Silver City, N.M.- Standing in front of an intimate crowd of about 50 people in Light Hall, slam poet Mercedez Holtry spoke about her life story and the issues facing us all through the art of spoken word poetry. From Albuquerque, New Mexico, Mercedez centers her poetry around her identity that is rooted in several different things, and Chicana feminism being one of those topics.
She started off her set with a poem entitled, “My Blood is Beautiful,” dealing with her mixed identity from her parent’s varying heritages coming together in herself as one person.
Holtry stated that when she first began writing, she was always very angry, and it showed in the power and emotion put into reciting her first two poems. But now, she said that, “with our current administration, it’s ironic because I’ve been trying to write from a softer perspective.” This led to her second poem, “Dear Donald Trump,” that you may have seen or heard in a viral video that has been passed around on Facebook due to its strong accusations of the current president marginalizing minorities from America.
The third poem Mercedez performed was called, “I Was 13,” with Holtry recalling fondly about the amazing summer she experienced when she was at the tender beginning of her teenage years.
Her next poem entitled, “Pretty,” started off with lyrics from West Side Story’s song, “I Feel Pretty,” and then veered off into Holtry speaking of “another world,” where instead of simply being pretty, everyone was much more real.
Mercedez then gave a brief explanation of the Mexican myth, La Llorona, which led into her poem personifying the legend with a backstory entitled, “La Llorona Speaks.” Holtry herself said that she believed “La Llorona is a misunderstood woman, and I saw a lot of theme and metaphor in her story.”
Holtry’s sixth poem of the night was an “Ode to Selena,” celebrating the legacy of the Tejano star taken too soon from the world.
The poem “F+ Poet” garnered quite a few cheers from the crowd as Mercedez read it aloud, where she spoke on how she had come since an English teacher failed her poem for not being “in the lines enough to get an A+.”
Mercedez’s final four poems of the night all shared one common theme, which was freedom. All from different perspectives, these poems were the hardest hitting. Starting off with “Freedom,” Mercedez listed off every liberty that she was blessed to have in her life. Her next poem entitled, “Little Brown Beauty,” was a story about a young girl Mercedez observed one day in a classroom with the courage to read a poem she wrote in front of her entire class about how her dad wasn’t home because of the borders built to keep him from coming home, even though she knew he belonged to be there with her. “Becky White” was a poem about a made-up contract with all of the certifications it takes for someone to truly become an American citizen, with a mocking voice by Holtry perfectly executed to point out all of the injustices that really lie underneath.
Finally, Mercedez closed her poetry set off with. “I Deserve to Be Free,” a poem speaking on feminism she deemed the right way to end on International Women’s Day met with agreement from the crowd.
Mercedez Holtry’s book, “My Blood is Beautiful,” is available for purchase on Amazon.com.
This event was sponsored by The Center for Gender Equity.
