Most people don’t want to be an outsider, but for Dominique Christina and Denice Frohman, it seems to have worked out pretty well. The two, who happen to be two of the top three female slam poets in the world, make up Sister Outsider, an unbeatable duo of poets and activists. Wheaton was lucky enough to host Sister Outsider for a performance in the Chapel Thursday April 10, along with a workshop and reception beforehand.

Both Christina and Frohman identify as queer women of color; the former is African American while the latter is Hispanic. Between the two of them, they have six championships, including the title of Women of the World Poetry Champions. They met at a competition in which they were competing against each other and took a liking to each other’s work, and the rest is history. Christina now has released a book of poetry entitled “The Bones, The Breaking, The Balm,” and Frohman has released her debut album of both poetry and music (she is also a lyricist), “Feels Like Home.” Their poetry is used as a tool for social change and explores the intersections of race, gender, and sexuality.

The event was sponsored and planned by the Feminist Association of Wheaton (FAW), with the Latino Student Association (LSA) hosting the reception. The evening started with a workshop at 6 p.m. for students to learn some poetry pointers from the pros. The workshop consisted of intense discussions of social constructs and what it means to be an outsider. Following was the LSA reception in the Chapel Basement, because evidently, even poets need to eat, and then, finally, the performance at 8 p.m.

Opening for Sister Outsider was sophomore Nataja Flood of iSpeak, performing two of her own poems on identity. Then, Sister Outsider took the stage, welcomed warmly by an eager crowd with high expectations that were surely about to be met.

The performance consisted of both dual and singular poems that covered the subjects of social inequality, sexuality, gender, and race in terms of their own experiences and historical events.

The event was well-attended and well-received not only by the current Wheaton community, but also by many prospective Wheaton students who were on campus for the accepted students over night and were brought to the event by their hosts. Fingers were snapped, feet stomped, and the energy in the room was palpable, between the power of the words and their delivery on stage and how deeply they managed to move the listeners.