Carrie and her all-star Laboratorio band are back! Join us as they collaborate with a different guest artist for each unique quarterly performance, ensuring that no two shows are ever the same. Their quest is to both explore and stretch the boundaries of what is considered to be Latin Music in America today.

Carrie Rodriguez’s Laboratorio

Ft. Amalia Mondragón, Tereso Perfecto Contreras and ire’ne lara silva

Stateside at the Paramount
Sunday, September 25, 2022

Doors: 6pm
Show: 7pm

At its heart, Carrie Rodriguez’ Laboratorio is a musical exploration and celebration of Latinx culture and its contribution to the American experiment. For each unique live performance, Carrie and her all-star band collaborate with various guest artists, ensuring that no two shows are ever the same. On September 25th, the Stateside welcomes Laboratorio back to the stage with a show exploring borders – both within and outside of ourselves, helping to shape our identities. Special guests will be Amalia Mondragón, a Latin Grammy nominated, Mexico/Estadounidense, transfronterizx, singer-songwriter along with Tereso Perfecto Contreras a 2 spirit song interpreter from the tri-state border region of Texas/Chihuahua/NM and award winning poet/writer ire’ne lara silva. Laboratorio is a program of the Austin Artists Project.

Through distinct feminine and masculine manifestations, the artist Amalia Mondragón/Tereso Perfecto Contreras reexamine traditional musical genres from the U.S.-Mexico border through a queer perspective that challenges stereotypical border narratives. Amalia was born in East Los Angeles and raised in the farmlands of La Union, New Mexico. She grew up singing, and learned to play various wind instruments during her formative educational years. From 2014- 2016 Amalia performed as lead vocalist for the Indie Latin Pop Group, The Chamanas. Her unique transfronterizx style became a signature for the band and, as a result, was nominated for Best New Artist in the 2016 Latin Grammys. Tereso Perfecto Contreras was born and raised in La Union New Mexico where he grew up singing and dedicated much of his time to song interpretation, plant knowledge, and reading. They are currently working on an album funded by NALAC and The FORD FOUNDATION through the Border Narrative Change grant entitled “Transfronterizx.” It is a concept album that seeks to amplify the unique life of the transfronterizx — people who transit and navigate the U.S.-Mexico border as a way of life — through the lens of two-spirit: Tereso Perfecto Contreras and Amalia Mondragón – with hopes to spark conversations and shift narratives around gender fluidity, xenophobia, border life, migration, and underrepresented communities.

ire’ne lara silva is the author of four poetry collections, furia, Blood Sugar Canto, CUICACALLI/House of Song, and FirstPoems; two chapbooks, Enduring Azucares and Hibiscus Tacos; and a short story collection, flesh to bone, which won the Premio Aztlán. She and poet Dan Vera are also the co-editors of Imaniman: Poets Writing in the Anzaldúan Borderlands, a collection of poetry and essays. ire’ne is the recipient of a 2021 Tasajillo Writers Grant, a 2017 NALAC Fund for the Arts Grant, the final Alfredo Cisneros del Moral Award, and was the Fiction Finalist for AROHO’s 2013 Gift of Freedom Award. Most recently, ire’ne was awarded the 2021 Texas Institute of Letters Shrake Award for Best Short Nonfiction. ire’ne is currently a Writer at Large for Texas Highways Magazine and is working on a second collection of short stories titled, the light of your body.