FW downtown parade - September 9th, 2006

I was downtown on Saturday (September 9th) to hang out with Ed Smith, the new artistic director of the Jubilee Theater. I walked right past him and he had no idea, cuz I blended in with the group of students I was talking to. They were on their way to stake some pavement for an optimal view of the annual Diez y Seis parade, which was about to commence. What drew me to this group of people is that one of the young women was wearing a South Hills High School t-shirt. I called to her and asked her what she thought about the young kid (male teenager) who had been shot by armed p.d. the day before. She seemed to think that the kid brought it on himself by "acting up" and getting in a fight with another male teen on the South Hills campus. No blaming of the cop, no apparent distress about the situation. At least that was this her take on the incident.

Retracing my steps, I joined Ed on a cast-iron bench set back from the sidewalk and we both contentedly surveyed the downtown happenings. We spoke of jazz music and radio (we both have done live broadcasting), we discussed Dewey Redman's recent passing and his connection to Fort Worth. Ed asked me where I would like to call home, where I would live if I could live anywhere. Not surprisingly, I heard myself respond "Durango. Durango, Colorado, in the 4 Corners region." A sacred geography, with numerous Native American tribes ("first world" is Ed's preferred term) living there. I mentioned that a scientist friend, Ray in Albuquerque, told me that the four corners region (where New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, and Colorado all come together) is a unique geographical location physic-ally, in that it was immune to all the natural "acts of god"--tornados, hurricanes, earthquakes, and the like. As Ray put it, the 4 Corners region was probably one of the safest places to live in all of the U.S. I've camped, mountain biked, and hiked in Durango, and I loved it there. Fort Lewis College is also there--a place where I could probably get into Native Studies (history, literature, and environmental studies). Ed took this all in, marveling at the fact that no one had ever mentioned that part of the Southwest in conversation with him. Never before. All I could say was, "Fort Worth is where the West begins." A trite aphorism, but nonetheless true, in that we as Texans seem to pose our gaze westward. A direction that yields so much mythology and history, a place of vastness and visionary expansion.

And then Chuck showed up, the UTA student slam poet who is so much more than a "slam poet". He intrigues me, but I am patient to learn more about him--as he quietly reveals the layers of himself as the philosopher poet from Stop 6. The three of us--Ed, Chuck, and I--walked to the Corner Bakery for coffee and cheerily parked ourselves at a sidewalk table to watch the Diez y Seis parade. I, as Chicana with two African-American males, offered parade commentary, as the participants waved and pelted us with candy and other freebies.