San Antonio's West Side has spent the last few days leaning into hip hop, and if you missed it, here is what went down. The 3rd Annual Hip Hop We Don't Stop Summit took over Our Lady of the Lake University's West Side campus from October 15 to 17, running each evening from 4:30 to 8:30 p.m. at the International Folk Culture Center, tucked inside the Moye Arts and Recreation Center at 411 SW 24th St. The best part, and the part that made it easy to drop in: admission, food, and parking were all free, with registration also free through a Jotform link.
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The summit was built around hip hop's five elements — emceein', deejayin', breakin', stylewriting, and knowledge of self — and it didn't just talk about them; it let you work them. Thursday and Friday were the workshop days, and the lineup read like a who's who of the local scene. Andrea "Vocab" Sanderson, Mexstep, and Joaquin "Muerte" led sessions on lyrical expression and rhyme-building; Triz, Limon, and Ilash took on stylewriting; Dfoy Music and DJMrG walked people through sampling, beat-making, and music production; and Bboy Ninja, Bgirls Lboogie, and Cutie Pie held court on breakin'.
Running the thread through all of it was Dr. G. Beatriz "Triz" Rodríguez, OLLU's fall Artist in Residence, who tied the artistic elements back to education, identity, and creative communication. A San Antonio native and scholar with nearly 30 years of experience, her residency also includes a participatory installation in the IFCC Glass Gallery, with pieces titled "My Hip Hop Lit Review" and "The Writer's Bench." The whole thing wrapped on Saturday with a free Community Jam — graffiti art, breakin', live performances, and a hip hop cipher — which is about as natural a way to close a weekend like this as there is.
There was a clear point to all of it, too. Amber Ortega, coordinator of the International Folk Culture Center, framed the summit as a positive, affirming space for creative expression and community empowerment, leaning on OLLU's history of cultural convenings within the Mexican American, Chicano, and Westside communities. "Hip hop continues to teach the essential lesson that communities like the Westside of San Antonio have power, leverage, and voice when we work and express ourselves together," she said.
It also fits into a bigger picture. The summit is part of the El Segundo de Febrero (Second of February) commemoration, which honors the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo signed on February 2, 1848. That commemoration carries on with a five-day conference that includes restoring a mural at Cassiano Homes, a seed-blessing ceremony, and a screening of a short film by local filmmaker Laura Varela. The conference itself runs from February 2 to 6, so while the hip hop summit is an October event, it's a chapter in a year-round conversation about history and community on the West Side. If you want to keep tabs on what's next from the center, you can reach them at aeortega@ollusa.edu or 210-431-3922.
Published Date
18 October 2026
