Devon Goodman Memorial: Open Mic Feat. Jeremy Loveday and Shauntelle Dick-Charleson
2023-05-29 20:00 - 22:00 (America/Vancouver) | community pizza, 1191 Commercial Dr, Vancouver, BC, V5N 4A8
TICKETS
Join us for our open mic night in memorial of Devon Goodman. This event will feature up and coming poet, Shauntelle, and Jeremy Loveday.
Devon Goodman was a lifelong poet, who found his truest inspiration in the Vancouver Slam Poetry community in 2007. Devon started the Maple Ridge Poetry Slam while still in high school, inspired by poets he saw gracing the Vancouver stage at the time. He was a gregarious member of the local recovery community, and in his memory, his family would like to offer support to gay youth struggling with addiction. He passed in November of 2021, and we honour his memory and his works in this event
A bit about Shauntelle:My name is Shauntelle/Huupquestaah/TSAYŁE I am a 20 year old who got into poetry 5 years ago Pronouns are She/Her. I come from Hesquiaht and Songhees. I am a soccer player and basketball player who enjoys poetry. I moved over here about 2 years ago now to go to school and graduated the spa esthetics program at Blanche Macdonald in January 2022. I’ve gone to CFWS with the Vic slam team and placed 8th in nationals back in 2019. I also have two poems in the Aboriginal Voices 2 book. My poetry Instagram account is Shauntelle_poetry.
A bit about Jeremy: Jeremy Loveday is a poet, arts educator, and community builder from Victoria, BC, on the territory of the lәk’wәŋәn People. He founded and served as the longtime artistic director of the Victorious Voices youth poetry festival. Jeremy’s dynamic performances earned him the title of Victoria Poetry Slam Grand Champion three times. In 2020, he was honoured with the Zaccheus Jackson Nyce Memorial Award. His work has been published in reputable platforms such as Huffington Post, CV 2, Funicular Magazine, National Observer, CBC, Claudia, and Best Canadian Poetry 2023. Jeremy eagerly anticipates the release of his first full-length book of poems, forthcoming from Write Bloody North.
This is a hybrid event! Join us in person at Community Taps + Pizza (1191 Commercial Dr.) or online via zoom. Join us for our open mic night.
Sign up to read starts at 7:30 both in person and online. See you there!

Venue Accessibility
Masking Policy: Masks are strongly encouraged, but the venue is a restaurant and members of the audience will be maskless.
Van slam takes place on the Unceded, stolen Lands of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh Nations and we wish to acknowledge & thank those people who have been stewards of this land since time immemorial. Van Slam is committed to engaging in the internal and external work of reconciliation.

Masterclass in Reading and Performance with Johnny D Trinh
2023-06-01 19:00 - 21:30 | Historic Joy Kogawa House, 1450 West 64th Avenue, Vancouver, Canada
Date and time: Thursday, June 1, 2023, 7 – 9:30pm PDT
Location: Historic Joy Kogawa House, 1450 West 64th Avenue Vancouver
TICKETS
This workshop is a great opportunity for writers of all genres to improve their public reading and performance skills. Johnny will offer all participants a range of tools, exercises, and questions to consider how they can present authentically while maintaining audience engagement.
Areas covered:

Vocal technique: breath support, articulation, and embodiment
Stage: basic mic technique and staging, stage presence
Reading & Performance: how to adapt your delivery to match the genre you’re presenting

Requirements:

All bodies and abilities are welcome, we will do our utmost to provide adaptations within our ability, please let us know in advance if possible. Email info@kogawahouse.com.
Come with a piece of writing up to 2 minutes worth in length, ideally your own, but for the sake of this workshop, anything is fine.

This workshop is presented in partnership with Vancouver Poetry House with funding from Heritage Canada

VanSlam: Open Mic feat Angelicunt
2023-06-05 20:00 - 22:00 | community pizza, 1191 Commercial Dr, Vancouver, BC, V5N 4A8
TICKETS
Come join us for another night of slam poetry! As always, our event is in our hybrid live & online format. Bring your selves and your words to Community Pizza, 1191 Commercial Dr, or to the Van Slam zoom space.

We will also have a live feature set from the amazing Angelicunt!

A bit about them:
Angelicunt [they/t/he/m] is a loud clown mouth spoken word poet who encodes their work with magical potential– summoning all cryptic queers, witches, switches, and trancestors with rhythm, repetition and unwounding. A mix of play, gay and music, Angelicunt seeks to shadow work, transmute, and expel through poetry and performance. Except some jubilance, distress, and a whole lot of rebecoming. Some of Angelicunt’s performance highlights include: opening act for Shane Koyzcan at the Vogue Theatre with their trio Tiny Tricycle Poets, performing in the 2SLGBTQ+ Word Poetry Slam Championship showcase in Brussels and featuring in the Lila Queer Arts Festival in Switzerland.

Doors will open @ 7 pm both in person & online, show starts @ 8 pm.
Sign up to read will start at 7:30 both in person and online.

Tix for our live event are $10-15 sliding scale, online tix are pay what you can.
Both online and live tix in advance can be found here: Tickets
Or just head on down and get a ticket at the door!

Masking Policy:
Masks are strongly encouraged, but the venue is a restaurant and members of the audience will be maskless.

VanSlam: Slam and open Mic feat. Kay
2023-06-12 20:00 - 22:00 | community pizza, 1191 Commercial Dr, Vancouver, BC, V5N 4A8
TICKETS
Come join us for another night of slam poetry! As always, our event is in our hybrid live & online format. Bring your selves and your words to Community Pizza, 1191 Commercial Dr, or to the Van Slam zoom space.

We will also have a live feature set from the amazing Kay!

A bit about them:
Kay, is a performance artist trying to live in the space beyond gender inclusion, toward a more radical reimagining of self. For them, performance is a way to explore all the messy grey areas of identity, using poetry and comedy to play with the perceptions and expectations attached to the genders we were given, as well as the ones we have chosen for ourselves.

Doors will open @ 7 pm both in person & online, show starts @ 8 pm.
Sign up to read will start at 7:30 both in person and online.

Tix for our live event are $10-15 sliding scale, online tix are pay what you can.
Both online and live tix in advance can be found here: Tickets
Or just head on down and get a ticket at the door!

Masking Policy:
Masks are strongly encouraged, but the venue is a restaurant and members of the audience will be maskless.

VanSlam: Open Mic feat. Spillious
2023-06-19 20:00 - 22:00 | community pizza, 1191 Commercial Dr, Vancouver, BC, V5N 4A8
TICKETS
Come join us for another night of poetry, and for a birthday party!! This event happens to be our featured poet’s 50th- come out and celebrate Spillious, enjoy some poetry, and some good times! As always, our event is in our hybrid live & online format. Bring your selves and your words to Community Pizza, 1191 Commercial Dr, or to the Van Slam zoom space!

A bit about Spillious:
Spillious aka Trevana Spilchen is a Trans feminine settler educator, parent, musician and spoken word artist of Ukrainian and Irish decent. They won the 2017 Grand Slam Championship of the Vancouver Poetry slam and finished 6th at the 2018 Canadian Individual Poetry Slam. They have toured as a featured poet all throughout Canada and the US. Spillious has released 3 chapbooks of poetry and the last, Tales of Trans-formation sold 200 copies. For the last 2 years they have been shepherding the return of poetry slam in Vancouver as the Slam Coordinator for Vancouver Poetry House and the Tournament Director for the Canadian Individual Poetry Slam Championships. Most importantly, Spillious is a parent to 4 kids ranging in age from 5 yrs to 23 yrs old and 4 cats named Cola, Orange Crush, Dr. Pepper & Rootbeer!

Doors will open @ 7 pm both in person & online, show starts @ 8 pm.
Sign up to read will start at 7:30 both in person and online.

Tix for our live event are $10-15 sliding scale, online tix are pay what you can.
Both online and live tix in advance can be found here: Tickets
Or just head on down and get a ticket at the door!

Masking Policy:
Masks are strongly encouraged, but the venue is a restaurant and members of the audience will be maskless.

VanSlam: Slam and Open Mic feat. Luna Piscetta
2023-06-26 20:00 - 22:00 | community pizza, 1191 Commercial Dr, Vancouver, BC, V5N 4A8
TICKETS
Come join us for another night of slam poetry! As always, our event is in our hybrid live & online format. Bring your selves and your words to Community Pizza, 1191 Commercial Dr, or to the Van Slam zoom space.

We will also have a live feature set from the amazing Luna!

A bit about them:
Luna Piscetta (she.they) is a white settler of Italian and British ancestry who resides as an uninvited guest on Lekwungen and WSANEC land, colonially known as Victoria, BC. She bounces through life and art with varying degrees of grace and aspires to live life as a performance of love. Her creative work (spoken word, dance, drag, design) often involves movement/flow and emotion and is rooted in her body’s wisdom gained through resistance as a transfeminine, queer and neurodivergent human as well as her experience in sex work, in vulnerable communities and as a substance user. Raw, electric and visceral, her art has been shared on the Canadian Individual Poetry Slam stage as well as found in bookstores, coffee shops, bedrooms, and bathroom stalls. When Luna isn’t making art you can generally find her thrifting for deals, procrastinating and eating sour candy. You can follow her poetic escapades on insta @ma.amgram and her drag offerings @hymen_trouble.

Doors will open @ 7 pm both in person & online, show starts @ 8 pm.
Sign up to read will start at 7:30 both in person and online.

Tix for our live event are $10-15 sliding scale, online tix are pay what you can.
Both online and live tix in advance can be found here: Tickets
Or just head on down and get a ticket at the door!

Masking Policy:
Masks are strongly encouraged, but the venue is a restaurant and members of the audience will be maskless.

VanSlam: Open Mic Featuring LJ Weisberg
2023-07-03 20:00 - 22:00 | Community Taps & Pizza, 1191 Commercial Dr, Vancouver, BC, V5L 3X3, Canada
TICKETS
VanSlam is a space to come see a fantastic spoken word feature set & share your words on the open mic or slam competition!
Come join us for another night of slam poetry! As always, our event is in our hybrid live & online format. Bring yourselves and your words to Community Pizza, 1191 Commercial Dr, or to the Van Slam zoom space.
A bit about our feature artist: LJ Weisberg is a Chinese adoptee and trans-masculine artist residing on the lands of the Lekwungen speaking people, colonially known as Victoria, BC. Their complex intersections of identity inform their work, which focuses on the subject of searching for belonging, both in the physical, interpersonal and metaphorical. They have featured notably at Kwantlen’s SpeakTruth, Word Vancouver, Mashed Poetics and The Growing Room Festival. Their publications include nonfiction and poetry pieces in UVIC’s This Side of West, KPU’s PulpMag, Adoption Canada and Write Bloody North.
This is a hybrid event! Join us in person at Community Taps + Pizza (1191 Commercial Dr.) or online via zoom.
Signup to read starts at 7:30 both in person and online. See you there!
Venue Accessibility
Masking Policy: Masks are encouraged, but the venue is a restaurant and members of the audience will be maskless.
VanSlam takes place on the Unceded, stolen Lands of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh Nations and we wish to acknowledge & thank those people who have been stewards of this land since time immemorial. Van Slam is committed to engaging in the internal and external work of reconciliation.

VanSlam: Double Feat. and Slam Competition with Andre Prefontaine and Matthew Kee
2023-07-10 20:00 - 22:00 | Community Taps & Pizza, 1191 Commercial Dr, Vancouver, BC, V5L 3X3, Canada
TICKETS
Come join us for another night of slam poetry! As always, our event is in our hybrid live & online format. Bring yourselves and your words to Community Pizza, 1191 Commercial Dr, or to the Van Slam zoom space.
A bit about our feature artists:
At the age of 32 Andre Prefontaine has never contributed to an RRSP, maintains ten-years of sobriety, studies astrology, is becoming misanthropic, and believes in ghosts because all the pieces of him that have died have got to go somewhere. Obtaining external forms of validation to remedy internal strife, Andre Prefontaine succeeded in winning a total of seven Slam Poetry championship titles. Two-time C.F.S.W winner (once as team captain and once as a coach), two consecutive Underground championships win, two Haiku Deathmatch titles, and one C.I.P.S championship which allowed him the chance to represent Canada at the “Coupe Du Monde” world cup of Slam in Paris, France where, midway through the competition, he realized he was a vampant, empty shell seeking other people’s approval and thus losing the self-important drive which had seen him to that point. He did place fourth, though.
Matthew Kee is a Toronto-born writer and poet who found his heart in Montreal and his voice in Vancouver. He moves cities every 4 months and this is confusing for everyone, especially people who send him mail. He has competed at the Vancouver, Calgary, and Guelph poetry slams and won 3rd place at the 2023 Van Slam Finals. He also competed at the 2023 Canadian Individual Poetry Slam where he realized he needed a cool stage name, at which point it was too late. Matthew writes about queerness, family, and growing up Chinese-Canadian. He is in his final year of studying engineering at the University of Waterloo and comes to poetry slams to escape the other engineers.
This is a hybrid event! Join us in person at Community Taps + Pizza (1191 Commercial Dr.) or online via zoom.
Sign up to read starts at 7:30 both in person and online. See you there!
Venue Accessibility
Masking Policy: Masks are encouraged, but the venue is a restaurant and members of the audience will be maskless.
VanSlam takes place on the Unceded, stolen Lands of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh Nations and we wish to acknowledge & thank those people who have been stewards of this land since time immemorial. Van Slam is committed to engaging in the internal and external work of reconciliation.

VanSlam: Open Mic Featuring Tawahum
2023-07-17 20:00 - 22:00 | Community Taps & Pizza, 1191 Commercial Dr, Vancouver, BC, V5L 3X3, Canada
TICKETS
Come join us for another night of slam poetry! As always, our event is in our hybrid live & online format. Bring yourselves and your words to Community Pizza, 1191 Commercial Dr, or to the Van Slam zoom space.
A bit about our feature artist: Tawahum Bige is a Łutselkʼe Dene, Plains Cree spoken word poet and hip-hop artist from unceded Musqueam, Squamish & Tsleil-Waututh Territory (CKA Vancouver). A Two Spirit, Nonbinary Scorpio-moon’s angst guides them to tell their most soul-rending truth to you, to self and to power with an abundant love and reciprocity with the land. Their single, Connect2Spirit, charted #1 on Indigenous Music Countdown in June 2022. Having opened for Kimmortal and Vivek Shraya, Tawahum’s also performed for Talking Stick Festival for several years. They have a book of poems called Cut to Fortress! Find them online @Tawahum on streaming platforms, Instagram, Twitter and more. His debut hip-hop album, Bottled Lightning, emerges May 5th, so keep those ears keen!
Sign up to read starts at 7:30 both in person and online. See you there!
Venue Accessibility
Masking Policy: Masks are encouraged, but the venue is a restaurant and members of the audience will be maskless.
VanSlam takes place on the Unceded, stolen Lands of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh Nations and we wish to acknowledge & thank those people who have been stewards of this land since time immemorial. Van Slam is committed to engaging in the internal and external work of reconciliation.

VanSlam: Feat. Braedon George Lowey and Slam
2023-07-24 20:00 - 22:00 | Community Taps & Pizza, 1191 Commercial Dr, Vancouver, BC, V5L 3X3, Canada
TICKETS
Come join us for another night of slam poetry! As always, our event is in our hybrid live & online format. Bring yourselves and your words to Community Pizza, 1191 Commercial Dr, or to the Van Slam zoom space.
A bit about our feature artist: Braedon George Lowey was born in rural Saskatchewan, which never made sense to him or anyone else. After growing up as a theatre kid, he moved to Vancouver and began applying his love of performance to spoken word. During the pandemic he retreated to begin a Bachelor’s Degree in English at the University of Victoria, and now practices and studies poetry with a growing understanding of what it can do. Through an earnest and vulnerable approach, George writes about mental health, psychology, love, grief, and what it means to be on this earth, in order to dissect his own patterns while synthesizing his unique experiences of the human condition with others.
Sign up to read starts at 7:30 both in person and online. See you there!
Venue Accessibility
Masking Policy: Masks are encouraged, but the venue is a restaurant and members of the audience will be maskless.
VanSlam takes place on the Unceded, stolen Lands of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh Nations and we wish to acknowledge & thank those people who have been stewards of this land since time immemorial. Van Slam is committed to engaging in the internal and external work of reconciliation.

VanSlam: Open Mic Feat. Janice Jo Lee
2023-07-31 20:00 - 22:00 | Community Taps & Pizza, 1191 Commercial Dr, Vancouver, BC, V5L 3X3, Canada
TICKETS
Come join us for another night of slam poetry! As always, our event is in our hybrid live & online format. Bring yourselves and your words to Community Pizza, 1191 Commercial Dr, or to the Van Slam zoom space.
A bit about our feature artist: Janice Jo Lee (she/they) is a contemporary folk musician, spoken word poet, bouffon-clown, activist, and educator living in Toronto, Ontario. She performs with her guitar, trumpet and loop pedal. She is a queer, 2nd generation settler of Korean descent. Lee’s artwork explores gender empowerment, workers rights, antiracism, climate change, and community. This year she releases her long anticipated song cycle album titled Ancestor Song. Lee is the founding artistic director of the Kitchener-Waterloo Poetry Slam and has featured at slams across Canada.
Sign up to read starts at 7:30 both in person and online. See you there!
Venue Accessibility
Masking Policy: Masks are encouraged, but the venue is a restaurant and members of the audience will be maskless.
VanSlam takes place on the Unceded, stolen Lands of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh Nations and we wish to acknowledge & thank those people who have been stewards of this land since time immemorial. Van Slam is committed to engaging in the internal and external work of reconciliation.

VanSlam: Open Mic feat. Daniel Mark Patterson
2023-08-07 20:00 - 22:00 | Community Taps & Pizza, 1191 Commercial Dr, Vancouver, BC, V5L 3X3, Canada
TICKETS
Come join us for another night of poetry! As always, our event is in our hybrid live & online format. Bring yourselves and your words to Community Pizza, 1191 Commercial Dr, or to the Van Slam zoom space.
This event is an open mic with a feature set from Daniel Mark Patterson!
A bit about them: Daniel Mark Patterson (DMP) had his life changed profoundly when he stumbled into Café Deux Soleils one Monday in the May of 2008. In the last 15 years he has performed on National and International stages, done poetry tours, published chapbooks, done Fringe and Theatre shows, been on poetry slam teams, crafted cine-poems, published poetry for notable literary journals and won awards. He is currently writing his first novel which he is hopeful to finish by the end of the year. He finds it a delicious irony that he has such difficulty with these bios when all of his writing is about identity in one form or another, his adventures bumbling through life and figuring out exactly who he is along the way. He is grateful to be back featuring in Vancouver where this whole crazy journey began in the first place.
Sign up to read starts at 7:30 both in person and online. See you there!
Venue Accessibility
Masking Policy: Masks are encouraged, but the venue is a restaurant and members of the audience will be maskless.
VanSlam takes place on the Unceded, stolen Lands of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh Nations and we wish to acknowledge & thank those people who have been stewards of this land since time immemorial. Van Slam is committed to engaging in the internal and external work of reconciliation.

2023 Annual General Meeting
2023-08-12 15:00 - 16:00 | British Columbia
Vancouver Poetry House Annual General Meeting will be held on Saturday, August 12th at 3pm. The public is welcome to this meeting which will be hybrid. To attend online please register at
https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/vancouver-poetry-house-annual-general-meeting-tickets-677587310887

The in-person event will be held at Grandview-Woodlands Community Place, 1655 William Street ,Vancouver.
Venue Access

If you would like to vote you must become a member of the society before July 22.
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdnu_d2B79ADkQtTC0e0pNSDW6HnnpaqwloUFhtgsmYmwkxbw/viewform

***Note the time has been changed to 3pm.***

VanSlam: Slam and Open Mic feat. RC Weslowski
2023-08-14 20:00 - 22:00 | Community Taps & Pizza, 1191 Commercial Dr, Vancouver, BC, V5L 3X3, Canada
TICKETS

Come join us for another night of slam poetry! As always, our event is in our hybrid live & online format. Bring yourselves and your words to Community Pizza, 1191 Commercial Dr, or to the Van Slam zoom space.
This event will include an open mic and slam, as well as a feature set from poet RC Weslowski!
A bit about our feature artist:
RC Weslowski is the 2021 Zaccheus Jackson Nyce Memorial Award Winner and the 2016 Sheri-D Wilson Golden Beret Award Winner and a 2 time World Cup of Poetry Slam Finalist. RC co-hosts the radio program Wax Poetic on Co Op Radio. His first collection of poetry “My Soft Response to the Wars” is available now from Write Bloody North Publishing www.writebloodynorth.ca

Tickets are available online, or at the door!

Sign up to read starts at 7:30 both in person and online. See you there!
Venue Accessibility
Masking Policy: Masks are encouraged, but the venue is a restaurant and members of the audience will be maskless.
VanSlam takes place on the Unceded, stolen Lands of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh Nations and we wish to acknowledge & thank those people who have been stewards of this land since time immemorial. Van Slam is committed to engaging in the internal and external work of reconciliation.

VanSlam: Open Mic feat. Magpie Ulysses
2023-08-21 20:00 - 22:00 | Community Taps & Pizza, 1191 Commercial Dr, Vancouver, BC, V5L 3X3, Canada
CLICK HERE FOR TICKETS

Come join us for another night of slam poetry! As always, our event is in our hybrid live & online format. Bring yourselves and your words to Community Pizza, 1191 Commercial Dr, or to the Van Slam zoom space.
This event will include an open mic, as well as a feature set from poet Magpie Ulysses!
A bit about our featured artist:
Writer, Rabble Rouser, fancy talker; Magpie began performing poems at the age of 17 to save her life. She has performed across North America and is a veteran of the national poetry slam community in Canada where she was a member of two national champion Vancouver poetry slam teams. She was named a Poet of Honour at the Canadian festival Of Spoken Word in the Fall of 2012.
A bit of a witch, a nature freak and an activist at heart, Magpie is known for her visceral, often surrealist writings that extend from the everyday human experience into the depths of natural and inanimate worlds. Magpie has spent much of the past decade heavily involved in the arts while living in and around rural BC, Alberta & Southern Ontario. She has spent the past few years raising a new human and more than a decade caring for her grandmother through Alzheimer’s disease. Her latest work seeks questions surrounding genetic memory, placemaking, grief, aging, our place in the natural world, survival, and the imminent undoing of our species.

Tickets are available online, or at the door!

Sign up to read starts at 7:30 both in person and online. See you there!
Venue Accessibility
Masking Policy: Masks are encouraged, but the venue is a restaurant and members of the audience will be maskless.
VanSlam takes place on the Unceded, stolen Lands of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh Nations and we wish to acknowledge & thank those people who have been stewards of this land since time immemorial. Van Slam is committed to engaging in the internal and external work of reconciliation.

VanSlam: Slam and Open Mic feat. Matt Loeb
2023-08-28 20:00 - 22:00 | Community Taps & Pizza, 1191 Commercial Dr, Vancouver, BC, V5L 3X3, Canada
TICKETS

Come join us for another night of slam poetry! As always, our event is in our hybrid live & online format. Bring yourselves and your words to Community Pizza, 1191 Commercial Dr, or to the Van Slam zoom space.
This event will include an open mic and slam, as well as a feature set from poet Matt Loeb!
A bit about our featured artist: Currently located in Perth Western Australia Matt Loeb originally hails from Windsor, Ontario and was a regular performer and host at the Vancouver Poetry Slam from 2013-2019. An energetic performer, Matt’s spoken word blends humour and heartfelt optimism with a kinetic verbal delivery. His work varies between structured wordplay and free flowing satire. Matt Loeb published his first full length spoken word album “Enough Has Happened” in 2013. He was a finalist at the Canadian Individual Poetry Slam in 2014 and 2017 and coached the 2018 Vancouver Youth Poetry Slam Team. Matt is also one of only three Canadian poets to complete the “Century Challenge” of writing and performing 100 poems, in competition, without repeating. In 2015 he founded the Windsor Poetry Slam to connect his hometown with the wider Canadian Poetry Community.

Tickets are available online, or at the door!

Sign up to read starts at 7:30 both in person and online. See you there!
Venue Accessibility
Masking Policy: Masks are encouraged, but the venue is a restaurant and members of the audience will be maskless.
VanSlam takes place on the Unceded, stolen Lands of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh Nations and we wish to acknowledge & thank those people who have been stewards of this land since time immemorial. Van Slam is committed to engaging in the internal and external work of reconciliation.

VanSlam: Open Mic Featuring Fernando Raguero
2023-09-04 19:30 - 22:00 | Community Taps & Pizza, 1191 Commercial Dr, Vancouver, BC, V5L 3X3, Canada
TICKETS

Come join us for another night of slam poetry! As always, our event is in our hybrid live & online format. Bring yourselves and your words to Community Pizza, 1191 Commercial Dr, or to the Van Slam zoom space.
This event will include an open mic as well as a feature set from poet Fernando Raguero!
A bit about our featured artist: Fernando Raguero is a long time regular in the Vancouver Poetry slam scene. He has authored 8 poetry chapbooks and is a two time haiku death match champion. Fernando has been a member of two Vancouver poetry slam teams and co-founded the Crotchless Diaper Hotdog eating contest. Raguero serves up irreverent verse and has a wildly comical view of reality. His favourite yoga pose is saddle. He has his moments.

Tickets are available online, or at the door!

Sign up to read starts at 7:30 both in person and online. See you there!
Venue Accessibility
Masking Policy: Masks are encouraged, but the venue is a restaurant and members of the audience will be maskless.
VanSlam takes place on the Unceded, stolen Lands of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh Nations and we wish to acknowledge & thank those people who have been stewards of this land since time immemorial. Van Slam is committed to engaging in the internal and external work of reconciliation.

VanSlam: Slam and Open Mic Featuring Johnny MacRae
2023-09-11 19:30 - 22:00 | Community Taps & Pizza, 1191 Commercial Dr, Vancouver, BC, V5L 3X3, Canada
TICKETS

Come join us for another night of slam poetry! As always, our event is in our hybrid live & online format. Bring yourselves and your words to Community Pizza, 1191 Commercial Dr, or to the Van Slam zoom space.
This event will include an open mic and slam, as well as a feature set from poet Johnny MacRae!
A bit about our featured artist: Johnny MacRae is a mouthy poet of Gaelic ancestry who lives on the the unceded ancestral territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), səl̓ilwətaɁɬ (Tsleil-waututh), and sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish) nations.
Since arriving on the Van Slam stage in 2009, Johnny has won regional and national slam titles. He has toured widely and tirelessly, both solo and as a member of psychedelic talk rock duo 2 Dope Boys in a Cadillac. Although best known for his high energy and humorous poems, Johnny is a versatile artist whose work ranges from absurdist fantasy and irreverent satire, to quiet self-reflection and profane mysticism, and from poetry slam, to site-specific storytelling, to spoken word theatre.

Tickets are available online, or at the door!

Sign up to read starts at 7:30 both in person and online. See you there!
Venue Accessibility
Masking Policy: Masks are encouraged, but the venue is a restaurant and members of the audience will be maskless.
VanSlam takes place on the Unceded, stolen Lands of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh Nations and we wish to acknowledge & thank those people who have been stewards of this land since time immemorial. Van Slam is committed to engaging in the internal and external work of reconciliation.

VanSlam: Open Mic Featuring Anjalica Solomon
2023-09-18 19:30 - 22:00 | Community Taps & Pizza, 1191 Commercial Dr, Vancouver, BC, V5L 3X3, Canada
TICKETS

Come join us for another night of slam poetry! As always, our event is in our hybrid live & online format. Bring yourselves and your words to Community Pizza, 1191 Commercial Dr, or to the Van Slam zoom space.
This event will include an open mic as well as a feature set from poet Anjalica Solomon!
A bit about our featured artist: Anjalica Solomon is a joyful and experimental poetress who resides on unceded land, colonially known as Vancouver BC. She plays with storytelling both on and off the page as a poet, loop pedalist, singer, and collage artist. Anjalica is the author of “Looking Within the Labyrinth” a self-published poetry chapbook that explores the nature of separation and the labyrinth of one’s own resilience and has been published in local publications and zines.

Tickets are available online, or at the door!

Sign up to read starts at 7:30 both in person and online. See you there!
Venue Accessibility
Masking Policy: Masks are encouraged, but the venue is a restaurant and members of the audience will be maskless.
VanSlam takes place on the Unceded, stolen Lands of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh Nations and we wish to acknowledge & thank those people who have been stewards of this land since time immemorial. Van Slam is committed to engaging in the internal and external work of reconciliation.

VanSlam: Open Mic and Slam featuring Navi Dha
2023-09-25 19:30 - 22:00 | Community Taps & Pizza, 1191 Commercial Dr, Vancouver, BC, V5L 3X3, Canada
TICKETS

Come join us for another night of slam poetry! As always, our event is in our hybrid live & online format. Bring yourselves and your words to Community Pizza, 1191 Commercial Dr, or to the Van Slam zoom space.
This event will include an open mic as well as a feature set from poet Navi Dha!
Loud and proud trans woman, Navi Dha, is a Canadian poet who addresses themes of gender identity, sexuality, heartbreak, grief, trauma, and the healing powers of chosen family in her works. Navi has a passion for spoken word. Her pieces are a beautiful mix of slam poetry and storytelling.

Outside of her artistic expression, Navi has a bachelor’s in psychiatric nursing and works in downtown Vancouver’s mental health outpatient services. She is also a certified geek seven days a week, book smeller, anime junkie, gamer extraordinaire, amateur archer, and full time sailor scout.
Follow her on instagram to stay updated on an exciting journey through poetry and spoken word as she will be having an upcoming book in 2024 and is pursuing other live events such as Sofar Sounds and Vancouver Story Slam’s 2023 Finals Championship this December~ @nav.dhaa

Tickets are available online, or at the door!

Sign up to read starts at 7:30 both in person and online. See you there!
Venue Accessibility
Masking Policy: Masks are encouraged, but the venue is a restaurant and members of the audience will be maskless.
VanSlam takes place on the Unceded, stolen Lands of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh Nations and we wish to acknowledge & thank those people who have been stewards of this land since time immemorial. Van Slam is committed to engaging in the internal and external work of reconciliation.

VanSlam: Open Mic featuring Higher Knowledge
2023-10-02 19:30 - 22:00 | Community Taps & Pizza, 1191 Commercial Dr, Vancouver, BC, V5L 3X3, Canada
TICKETS
Sign-up at 7:30, Show at 8
Come join us for another night of slam poetry! As always, our event is in our hybrid live & online format. Bring yourselves and your words to Community Pizza, 1191 Commercial Dr, or to the Van Slam zoom space.
This event will feature a set from poet Higher Knowledge!
Bryant Doradea, also know by his alias Higher Knowledge(HK), is a Hip Hop artist, Youth Worker, and grassroots community organizer hailing from East Vancouver. Ancestrally, he is Indigenous to Kuskatan in Central America, and to Collasayu in South America, with roots in Spain and Romania as well. HK has spent many years working in the community and using his creativity to give hope and insight to those who need it most. He weaves his experiences with foster care, gangs, street entrenchment, and ultimately trauma recovery into his lyrics. This is with the intention of creating both relatability and insight for others who are trapped in the darkness, so they may know that they too can make it back to the light.
Sign up to read starts at 7:30 both in person and online. See you there!
Venue Accessibility
Masking Policy: Masks are encouraged, but the venue is a restaurant and members of the audience will be maskless.
VanSlam takes place on the Unceded, stolen Lands of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh Nations and we wish to acknowledge & thank those people who have been stewards of this land since time immemorial. Van Slam is committed to engaging in the internal and external work of reconciliation.

VanSlam: Open Mic and Slam Competition Featuring Lenée Reid
2023-10-16 19:30 - 22:00 | Community Taps & Pizza, 1191 Commercial Dr, Vancouver, BC, V5L 3X3, Canada
TICKETS
Come join us for another night of slam poetry! As always, our event is in our hybrid live & online format. Bring yourselves and your words to Community Pizza, 1191 Commercial Dr.
This event will feature a set from poet Lennée Reid!
Lennée Reid is a Creole, queer, neurodiverse author, activist, spoken word poet, and multimedia artist based in Olympia, Washington. She is an Artist Trust and Labor of Love grant recipient devoted to eclectic topics including diversity, feminism, and environmentalism. Lennée is published in “Awareni” by Last Word Press, “Inanna’s Ascent”, “Single Mothers Speak on Patriarchy”, and her chapbooks “Universal State of Mind” and “Qi Woo Mojo Juju”, all available at thegirlgod.com, in addition to The Olympia Tribune, Works in Progress, Confluence Daily, and Spectrum Women. Her spoken word albums “Awareni”, “The Second Coming of Matriarchy”, “Crazy Thunder Medicine”, are available at lenneereid.bandcamp.com and most streaming services. Lennée has featured across America including many former PSI Poetry Slams. She was Olympias 2018 Poetry Grand Slam Champion and the first WOWPS representative in 2015. She has opened for Pussy Riot, Kottonmouth Kings, and Yak Nasty That Nilla. She was featured in the documentary “Artists Among Us” by the Olympia Film Society, “Lean in Olympia”, “Dabbing with Washington Artists”, “Circle Talk”, and “Paradigms”. Lennée has produced Awareni Culture Gathering, Olympia Witches March, Resonate Resolve, and Cascadia Poetry Group. She presented at Puget Sound Pagan Pride, GlowHenge – as featured on Evening Magazine, and was included in “Arising”, an installation by Yoko Ono. Lennée is currently touring with UnityHenge – a social justice blacklight art installation and has shown at Luminata, Relentless, Mischievous, Heart Expansion, Reignition, and others.
Sign up to read starts at 7:30. See you there! There is a technical problem preventing the online portion of this event. We will let everyone know when it is fixed. Stay tuned.
Venue Accessibility
Masking Policy: Masks are encouraged, but the venue is a restaurant and members of the audience will be maskless.
VanSlam takes place on the Unceded, stolen Lands of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh Nations and we wish to acknowledge & thank those people who have been stewards of this land since time immemorial. Van Slam is committed to engaging in the internal and external work of reconciliation.

VanSlam: Open Mic featuring Kasey Atcheynum
2023-10-23 20:00 - 22:00 | Community Taps & Pizza, 1191 Commercial Dr, Vancouver, BC, V5L 3X3, Canada
TICKETS
Come join us for another night of slam poetry! This will be a live only event. Bring yourselves and your words to Community Pizza, 1191 Commercial Dr.
This event will feature a set from poet Kasey Atcheynum!
Kasey Atcheynum is a mother and Two-Spirit, neurodivergent, Neyihow iskwew (Cree woman) from Sweetgrass First Nations. Kasey has been involved in the arts in varying capacities since she was 16 with her artistic work intersecting writing, poetry, acting, film, production, and project management.
Kasey uses writing as a meditative and healing workspace that intersects being a somatic breathwork facilitator and intuitive artist. While her poetry and spoken word spans through many eras of her life she now finds herself playing and integrating what it means to be Indigenous in a colonial world through multi-eyed seeing and walking.
“Poetry for me is something that helps me process and make sense of life’s ups and downs as well as gain clarity on my dream world. Writing helps me make sense of what it’s like to bridge the gaps between the many different intersectional walks of life that make up who I am.”
Sign up to read starts at 7:30 in person. See you there! There is a technical problem preventing the online portion of this event. We will let everyone know when it is fixed. Stay tuned.
Venue Accessibility
Masking Policy: Masks are encouraged, but the venue is a restaurant and members of the audience will be maskless.
VanSlam takes place on the Unceded, stolen Lands of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh Nations and we wish to acknowledge & thank those people who have been stewards of this land since time immemorial. Van Slam is committed to engaging in the internal and external work of reconciliation.

VanSlam: Open Mic and Slam Competition featuring CR Avery
2023-10-30 20:00 - 22:00 | Community Taps & Pizza, 1191 Commercial Dr, Vancouver, BC, V5L 3X3, Canada
TICKETS
Come join us for another night of slam poetry! This will be a live only event. Bring yourselves and your words to Community Pizza, 1191 Commercial Dr.
This event will feature a set from poet CR Avery!
what men do with their mouths
Bio for c.r avery
By P. Smith
cue the frenzied combo of molar and spit.
his tongue touches every chroma on its way to blue. he’s been rinsing with gravel, flossing with wire and chewing brick again, he’s been a bad, bad boy.
but he is crackerjack conjurer of washboards and rubber, even suburb girls welcome the twinging. i want to nibble yesterday’s corona from his chin, rub my index finger along the surface of his laugh, pull the maw open to check the slick road of his throat.
there’s something illegal going on down there, the sweet keening of ancient instruments. the orchestra is fidgety, click-hipped, steaming inside that skin.
the boy opens the beauteous and, in gut rendering, words become both otherwise and everything.
– p. smith
Venue Accessibility
Masking Policy: Masks are encouraged, but the venue is a restaurant and members of the audience will be maskless.
VanSlam takes place on the Unceded, stolen Lands of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh Nations and we wish to acknowledge & thank those people who have been stewards of this land since time immemorial. Van Slam is committed to engaging in the internal and external work of reconciliation.

VanSlam: Open Mic featuring Sonya Littlejohn
2023-11-06 19:30 - 22:00 | Community Taps & Pizza, 1191 Commercial Dr, Vancouver, BC, V5L 3X3, Canada
TICKETS

Come join us for another night of poetry! This will be a live only event. Bring yourselves and your words to Community Pizza, 1191 Commercial Dr.
Due to illness Cicely Belle Blain is no longer able to join us this evening. We look forward to having her back soon!
Sonya Littlejohn recently graduated from Simon Fraser University with a certificate in Community Capacity Building. She holds a bachelor of arts from UBC, a career in poetry performance and facilitation, and communication building. She is a community engagement facilitator, a cultural worker, community coordinator, mad artist and poet.
Venue Accessibility
Masking Policy: Masks are encouraged, but the venue is a restaurant and members of the audience will be maskless.
VanSlam takes place on the Unceded, stolen Lands of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh Nations and we wish to acknowledge & thank those people who have been stewards of this land since time immemorial. Van Slam is committed to engaging in the internal and external work of reconciliation.

VanSlam: Open Mic and Slam featuring Optimus Rhyme
2023-11-13 19:30 - 22:00 | Community Taps & Pizza, 1191 Commercial Dr, Vancouver, BC, V5L 3X3, Canada
TICKETS
Come join us for another night of poetry! This will be a live only event. Bring yourselves and your words to Community Pizza, 1191 Commercial Dr.
Richard Glen Lett is a Canadian stand-up comedian, poet and actor. He is known for comedy focusing on drug and alcohol recovery and men’s health. In 2013, Lett entered the world of competitive slam poetry under the moniker “Optimus Rhyme”. He won the 2013 Toronto Grand Slam Championship and led his Toronto Poetry Slam to win the 2013 Canadian Festival of Spoken Word. The team represented Canada in the 2013 National Poetry Slam in Boston Massachusetts.
Venue Accessibility
Masking Policy: Masks are encouraged, but the venue is a restaurant and members of the audience will be maskless.
VanSlam takes place on the Unceded, stolen Lands of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh Nations and we wish to acknowledge & thank those people who have been stewards of this land since time immemorial. Van Slam is committed to engaging in the internal and external work of reconciliation.

VanSlam: Open Mic featuring Emmet O'Brien
2023-11-20 19:30 - 22:00 | Community Taps & Pizza, 1191 Commercial Dr, Vancouver, BC, V5L 3X3, Canada
TICKETS
Come join us for another night of poetry! This will be a live only event. Bring yourselves and your words to Community Pizza, 1191 Commercial Dr.
Emmet O’Brien is not your generic poet, bursting into the scene in March 2017, Emmet has done more than your average 25 year old. Within the first 3 years alone he released a book, entitled “A Perspective From The Corrupt Mind Of The Youth” and he was the first poet to be published in “District” magazines newsletter, aswell as various videos reaching tens of thousands of views. O’Brien, best known for his video “the North side” is also an event organiser, starting his poetry and music event “Vybrations” in June 2017. it saw incredible success, with amazing artists such as Colm Keegan and Hazel Hogan prefoming at it. The poet extraordinaire then moved on to run a second regular night, called “Phat Cones” which showcased Ireland’s best poets and rappers while educating people on the benefits and positives of medicinal cannabis. In 2018, he opened up for Shane Koyczan. The wordsmith released his second book, entitled “Yup Ouveh” in May 2018, where copies were sold in both Ireland and the UK, aswell as copies being sold in Nigeria. O’Briens third book, entitled “The Illusion Of Perception ” released in March 2019. A play adaptation of the book was launched in March 19, and the event sold out in less than 12 hours. O’Brien has had many festival shows, playing Electric Picinc, Knockanstockan, Body & Soul, and All Together Now. In 2022, O’Brien had his latest poem “Story bud?” muralised onto the walls of temple bar in Dublin city centre. Most recently, O’Brien has played 2 shows in the Gate Theatre, supporting BAC’s beat boxing adaptation of Frankenstein, and in December 2022, he returned from his first European tour, visiting Germany, England, and Paris. 2023 saw the poet teach in prisons around Ireland with a project called “Storytime” and the project was toured around Ireland to show inmates they can be creative. He also performed in Missouri in June, marking his debut USA performance.
Venue Accessibility
Masking Policy: Masks are encouraged, but the venue is a restaurant and members of the audience will be maskless.
VanSlam takes place on the Unceded, stolen Lands of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh Nations and we wish to acknowledge & thank those people who have been stewards of this land since time immemorial. Van Slam is committed to engaging in the internal and external work of reconciliation.

VanSlam: Open Mic and Slam featuring Junie Désil
2023-11-27 19:30 - 22:00 | Community Taps & Pizza, 1191 Commercial Dr, Vancouver, BC, V5L 3X3, Canada
TICKETS
Come join us for another night of poetry! This will be a live only event. Bring yourselves and your words to Community Pizza, 1191 Commercial Dr.
Junie Désil is a poet. Born of immigrant (Haitian) parents on the Traditional Territories of the Kanien’kehá:ka in the island known as Tiohtià:ke (Montréal), raised in Treaty 1 Territory (Winnipeg). Junie’s debut poetry collection Eat Salt|Gaze at the Ocean (TalonBooks, 2020) was a finalist for the Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize. Junie currently lives on the traditional territories of the Homalco, Tla’amin and Klahoose where she is currently working on a forthcoming poetry collection.
Venue Accessibility
Masking Policy: Masks are encouraged, but the venue is a restaurant and members of the audience will be maskless.
VanSlam takes place on the Unceded, stolen Lands of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh Nations and we wish to acknowledge & thank those people who have been stewards of this land since time immemorial. Van Slam is committed to engaging in the internal and external work of reconciliation.

VanSlam: Open Mic featuring Herbert
2023-12-04 19:30 - 22:00 | Community Taps & Pizza, 1191 Commercial Dr, Vancouver, BC, V5L 3X3, Canada
Come join us for another night of poetry! This will be a live only event. Bring yourselves and your words to Community Pizza, 1191 Commercial Dr.
A spoken word poet, pianist, and photographer, Herbert (they/them) has dazzled audiences around Vancouver and opened up new perspectives to poetry. A queer and non-binary poet, Herbert finds spoken word to be incredibly healing, and it is something that has helped them overcome social anxiety and leaving behind past toxic habits while becoming a much more confident person than ever before. Despite the rich imagery in their poetry, it may be a surprising fact to some that Herbert has been performing poetry for only a year.In their pastime, Herbert does nature photography and loves to travel. Also a piano teacher, public speaker, and mental health advocate, Herbert advocates for better mental health in music education in hopes of making it a more positive and welcoming environment.
Venue Accessibility
Masking Policy: Masks are encouraged, but the venue is a restaurant and members of the audience will be maskless.
VanSlam takes place on the Unceded, stolen Lands of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh Nations and we wish to acknowledge & thank those people who have been stewards of this land since time immemorial. Van Slam is committed to engaging in the internal and external work of reconciliation.

VanSlam: Devon Goodman Anarchy Slam featuring Kagan Goh
2023-12-12 19:30 - 22:00 | Community Taps & Pizza, 1191 Commercial Dr, Vancouver, BC, V5L 3X3, Canada
Come join us for another night of poetry! This will be a live only event. Bring yourselves and your words to Community Pizza, 1191 Commercial Dr.
Devon Goodman was a lifelong poet, who found his truest inspiration in the Vancouver Slam Poetry community in 2007. Devon started the Maple Ridge Poetry Slam while still in high school, inspired by poets he saw gracing the Vancouver stage at the time. He was a gregarious member of the local recovery community, and in his memory, his family would like to offer support to gay youth struggling with addiction. He passed in November of 2021, and we honour his memory and his works in this event.
Originally from Singapore, Kagan Goh is a Vancouver-based Chinese Canadian multidisciplinary Mad Artist: award-winning filmmaker, published author, spoken word poet, playwright, actor, mental health advocate and activist. He was diagnosed with manic depression at the age of twenty-three, in 1993. Kagan is a well-known spoken word artist, essayist and poet, a respected and established voice in Vancouver’s literary community for over two decades. He has been invited to perform at readings, festivals and on radio. He is a graduate of the prestigious Humber School for Writing program, and holds a certificate in creative writing from Simon Fraser University’s The Writer’s Studio. He has been published in numerous anthologies, periodicals, and magazines. Goh was writer-in-residence at the Historic Joy Kogawa House in Vancouver, B.C., from November 2014 to February 2015. In 2012, Select Books in Singapore published his poetic memoir, focused upon his relationship with his esteemed father, Who Let in the Sky? Kagan is also an award-winning filmmaker with a number of releases including the award-winning films: Mind Fuck (1996); Stolen Memories (2012); Breaking the Silence (2015); The Day My Cat Saved My Life (2021); and Common Law (2023). His films have been broadcast on national television and gained entry into respected film festivals around the world. Goh’s follow-up memoir, Surviving Samsara, which recounts his struggles with manic depression, breaking the silence around mental illness, was published by Caitlin Press in 2021. Surviving Samsara was also shortlisted for the Singapore Literature Prize in 2022 in the creative nonfiction in English category.
Venue Accessibility
Masking Policy: Masks are encouraged, but the venue is a restaurant and members of the audience will be maskless.
VanSlam takes place on the Unceded, stolen Lands of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh Nations and we wish to acknowledge & thank those people who have been stewards of this land since time immemorial. Van Slam is committed to engaging in the internal and external work of reconciliation.
