On  Sept. 10, 2022, the 4 annual Slamming Bricks: A Riot on 1st Street was held at Charlie Dwellington’s, a bar, in downtown Grand Junction, Colorado.. 

Slamming Bricks is a free event, and is open to anyone 18 years of age or older. The event was organized by Caleb Ferganchick and produced by the Western Colorado Writers’ Forum. 

Slamming Bricks takes place during Colorado West’s Pride Week, and is Colorado’s largest slam event. 

“This is a queer space tonight, where we will honor the lives and experiences of queer and gender-queer people. That may be a little uncomfortable. Maybe you didn’t know what you were walking into,” said Ferganchick. 

In opening this year’s slam, Ferganchick gave an emotional speech and set the tone of the event. He stressed the importance of respect and open-mindedness.  

“If [you are uncomfortable], I ask you to sit with that discomfort and question where that discomfort is coming from. When we sit with our discomfort, that’s where we grow,” Ferganchick said in opening the competition.

This year, eight poets from across Colorado, Utah, Oregon and Arizona gathered together to share their stories and explore themes of resistance and liberation as an homage to the 1969 Stonewall Riots and the Gay Liberation Movement. 

“It isn’t the pronoun I struggle with, it’s the person.’ As if our humanity is something we earn, as if our boundaries for respect are so overdrawn, unattainable, unbelievably fragile, that our own identities can be compromised, taken from us at a moment’s notice,” performed by an individual introduced as Kim Possible, a competitor in Slamming Bricks. 

The poems were a mix of heartbreak, anger, fear, growth, acceptance, and love. The bar was packed from the ground floor, up the balcony, and onto the outdoor patio. The audience listened in awe of each of the poets, and erupted in applause between each performer. 

“When we give in to fear, we have ourselves to lose. We don’t have time for this division. We need to pin point the problem, make a decision,” said Sabrina Zachary, another competitor in Slamming Bricks. 

Thanks to many sponsors, the event is rapidly growing and raised nearly $10,000 this year.