By Maegan Thomas Verses Festival of Words is on now celebrating the transformative power of words: poetic, musical, comedic and all the genres in between and a few not yet invented. “I love that Verses…brings together so many different styles of poetry and such an array of voices and talents.” … Continued

The preliminary bouts are over and from the original field of 40 slam poets, 12 have advanced to the Finals, tonight at The Rio Theatre. The finalists competing to be the 2014 Canadian Individual Slam Champion will be: Andre Prefontaine Dia Davina Dana ID Matthews IF Sir Realist Liam Coady … Continued

It’s time to review all that VPH has done in 2013 and look forward to some of our plans for the future. This meeting is an ideal opportunity for members of the community to meet the VPH board, program directors, and find out more about how VPH operates. We’ll discuss … Continued

Dear Verses Festival Goers (And Vancouver community members)   If you have not yet seen the event posted, we would like to invite you to come out to Havana Theatre today at 3:00 pm to participate in a community conversation happening around the topic of physical and social accessibility within arts communities. … Continued

By: Maegan Thomas Verses Festival of Words is on April 5-12 on Commercial Drive, the heart – and funny bone – of Vancouver’s spoken word community. They ask the question for the ages What Rhymes with LOL? at at Havana Theatre April 8. Contributors to the recently launched Poetry Is … Continued

What a week this has been for the Verses Festival – and the party doesn’t officially start until Saturday! Everyone is talking about the festival and tickets are selling like crazy. In case you’ve missed any of the media articles, alerts, and pre-festival attention the events and the artists have … Continued

This article has only been up for 1 day, but we’ve already seen tickets sales take off – Thanks Georgia Straight!! The staff at the Georgia Straight have decided – and we definitely agree – that the Verses Festival of Words is their Arts Choice this week! So if you … Continued

Word is getting out about the Verses Festival!   Vancouverscape has done an AMAZING writeup about the Verses, including show information and videos of some of the festivals brightest stars. (Although, really, everyone involved or attending the Verses Festival is a star – obviously). Click here to get your daily … Continued

Get ready to share this will everyone you know! In this latest interview, the incomparable d’bi young talks about art, activism and love. Click here to watch it! Want more d’bi? Better come to the Verses Festival and get your tickets to Sounds Like Fire and the Spoken Word Masterclass … Continued

Vancouver poet Al Mader is no stranger to Verses or the Van Slam family, in fact he is appearing in the “Shut the Front Door” show with a number of other awesome spoken word artists. We know how hard it is to wait until April, so you can get your … Continued

The good news keeps on coming! We are super excited to share another interview with Ivan Coyote who is part of the duo (with Rae Spoon) that makes up Gender Failure. You can read about it here! If you haven’t bought your tickets for Gender Failure, you can get them … Continued

One of our most highly anticipated shows – Gender Failure – has already been touring festivals for a little while, but Verses is happy to host the official book launch! The festival is only a month away, but if you can’t wait for that, you can click here to read … Continued

To get you prepped for the onslaught of artistic awesomeness that’s coming your way in April, we’re running a series highlighting our amazing performers. Because you are busy and important, we’ll keep it short. 100 words or less, (almost) everything you need to know. Name: Cheryl Maddalena Hails from: Boise, Idaho Best … Continued

Check out this great interview of Zaccheus Jackson with Grounded Magazine: “Through that act of attrition by getting up there and just saying those words I made myself accountable to my community. And so I don’t have a shadow of a doubt that spoken word and this community right here, … Continued

To get you prepped for the onslaught of artistic awesomeness that’s coming your way in April, we’re running a series highlighting our amazing performers. Because you are busy and important, we’ll keep it short. 100 words or less, (almost) everything you need to know. Name: Zaccheus Jackson Hails from: Vancouver, British Columbia … Continued

This year, we are kicking our advertising efforts up a notch with awesome bus shelter ads all around the city! In addition – we are holding a photo contest and the prizes are Verses tickets and Festival Passes!! There are 10 ads in total which will be up starting from … Continued

The moment we’ve all been waiting for is finally here! 8 days and over 80 poets – the BIGGEST Verses Festival of Words  is coming to Vancouver April 5-12th with 34 events. Who’s going to be there, you ask? What kind of events are we talking about? CLICK HERE TO … Continued

This exciting event is happening in our city! This FRIDAY November 22nd, the city will announce the winner of the 2013 City of Vancouver Book Award. Best of all, there are 3 books of poetry on the short-list, including Ink on Paper by Brad Cran, The Ballad of Mrs. Smith … Continued

Applications are open for artists interested in featuring at the 2014 Verses Festival of Words. Next year’s festival will take place April 5–12, 2014 at venues surrounding Vancouver’s Commercial Drive neighbourhood. We’re looking for writers from all genres, especially those who are practicing in unconventional areas of the oral–literary spectrum. … Continued