What Freedom Cost is a co-curated multi-part visual and performance-based project comprising photography, videography, print and digital materials, and spoken word performance. It is an exploration of the legacy of systemic violence against people of the African Diaspora, specifically those living in the United States. Enslavement tore Black people away from their ancestral homelands, cultures, traditions, and practices, and new iterations of oppression still impact their lives across the waters. Those with formal involvement in the criminal legal system feel that acutely, navigating constant surveillance and punishment. What Freedom Cost unearths the true impact of the cost of freedom from formal institutions of violence and criminalization – it asks whether freedom is actually free.