2025 festival artwork by @hellotoday.coffee
About Verses Festival of Words
Canada’s largest alternative literary arts festival, Verses Festival of Words offers up dynamic programming celebrating a broad definition of literary arts, including spoken word poetry, storytelling, page-based poetry, singer-songwriters, improvisers, and more. Come be swept away in a wave of word-bending wonder, where activism and art take centre stage. Experience the transformative power of words, written, spoken, and sung.
2025 Verses Festival of Words: April 10-19
Verses Festival of Words is Canada’s largest alternative literary festival bringing spoken word and page poets, storytellers, singer-songwriters and improvisers to Vancouver stages. 2025 will be our 15th annual festival! Our theme in 2025 is Amplify.
Join us at Verses and enjoy powerful performances from youth, emerging and established artists, as well as the excitement of the Canadian Individual Poetry Slam, Canada’s national slam championship Read more about the competition here.
All the artists curated for the festival are outstanding spoken word artists who are also committed to education and mentorship. Together, we will share poetry that guides us and allows us to rejoice in our creations. More details are coming soon.
The majority of events this year will be hosted at Chill X Studio. Accessibility information for this venue are posted on our Venue Accessibility page.
TICKETS, EVENT LISTINGS AND FESTIVAL INFORMATION CAN BE FOUND HERE.
Mission Statement
The mission of the Verses Festival of Words is to celebrate the transformative power of words – written, spoken or sung; to engage diverse groups in cutting-edge, live performances as both audience and participants; to present influential artists from both the oral and literary traditions, and to encourage the next generation of performers and writers. Verses embraces a wide definition of literature and orature that includes page-based poetry, spoken word, oral storytelling, and singer-songwriters.
Each year, as part of Verses, the best slam poets from across Canada come to Vancouver to compete in the Canadian Individual Slam Championship (CIPS). CIPS determines the nation’s best individual slam poet. Verses aims to serve this national community by staging CIPS in a way that ensures fairness and raises the profile of the slam movement in Canada.
The Verses Festival of Words is a program of Vancouver Poetry House, a registered non-profit organization with charitable status since 2005.
History
Originally called the Vancouver International Poetry Festival, the festival was launched in 2011. It included the first-ever official Canadian Individual Poetry Slam Championship as sponsored by Spoken Word Canada.
In 2012, the festival went through an extensive rebranding in conjunction with a community consultation project to rename the festival. After receiving over 250 entries, the festival directors narrowed the field to the three best contenders and the new name was chosen by the board of directors of Vancouver Poetry House. In the following months, the festival launched its new logo and a new website. The motto through the whole process was “Same great festival, new great name.”
Over the years, the festival has featured some of the best and brightest talents in spoken word, as well as helping launch the careers of many spoken word artists active in Canada today. Aside from programming a dynamic mix of emerging and established artists as features, he festival cultivates new talents through its Hullabaloo youth events, master classes and workshops, and robust community conversations and artist talks.
Since 2017, the festival has given out the Zaccheus Jackson Memorial Award to recognize through recognizing individuals who embrace, celebrate, and support the spoken word community in honour of the legacy of the late, great Zaccheus Jackson Nyce.