He is a two-time Vancouver Haiku Champion, a two-time Vancouver Nerd Slam Champion, two-time Ghost Story Slam and the winner of the 2010 IWPS Haiku Championship in Charlotte, North Carolina. He is one of only three North American poets to complete the Century Challenge of slamming 100 poems in a … Continued
We acknowledge this event is taking place on the unceded territories of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh peoples. We strive to have all of our shows be trans friendly events and we hope you can help us achieve that goal. Our 2017/18 youth slam season is in full swing. Poets … Continued
Your chance to register a team of 3 to 6 poets for Hullabaloo 2018!
We acknowledge this event will be taking place on the unceded territories of the Squamish, Musqueam and Tsleil-Waututh peoples. This will be our "last chance slam" for poets who have not yet qualified for the youth slam playoffs in March. Poets still needing to slam twice or earn more points … Continued
The Vancouver Poetry Slam presents this week's feature, Christine Bissonnette!! About our feature: Christine Bissonnette is an acadian poet, writer, teacher, and children’s entertainer originally from Nova Scotia, the unceded traditional ancestral territory of the Mi’kmaq people. Since 2011, she’s lived in Vancouver, on the unceded traditional ancestral territories of … Continued
The Vancouver Poetry Slam presents this week's feature, Rob Mitchell!! A bit about our feature: "Rob Mitchell is a poet born and raised in the south, originally heralding from Atlanta, GA. Growing up a quintessential, middle-class blerd (black nerd), writing has always been a form of catharsis. Recently, Rob has … Continued
The Vancouver Poetry Slam presents this week's feature, Adèle Barclay!! A bit about our feature: Adèle Barclay’s writing has appeared in The Fiddlehead, The Puritan, PRISM, The Pinch, and elsewhere. She is the recipient of the 2016 Lit POP Award for Poetry and the 2016 Walrus Readers’ Choice Award for … Continued
We acknowledge this event is taking place on the unceded territories of the Squamish, Musqueam and Tsleil-Waututh peoples. Well this is it, our youth slam finals where we find out who will be on the 2018 youth slam team and which poet will be crowned our youth slam grand slam … Continued
It's here! Below is a web version of page 1 of our #VSFestival18 program. Click on it so that you can move around in it. Navigation ease may vary according to your device. Print versions of this program will be available as soon as Monday, April 16 at Van Poetry … Continued
It's here! Below is a web version of page 2 of our #VSFestival18 program. Click on it so that you can move around in it. Navigation ease may vary according to your device. Print versions of this program will be available as soon as Monday, April 16 at Van Poetry … Continued
“Do you want to hear the best story you’ve ever heard in your life?” Andrea Gibson asks into the microphone. The audience leans forward in silent anticipation. “So I met this woman and I went home to her house with her.” They pause, “already a great story.” The audience erupts … Continued
Part meet'n'greet, orientation, and showcase, the Spoken Word Jamboree is your chance to meet the teams involved in Hullabaloo 2018 - as well as take in a set from the stellar Molly Billows!
![[ID: RC Weslowski and Johnny Macrae stand on stage wearing VS. shirts. Audience members are visible on either side of them. They are standing in front of the Hullabaloo banner/end ID]](https://www.vancouverpoetryhouse.com/media/Hullabaloon-360x360-1.jpg "Hullabaloon-360×360")
The Spoken Word Jamboree kicks off not only Hullabaloo, but also Verses Festival of Words! All teams will be invited to perform a one-minute intro poem to tell us more about themselves and their school, and Molly Billows will rock the house as the night's feature. Alice MacKay Room (downstairs … Continued
You can purchase your Verses Festival pass for $75 here. Pass-holders must arrive at events early. All events are general admission. A portion of event capacity has been held specifically for passholders. 15 minutes before show time, spots unclaimed by passholders are released to be sold at the door. This means that … Continued
The first slam event of Hullabaloo - and it's a doozy!! A head-to-head off mic and in-the-round poetry slam where winners are chosen by sound of applause. 16 poets enter. 1 emerges victorious. Everyone wins.
“Awesome day! My students were so pumped and spoke about it for days afterwards.” - Lorisse Humphries, Chilliwack Middle School The always popular Hullabaloo All Star Slam at the Rio Theatre returns this year, featuring a battle between Canadian spoken word all stars! The 2018 edition of the All Star Slam sees … Continued
![[ID: Zoey Roy stands with one arm gesturing towards the camera, while looking directly at it with a slight smile/end ID]](https://www.vancouverpoetryhouse.com/media/Zoey-300x300-1.jpg "Zoey-300×300")
“Awesome day! My students were so pumped and spoke about it for days afterwards.” - Lorisse Humphries, Chilliwack Middle School The always popular Hullabaloo All Star Slam at the Rio Theatre returns this year, featuring a battle between Canadian spoken word all stars! The 2018 edition of the All Star Slam sees … Continued
A chance to watch some of the best in the business throw down on the big stage at Rio Theatre!
![[ID: Johnny Trinh is holding a microphone in one hand and a clipboard in the other. He stands in front of The Rio’s red theatre curtain/end ID]](https://www.vancouverpoetryhouse.com/media/Trinh-Hosts-360x360-1.jpg "Trinh-Hosts-360×360")
“Awesome day! My students were so pumped and spoke about it for days afterwards.” – Lorisse Humphries, Chilliwack Middle School The always popular Hullabaloo All Star Slam at the Rio Theatre returns this year, featuring a battle between Canadian spoken word all stars! The 2018 edition of the All Star Slam sees … Continued
All 16 teams throw down in the first of two rounds of competition to determine who goes to Hullabaloo Finals!
![[ID: A scoreboard reading 9.9 sits on the lap of a judge/ end ID]](https://www.vancouverpoetryhouse.com/media/Judgie-Wudgie-360x360-1.jpg "Judgie-Wudgie-360×360")
The preliminary rounds erupt, with all 16 teams competing in four heats of four! Location: Alma VanDusen & Peter Kaye rooms (downstairs from the main concourse). Doors: 6:00 PM Start: Bouts 1 & 2 6:30 PM Bouts 3 & 4 8:30 PM End: 10:00 PM Every team in Hullabaloo will perform in … Continued
![[ID: Poets sit in a circle around Dana ID Mathews in the middle sitting with his legs stretched out. Some are on chairs, most are on the floor. They are either writing, reading, or listening. There are piles of coats on the floor and on the stacked chairs in the background/end ID]](https://www.vancouverpoetryhouse.com/media/Adventures-360x360-1.jpg "Adventures-360×360")
The land of poetry spreads far and wide: you could spend days traveling from Metaphor to Extended Metaphor. And that’s before you even reach Rhyme and Alliteration! Poets have spent years investigating the nooks and crannies of these regions and beyond. Have you been to the magical land of improvisation? Or explored … Continued
A journey into both the charted and uncharted territories of Poetryland under the guidance of festival artists Moe Clark, Molly Billows, Zoey Pricelys Roy, and Erin Dingle.
All 16 teams throw down in the second of two rounds of competition to determine who goes to Hullabaloo Finals!
![[ID: A person raises a scorecard with an 8.4 score. In the background are other audience members and a person holding a 9.1/end ID]](https://www.vancouverpoetryhouse.com/media/Jedgie-Wedgie-360x360-1.jpg "Jedgie-Wedgie-360×360")
The second slate of prelims kicks off, with all 16 teams competing for the second time in less than 24 hours! Following Round 1 of preliminary competitions on Friday night, some teams are still in it to win it and some teams are going out with a bang, so Round 2 is bound to be mind-blowing! … Continued
Following a set by festival artist Moe Clark, the four top-ranked teams in the tournament lovingly battle it out for the fabled Billy Sharkspeare Trophy!
![[ID: Moe Clark sits laughing into the camera. She is wearing a camisole style top and a cameo necklace/end ID]](https://www.vancouverpoetryhouse.com/media/6MoeClark_NoraNathoo2_IMG_88081.jpg "6MoeClark_NoraNathoo2_IMG_88081")
The 8th annual HULLABALOO FINALS NIGHT will determine which school has the best poetic chops in all of British Columbia. Moe Clark will start the evening with a feature set of her award-winning spoken word poetry. Then the top four teams from the preliminary bouts will face off against each other … Continued
A literary afternoon delight! Music and words from many of the artists performing throughout the festival, including a selection of Hullabaloo performers featured from our youth events. Bear witness to festival highlights as we celebrate their creative minds in one shared space, where participating artists and organizers, established and up-and-coming, … Continued
![[ID: Buffy Sainte-Marie sings into a microphone on a stand in front of her. Her eyes are closed. Her right hand is raised. She is wearing a breastplate with an unbuttoned black vintage brass-buttoned jacket. She has a turquoise ring on each finger of her left hand. /endID]](https://www.vancouverpoetryhouse.com/media/BSMphoto1.jpg "BSMphoto1")
Call resistance an act of love, name activism as belief in restoration, trust as resilience, music as medicine; there is alchemy in the work of Buffy Sainte-Marie. Utilizing a generous body of work spanning half a century, Buffy Sainte-Marie reminds us that the truest wealth we can accumulate is in … Continued
