Canadian Festival of Spoken Word

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Saturday, October 18th, 2014
Monday, Oct. 13: 8 PM - Midnight Tuesday, Oct. 14: 12 PM - 1 AM Wednesday, Oct. 15: 12 PM - 1 AM Thursday, Oct. 16: 12 PM - 1 AM Friday, Oct. 17: 12 PM - 11 PM Saturday, Oct. 18: 12 PM - 11 PM

Canadian Festival of Spoken Word:

The Canadian Festival of Spoken Word will see Canada's best spoken word artists descend upon the city of Victoria to celebrate the art of spoken word, and 22 teams of poets compete to determine the Canadian poetry slam champions for 2014.  The festival begins on October 13th and runs until October 18th, with events at Rifflandia HQ, Victoria Event Centre, and the Alix Goolden Hall.

Starting on a high note, the first event of the festival will be "How Many Laureates Does It Take to Change the World?"  Hosted by current and former Victoria Youth Poet Laureates, Morgan Purvis and Aysia Law, this event will feature the poet laureates of four Canadian cities: Janet Rogers (Victoria), Mary Pinkoski (Edmonton), Kris Demeanor (Calgary), and El Jones (Halifax).  This event will take place at Victoria Event Centre, starting at 8 PM, and will be followed by the "Last Chance Slam," a poetry slam in which the 22nd team of the tournament will be formed.

Over the course of the week, these 22 teams will compete in a round-robin style tournament, featuring four-round, four-team poetry slams.  These competitions will be happening at Rifflandia HQ and Victoria Event Centre, from Tuesday to Thursday, with two at 7 PM and two at 9 PM.  Friday, October 17, at Alix Goolden Hall, the top eight teams will compete in two heats of four to determine which teams will compete in the National Slam Finals, taking place on Saturday night, again at Alix Goolden.

The national finals on October 18 will feature performances from the festival's poets of honour, internationally-acclaimed Métis artist Moe Clark, and four-time national champion and 2014 World Cup of Poetry champion Ikenna "OpenSecret" Onyegbula.

Tuesday, October 14th, will include a showcase of video-poems, "Pictures of Sound," featuring Victoria's Jeremy Loveday, as well as Canadian spoken word luminary Sheri-D Wilson and 2010 World Cup of Poetry champion Ian Keteku.  For the night owls, there's Mashed Poetics 22: The Tragically Hip's "Up to Here" at 11 PM at Victoria Event Centre.  In this event, a band will cover The Tragically Hip's "Up to Here," while eleven poets perform new work inspired by the songs from this classic Canadian album.

Wednesday, October 15th, will feature a showcase of surrealist spoken word at 4 PM at Rifflandia HQ.  After the national poetry slam competitions that night, at Victoria Event Centre at 11 PM, one of Canada's top hip hop performers, Kia Kadiri, will headline a night of hip hop performance, "Beat Rhythm.

Thursday, October 16th, Victoria Event Centre will see 2 Dope Boys in a Cadillac (shayne avec i grec and Johnny MacRae) perform their theatrical spoken word show, "The Anthropocalypse: A Psychedelic Talk Opera," as well as Magpie Ulysses, accompanied by James Lamb, perform her show "Past Presence; Pleiotropy & the impossible cycle of being."  This double-header will take place at 4 PM.  Later that evening, at 11 PM, the event RELEASE! will feature one of Canada's top guitarists, Megan Lane, releasing her album Sounding the Animal (produced by Hawksley Workman).

Friday's highlights include "The Youth is On Fire!" a showcase of some of Canada's top up-and-coming spoken word artists, including Toronto's Patrick de Belen and Vancouver's Floyd VB, while Saturday afternoon features a quartet of artists, Justin McGrail, Robin Davies, Kevin Mazutinec, and Marian van der Zon performing their pscyhedelic collaboration, "Meridian," both at 4 PM at Rifflandia HQ.

As an added bonus, at 12 PM each day, the festival will feature Master Classes for those interested in developing their spoken word chops, or learning to get started.  In addition, there will be talk-backs, panel discussions, and opportunities to meet and experience some of Canada's best spoken word artists.