community. She has delivered many sermons at Trinity United Church of Christ a church known for its involvement with social justice and other churches in Chicago. She has also been the keynote speaker for the Off the Sidelines Feminist Conference featured the  Chicago City Commissioner Bridget Gainer and many other places! Kwyn speaks about issues related to people of color and shines light on the issues that people often overlook. She is passionate about higher education justice, gender justice, abolition and black queer feminism. Currently she contributes to the Sybil Wilkes newsletter for social justice, where you can also find her speaking live about prevalent issues. 

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I travel all over the place, doing what I love.