The land of poetry spreads out far and vast. There’s a lot of territory to cover. You could spend a whole day just traveling from metaphor to extended metaphor. Then there’s rhyme and alliteration. Poets have spent years investigating the nooks and crannies of those areas. What about the magical land of improvisation? Or the dark arts of banter? What about the crafting of chapbooks? Or the martial discipline of mic technique?
There’s a lot to discover and if you’re a young, aspiring poet, this is your chance to travel through these lands with an experienced spoken word poet as your guide.
Alma VanDusen & Peter Kaye Rooms
Start: 10:00 AM
End: 12:30 PM
Adventures in Poetryland is a series of workshops on the different aspects of spoken word poetry. You sign up for the whole three-hour session, during which you’ll circulate through a series of games, lessons, and exercises that will help you expand your poetic range and learn a whole lot more about how wide and varied the territory of poetryland is.
Our All Star Slam poets – Johnny Trinh, Charlie C Petch, Dana I.D. Matthews, and Rabbit Richards – offer four different 45-minute workshops that will help push your writing and performance to another level. All participants take TWO (2) of the four workshops on offer. (Due to limited capacity, participants cannot be guaranteed their choice of workshop – but we’ll do our best!)
But how will you know which workshop to choose if you don’t know what workshops are on offer? Well, just keep reading and you’ll find out!
Adventures in Poetryland Workshops:
Finding Your Voice: Johnny Trinh
Dive into vocal technique!
This workshop will go over rudimentary and advanced exercises to help you find breath support, articulate sounds, and find appropriate vocal range to more effectively deliver your pieces. It will include some basic information on how you physically produce sound. You’ll learn quick techniques to do just before you step up to the mic, as well as exercises before/after performance, and while you PRACTICE so that you have good vocal health throughout your careers. Mild physical demand, completely accessible, all bodies and abilities welcome.
Love Your Embarrassment: Charlie C Petch
What makes us different should be what makes us the most proud.
Opening with the performance of a poem on the theme, this workshop offers you the chance to dive into the subjects that are “too embarrassing” to write about. After the opening poem, you’ll play icebreaker games that encourage you to talk about something you’ve been told is embarrassing, or feel is embarrassing. You’ll be encouraged to write about this like it’s the best darn thing in the world, then share the wonder with the other participants. This workshop is ALL about living up to the Youth Slam’s motto: Be brave! Be weird! Be yourself!
Examining the Heart of Your Poetry: Rabbit Richards
You’ve written a poem. You’ve put in effort to practice and possibly memorise it. You’ve even performed it once at a slam. But is the poem “done?”
This workshop delves into what makes a poem feel finished and how that evolves over the performance lifetime (both your own and the poem’s). You’ll examine the interplay between the emotional landscapes of the poem, yourself, and your audience. After reflecting on your own most frequently used performance tools, you’ll explore those of other poets as a means of expanding your performance toolset – and maybe the heart of your poems.
Rhyme or Reason: Dana I.D. Matthews
No matter how you spit, rhyming never hurts a bit!
Join Dana I.D. Matthews for an in-depth, hands-on exploration of rhyme. In this workshop, you’ll get to see how effortless and fun rhyming can be through a series of games that help you build rhyming maps, free-style stories, scheme up metrics, and create your own rhyming dictionary. Along the way, you’ll get to see rhyme in all its forms: whether as a fun way to play with words, or as a poetic device integral to many oral traditions.
This is event is open to all BC Youth aged 13 to 18. You must pre-register to attend. General registration will open on MONDAY, APRIL 10TH.
PLEASE NOTE: Pre-registration does not guarantee you entry into the workshop series. Registration will be available on a first come, first serve basis..
Accessibility info:
The VPL Central Branch has elevators to reach the downstairs rooms where the Hullabaloo events are being held. There are wheelchair accessible bathrooms. For more details, refer to their list of facilities.
