Verses 2026 – Festival Overview

Johnny D. Trinh, Artistic Director Statement:

The 2026 Verses Festival of Words marks the culmination of a four year vision of Executive Artistic Director, Johnny D Trinh, with the theme: Intimate Dialogues. Upon the return of in-person programming, the focus of the festival has been centred around gathering, community, shared learning, amplifying voices in solidarity, and being in space together. Intimate Dialogues examines the ways in which we share connections, consume content, and whisper resilience in the face of global silencing and genocide. 

The featured artists this year all have work that resonates with different facets of quiet resilience, agitation, intimacy, solidarity, and navigating shared space. 

This year, Hullabaloo returns with an all-star line-up of poets for the Youth Festival, featuring: Apollo the Child, Miel Enage, Becoming Christopher and Lady La Profeta.

The main Verses Festival programming will once again be hosted at Chill-X Studios. For a full listing of the festival program, please visit Upcoming Events.

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.