Vancouver's WOWps Grand Slam, ground rules

[admin]

Vancouver Poetry Slam will be sending a representative to the third annual Women of the World Poetry Slam (WOWps) held this year in Columbus, Ohio March 10-13 2009. Check out – http://www.wow.poetryslam.com – for more details.

The Vancouver WOWps Grand Slam will be run as the same format as last year in that you'll be asked to have 1 minute, 2 minute, 3 minute and 4 minute poems ready to compete with. There will be a 4-minute round, then a 2 minute round, then a 1 minute round, with no grace period for time in any of those rounds. If there is a tie, the tiebreaker round will be a three minute round.
 
The basic guidelines for participation in WOWps Vancouver play-offs is that if you live your life as a woman, and you consider yourself a woman then you are eligible. All competitors should be at least 18 years of age.
 
WOWps playoffs will be held on January 11, 2010 at Cafe Deux Soleils. The top 8 female poets will be allowed to compete. Christa Bell will be the feature.
 
We will be using a points system to qualify poets to compete. This is the same system that we used for WOWps qualifying last year.

You get points for every poet you beat at a Vancouver Poetry Slam between Sept 21st and January 4th regardless of their gender.  You get 1 point no matter what if you decide to be the sacrificial poet at the Van Slam.  You get 1 point no matter what just for participating.  Alt slams and youth slams don't count for points. The more you compete, the more points you get and the better chance you have of being one of the top 8. The results from the IWPS play-offs do not count toward WOWps rankings, just as they did not count toward the Van Slam team play-offs qualifying either.
 
It is a short qualifying season, so make sure you put yourself in the mix early. The nine qualifying slams are: September 21, October 5 & 19, November 2, 16 & 30, December 7 & 21, and January 4.

Participating this way does not alter your chances in making the Van Slam Playoffs in April and May.  The same system of rankings and scores that we have used for that event will be used for again this season.

If you have any questions, please contact one of your slammasters, Sean McGarragle or Duncan Shields.

Standings for the WOWps season will be included in the "Regular Season Standings & Scores" thread, found here:
http://vancouverpoetryhouse.com/forum/smf/index.php/topic,799.msg2654.html

[Shannon]

I noticed that at the main WOW event in Columbus, the rounds are set up quite differently than the WOW semi-finals in Vancouver.  Columbus Ohio WOW will start with a one minute round, followed by the 4 minute round.

In Vancouver, our WOW semi-finals will start with the 4 minute round.

Could we possibly switch our format so that we are more consistent with the main event, so as to give the women here some practice at starting off with a one minute poem?

I think that if we were consistent with the Columbus WOWs than whoever becomes the Vancouver representative will already have a little practise using the same format.  Its difficult to capture the attention of an audience in only one minute, so the more consistent we are here, the more prepared our west coast lady will be! 

Thoughts?

[Sean]

Remember, Wowps prelims in Columbus takes place over two days...which we unfortunately can't do with this playoff. I guess the figuring was that the poets of our community will be fine with three minute poems so we're having them do 4, 2 and 1 minute poems to better prepare them for Wowps. If we were to do it like they do at Wowps then we would have to add about 45 minutes to the show which would have us end by about 12ish...which is too late to be finishing at our venue.

If enough people want it to change though, we can look at doing the show next year (2011) without a feature and starting earlier and thus have some more time in which to work.

Thanks for bringing this up.

Sean

[Shannon]

Ya, I agree with not needing the 3 minute poem. I guess I was just thinking we could do it: 1 min, 4 minute; 2 minute

So the good news is that we have a wonderful and eclectic range of women participating in Vancouver WOW which includes:

1. Antonette
2. Julie Peters
3. Sonja Littlejohn
4. Shannon Rayne
5. Katrina
6. Lisa Slater
7. Tessa
8. Marcella

Just a quick point though, I haven't received an email from anyone telling me that I made it (its probably because you know me well enough to make the correct assumption that I check the forums, so I already know!)

Someone going to email the other women to let them know?
Are there any responsibilities we need to made aware of now before we participate (other than must be able to travel to the states)?

See you next Monday

[admin]

I've sent the full list to Duncan and Sean, and we've all begun to contact the women who have qualified.

Lisa Slater decided not to participate. Actually, she's been saying this since August (despite my protests) and also posted in the standings thread last week, officially declaring it. It looks as though Magpie Ulysses will take her place, as she's in ninth, tied with Anna Freeman, who went back to the UK after competing once and won't be in town. Magpie has indicated that she wants to compete and is willing to make the trip from Victoria to do it.

[Shannon]

GGGGreat!

[Lisa]

I am very excited to watch this show!!

[Sean]

I think we'll be doing the 4 minute round first, then the feature then a break then come back with the 2 minute round and then a lightning round for all the marbles...

[admin]

The fantabulous Julie Peters!

She will move on to represent Vancouver at the Women of the World poetry slam held in Columbus, Ohio (she may or may not choose to perform in the fleecetard).

Congratulations to all the poets who competed. The night was awash in great poetry. Best show of the winter so far, I believe. A huge thanks to Jessica Mason-Paull for going full out, decorating the whole café and making us all shout "Vagina!" over and over again. And to Lisa Slater for rocking the house with a great feature set!

I'll post the full scores when I get them from the slam bag, which will probably be later this week.

[Duncan Shields]

Epic night.  Epic win.  Congratulations.  Rock 'em sock 'em in Columbus!

[RCW]

I suggest Julie bring the unitard to Columbus.

[admin]

Here are the scores. The numbers in brackets are the position each performer had in each round. The order was 4-minute poems, 2-minute poems, 1-minute poems.

Sac: Chelsea Johnson 22.4
Shannon Rayne (1) 27.0 + (8 ) 29.1 + (8 ) 28.1 = 84.2 Third
Marcela (2) 25.6 + (7) 29.0 + (3) 27.5 = 82.1 Sixth
Julie Peters (3) 28.3 + (6) 28.4 + (1) 29.0 = 85.7 First
Antonette (4) 27.4 + (5) 28.7 + (5) 28.0 = 84.1 Fourth
Tessa (5) 27.8 + (4) 27.2 + (7) 27.2 = 82.2 Fifth
Magpie Ulysses (6) 28.7 + (3) 28.3 + (2) 27.6 = 84.6 Second
Katrina (7) 26.2 + (2) 28.0 + (6) 27.1 = 81.3 Seventh
Sonya Littlejohn (8)26.2 + (1) 27.3 + (4) 27.7 = 81.2 Eighth