Abya Yala Poetry Slam Contest Participants Perform for Migrants in Juarez

CIUDAD JUAREZ — In a small, overheated room in Ciudad Juárez’s Colonia El Granjero, some of the most accomplished slam poets in the Western Hemisphere performed for an audience of migrants and aid workers at Comunidad AVES.

The 16 poets gathered for the La Frontera Book Fair to compete in the Abya Yala Copa América Poetry Slam Championship, a competition between national champions from across the Americas that would give the best artists a ticket to compete in the World Poetry Slam Championship in Togo later this year.

But before their competition officially began on Friday, June 28, the participating slam poets shared messages about strength, resilience and preserving cultural heritage with some of the thousands of migrants living temporarily in Juárez while waiting to report to U.S. authorities.

“Migrating is more animal than human,” poet Zandy Nova, 22, said in Spanish of her audience. “Literature, speech, allows people and families to take root. When we approach literature, poetry, speech, we reinforce our experiences. The places (through which migrants pass) not only teach them something, they also teach the local populations who live in these spaces.”

Nova is originally from the Mexican state of Oaxaca and draws much of her inspiration from her mother, an indigenous Mazatec woman, who prepares and shares food as a form of love.

For Colombian poet Andrea Zapata, spoken word performances take poetry out of sometimes “elitist” academic circles and make it accessible to a wider population.

“Slam poetry is the democratization of poetry. Poetry speaks of the senses, the soul and the spirit of human emotion,” Zapata said in Spanish. “It should belong to those who need it most. A person can, through poetry, bring a message of hope.”

In the audience, children and adults from different countries listened attentively and warmly applauded each poet. Many spectators approached the poets after their performance to ask for autographs.

The event was also the culmination of a partnership between the Secretariat of Culture of Chihuahua and the International Organization for Migration to publish a book of poetry, said IOM spokesperson Claudia Rivera. The book, titled “Poetry and dissidences” (“Poetry and Dissidents”) presents approximately 60 poems in Spanish, English, Portuguese and French.

“We wanted to create programs that bring together host communities and migrants so that there is a positive experience and a positive narrative about migration,” Rivera said.

Karina Murillo, secretary of culture for the state of Chihuahua, said the aim of the event was to unite different communities.

“Poetry is one of the literary disciplines that has the most power to penetrate the body,” Murillo said in Spanish. “It doesn’t even have to be in your language for you to feel it, for you to understand the poet’s ideas.”

Lady La Profeta, a Colombian-Canadian poet, shared a poem inspired by her own migration story. At age 9, she and her family fled Colombia to seek refuge in the United States before finally finding safety and welcome in Canada, where she became a citizen.

After seeing films about Colombia that “didn’t seem authentic to me,” Lady La Profeta said, “I decided to share our stories from our own perspective.” She was 12 at the time. She studied film, theater and eventually writing.

Lady La Profeta writes in English and Spanish, her choice of language often depending on the context of her ideas or the source of inspiration. She has won a national championship in Canada and Colombia, and in 2023 she won the World Poetry Slam Organization championship.

One of the few poets to perform in English was MayaSpoken, who represented Canada. MayaSpoken has “been writing for as long as she can remember,” largely as a way to overcome the abuse she suffered as a child. In 2015, at the age of 17, she won first place in her first competition. In 2023, she won the Canadian national championship. Much of her inspiration comes from the injustices and violence she has witnessed throughout her life.

“People experience different types of injustice and harm,” MayaSpoken said. “I wanted to be able to express that through poetry and encourage people to make a change.”

The winners of the Copa América Abya Yala, announced after the final day of the competition on Sunday, are Yordanis Febles of Cuba in first place, King Abraba of Brazil in second place and Amanda Austral of Chile in third place.

The event was sponsored by the Secretariat of Culture of Chihuahua, the International Office for Migration (IOM, part of the United Nations), FELIF and several national, regional and international poetry slam organizations.