BorderSlam’s SouthWest ShootOut: indie finals pack the house at On the Rocks Tavern
The spoken word filled the space
There was heat — the sweltering 100-plus degree heat outside from a typical Friday evening in June, body heat from a packed house inside On The Rocks Tavern, and there was the electric heat of a group of poets ready to step on a small eight-foot-square stage to perform toe-to-toe.
This was one of the energized downtown events that were part of the regional SouthWest ShootOut competition hosted by Laredo BorderSlam poets.
The Team Preliminaries held a few hours earlier at both Gallery 201 and Second Chance Music record store had concluded. The winners would advance to compete the following day, Saturday, June 24, at the Guadalupe and Lilia Martinez Performing Arts Center at Laredo Community College.
The Indie finals were a one-shot single elimination round gauged by the randomly selected but well-informed judges. There would be no second chance for the competing poets.
A few folks started to trickle in as the preliminaries wrapped up. The trickle became a stream, and the stream became a flood. On the Rocks Tavern was packed to capacity with a crowd eager to hear poetry.
The Tavern offered an alternate setting of color and light — deep-burgundy walls, the dark wood of the bar and tables, stage lighting alternating reds to blues to greens, and the splash of color of human skin in wondrous shades of black, brown, tan, and white. Straight, Gay, Lesbian, Queer – the bar was a rainbow that represented God’s palette.
There was so much humanity transfixed, hypnotized by the spoken word of poets taking their single shot for a slot on the next day’s Indie Finals roster.
Se habla slam — regional SouthWest competition winds down at LCC
Weekend ShootOut showcases some of downtown’s obscure treasures
The SouthWest ShootOut (SWSO) regional slam poetry event, which moved to its finale on Saturday, was hosted by Laredo BorderSlam (LBS). The two-day competition that drew slam poets and 10 teams from Austin, Houston, New Orleans, and Albuquerque was sponsored by the City of Laredo, the Back Porch, Gallery 201, Walmart, and Blue Top Reprographics.
Preliminary competitions for teams were held at downtown venues that included Gallery 201, Second Chance Music, and On the Rocks Tavern on the evening of Friday, June 23. Preliminaries for individual poets followed. Winners in both categories advanced to a final competition on Saturday, June 24 at the Guadalupe and Lilia Martinez Fine and Performing Arts Center at Laredo Community College.
The ABQSlams took first place in team competition, followed by Slam New Orleans, Austin Poetry Slam, and Eclectic Truth from Louisiana. Jordan Simpson of Houston VIP took first in the Indie Slams, followed by Beatriz Ceja of Laredo BorderSlam and Lino Anunciación of Mic Check Poetry for a second place tie; and Ayokunle Falomo of Houston Mic Check took fourth place.
Members of Laredo BorderSlam who staffed the event included coordinator Julia Orduña, hospitality coordinator Armando X. Lopez, volunteer coordinator Will Shrout, Erica Johnston, Jorge Quijano, Bert Barberena, Marc Moore, Rebekah Rodriguez, Hope Davis, Uziel Araiza, Lin Gonzalez, Alma Gonzalez, Cristina Casas, Manuel Flores, Silvia Castañeda, Bob Batey, Eli Ceja, Kenny Duncan Jr., Ryan Duncan, Jerry Peña, Amanda Castañeda, Marissa Guerrero, Clarissa Guerrero, and Sam Bratton.
Marc Moore’s narrative of the June 24 competition follows:
There were tears onstage, and the cries of mothers, sons, fathers, and daughters who filled the performing arts center as the competition drew to a close.
From the poets there were shouts of injustices perpetrated on family, friends, gender, class, race, and one’s self. The voices were loud, resonant with righteousness and truths hard to hear, anguish, and hopes long-held that questioned the status quo. The voices ran the spectrum from despair to humor.
That’s what slam poetry does.
Some poets stood stock still like statues carved of marble, ebony, or sandstone, letting voice and message speak for itself. Others were studies of heat energy in motion, tapping into anger and passion.
One by one the poets had stood at center stage to rip out their hearts and souls before the audience. They spoke to heal wounds, and in doing so, perhaps healed the audience itself. They spoke of the color of their skin that made them a target, and as they did, they called to question justice in America. They were brave – these poet warriors whose weapons were words that exposed their fragile centers of anxiety, depression, struggles with mental illness, skin color, weight, sexual orientation, abuses and traumas suffered, and losses to gun violence.
Alone and in duos, trios, quartets, and even quintets, the poets cast a bright and powerful light on the collective primeval demons of the human condition. And in response, the audience wept and yelled.
The poets spat rhymes and words and spoke the known truths all too often hard to admit. The shared pain, exposed hypocrisy, and spoken truth transformed the auditorium into a place of understanding, healing, hope, relief, and release.
The poetry was not all litanies of life’s negatives, and despite differences among them of color, origin, age, and gender, the binding theme was love of one another, family, culture, and traditions.
Washington would have been well advised to watch this event to see what true racial and gender unity looks like through the lens of art and poetry speaking truth to power.
On a sweltering weekend in June, concentrated pockets of downtown Laredo became what almost every major downtown city center is — a multi-racial, multi-cultural melting pot, a gender-free, LGBT safe zone, a mini-mecca for the culture, art, and bohemia of a younger demographic that if given the chance could jumpstart the cultural heart of the city with renewed creativity. What a wondrous thing to have moved slam poetry through the well known parts of downtown and also into its unique treasured pockets like the Organic Man Coffee Trike, Second Chance Music, On the Rocks Tavern, Club Boogaloo, and Gallery 201.
For 48 hours in late June, this was not the Laredo that should be, but the Laredo that could be and can be.
I loved it brother! Great job!
Will Shrout
Awww, reading this article made me relive the weekend all over again! I agree on that final statement — Laredo is capable of producing a vibrant and welcoming arts scene just as well as any other major city — and I can’t wait to see what other opportunities the city will seize in the future.