Vancouver Poetry House

CIPS Preliminaries Day 2
2021-04-30 18:30 - 20:30 (America/Vancouver) | Poetv, https://www.caffeine.tv/poetv, Canada
The 16 semi-finalists (8 from 1st preliminary night + 8 from 2nd preliminary night) will compete in the same head-to-head fashion, with random draws determining each of the pairings. The winning 8 poets will move onto the finals.
Live on POETV

CIPS Preliminaries Day 1
2021-04-29 18:30 - 20:30 | POETV, https://www.caffeine.tv/, Canada
On each evening of prelim competition, 16 poets will be drawn at random to compete head-to-head on the first preliminary night of the festival. They will be paired up via random draw. The 8 winning poets from each night of prelims will move onto the semi-finals.
Live on POETV

Collective and Individual Poetry Creation with Lee Maracle
2021-04-29 15:00 - 17:00 | Zoom
We do not have to write alone. We can riff off one another as we immerse ourselves in poetry creation. We will do both individual work and collective work in this workshop. Poetry strengthens the body, sharpens the mind and engages the heart and spirit. There will be ASL interpreters at this workshop.
FREE, REGISTER HERE
Lee Maracle speaks out as a critic of the treatment of Indigenous people by the Canadian state, and she particularly highlights the issues relating to Indigenous women. She was one of the first Indigenous people to be published in the early 1970s.
Lee Maracle is one of the most prolific Indigenous authors in Canada and a recognized authority on issues pertaining to Indigenous people and Indigenous literature. She is an award-winning poet, novelist, performance storyteller, scriptwriter, actor and keeper/mythmaker among the Sto:lo people.
Lee Maracle has given hundreds of speeches on political, historical, and Feminist Sociological topics related to Indigenous people, and conducted dozens of workshops on personal and cultural reclamation.
Her newest poetry book, Hope Matters, was written in conjunction with her daughters Columpa Bobb and Tania Carter, and was published in 2019.

El Jones Feature Performance and Workshop
2021-04-28 15:00 - 17:00 | Zoom
El Jones will lead participants in a FREE writing workshop that will develop beginner, intermediate, and core skills in writing for page and stage. All skill levels, members of the public, and students welcome! There will be ASL interpreters at this workshop.
FREE, REGISTER HERE
El Jones is a poet, professor and activist living in Halifax. She was born in Wales and grew up in Winnipeg. She was Halifax’s Poet Laureate from 2013 to 2015. Her book, Live From the Afrikan Resistance! published in 2014 by Roseway, an imprint of Fernwood Publishing, is a collection of poems about resisting white colonialism. In 2015, she was a resident at the In at University of Iowa. Her work focuses on social justice issues such as feminism, prison abolition, anti-racism, and decolonizaternation; she wrote in the Washington Post in June 2020 about “the realities of white-supremacist oppression that black people in Canada have long experienced.”
Since 2016, she has co-hosted a radio show called Black Power Hour on CKDU-FM, an educational program which provides information on Black history and culture aimed at incarcerated people. Listeners from prisons call in to rap and read poetry that they have written, providing a voice to people who rarely get a wide audience.

Mashed Sabbath 50
2021-04-27 19:00 - 21:30 | POETV, https://www.caffeine.tv/, Canada
Mashed Poetics is a night of spoken word and music mashup. Established in 2009 this will be the 50th edition of Mashed Poetics (a Verses Festival mainstay) and we’ll be featuring Black Sabbath’s album Paranoid. 9 different poets will create new works to perform at this event including the reunion of the 1996 Vancouver Poetry Slam Team. It’s the 25th anniversary of their barrier breaking trip and performances at the National Poetry Slam in Portland, Oregon. We’ll also have our Sabbath cover band Rat Salad shaking the rafters and rumbling some thunder for everyone who joins us.
Live on POETV
Side A
War Pigs–Justin McGrail
Paranoid–Deanna Smith
Planet Caravan–S.R. Duncan
Iron Man–Alexandra Oliver
Side B
Electric Funeral–David Geary
Hand of Doom–Brandon Wint
Rat Salad–Khodi Dill
Faeries Wear Boots–Cass King

Rat Salad, the band, the myth, the legend! The band first crawled forth from the primordial sludge of The Great Recession for the inaugural Mashed Poetics in May 2009 and lo and behold, the recession ended! Now, 12 years later they return for the 50th anniversary Mashed Sabbath show ready to crush the Global Pandemic under their heels. Spillious the ridiculous one, the only person present for all 50 Mashed shows, returns to lead the group with virus melting guitar wizardry and the voice of an angel or perhaps a shrieking crow. This time around they are joined by the rhythm section from Hazel Blackburn, Vancouver’s finest purveyors of Godzilla rock. Neil Homulos, a veteran of 28 Mashed Poetics shows, will beat your pandemic blues away on the drums and Shawn Penner provides the thumping bass line antidotes. No need to worry about when you’ll get the vaccine, Rat Salad has the cure, metal, metal and MORE METAL!

Translating Poetry into Song: The Northwest Kid Feature Performance and Workshop
2021-04-27 15:00 - 17:00 | BC
If you’re a poet and you’re also into making music, here’s the101 on how to get started. This workshop will show you how poetry translates to song through rhythm. A stanza is 4 lines of poetry; each line is a bar of music. We’ll listen to some instrumentals together, break it down into four-bar chunks, and do some creative songwriting to capture our feelings and experiences through metaphor and sensory work. Learn about song structure through poetry and how other genres of music can guide our poetic creations. Resources for working from home and tips for independently releasing songs will also be shared.
There will be ASL interpreters at this workshop.
FREE, REGISTER HERE
The Northwest Kid aka. NWK performs Alternative Hip-Hop and has been actively performing as a poet/emcee within the Canadian music scene for nearly a decade. NWK‘s previous releases (Mixed-blood Mixtape, Mob Medicine, Dozy & NWK, and Transformation) have provided him with the opportunity to share the same bill with artists such as Leonard Sumner, Jeremy Dutcher, A Tribe Called Red, Tanya Tagaq, Buffy Sainte-Marie, Lido Pimienta, and The Roots.

Iron Poet Gauntlet
2021-04-26 18:00 - 20:00 | Zoom
The Gauntlet has been thrown! Poet legends: RC Weslowski, Charlie C Petch, and Nisha Patel are the Verses 2021 Iron Poets. They have spent centuries training for this moment. They have opened the floor to face challengers to compete in zainy poetry games. Hosted by Johnny D Trinh and Brad Morden, surprise poet challengers will be invited to step into the ring and participate in whacky, funny, unexpected games, vying for a sweet $100 cash prize. Like the Pop song poetry slam? Poem Swap head to head? Sudden death Sonnet war? Food Poem Freak Out? Sound Clown Foolery? This event is NOT to be missed.
Live on POETV

Poets Forward: Isabella Wang Feature Performance and Workshop
2021-04-26 15:00 - 17:00 | BC
This workshop encourages participants to consider issues of the dynamic world, and to discuss why poetry IS political; IS imaginative; IS activism. How can the vulnerability of writing in this difficult time be turned into a strength, generating powerful and necessary perspectives? The pandemic brings with it overwhelming changes; yet, for the poet, channels new creative possibilities of expression. How can we remain committed to the various social, artistic and interdisciplinary spaces we occupy as responsible community citizens? We will begin by engaging in a series of writing exercises, followed by a period of collaborative sharing. Breaks will be interspersed with sample poems by contemporary poets, artists, and activists. The latter half of the session will be guided on editing and revision. We will end with an art project to commemorate our writing in this workshop experience.
There will be ASL interpreters at this workshop.
FREE, REGISTER HERE
*Young writers (under 30), and underrepresented writers—including but not exclusive to women (cis and trans), trans men, Two-Spirit and non-binary writers who are Black, Indigenous, people of colour, queer, and/or disabled—are particularly encouraged to participate.*
Isabella Wang is the author of two poetry collections, On Forgetting a Language (Baseline Press 2019) and Pebble Swing (Nightwood Editions forthcoming 2021). She has been shortlisted for The Malahat Review’s Far Horizons Poetry Contest, the Minola Review’s inaugural Poetry Contest, and shortlisted twice for The New Quarterly’s Edna Staebler Essay Contest. Her poetry and prose have appeared in over thirty literary journals, including Prism, The Fiddlehead, and Arc Poetry Magazine, and the Watch Your Head anthology (Coach House Press, ed. Kathryn Mockler). She is the Editor for issue 44.2 of Room magazine.
photo credit: Zoe Dagneault

Write Bloody North | Showcase
2021-04-25 18:30 - 20:30 | Poetv, https://www.caffeine.tv/poetv, Canada
Write Bloody North is the only Canadian publisher devoted to the work of spoken word artists. Join us in this celebration Canadian spoken word with some of our past, current and future authors Lucia Misch, Brandon Wint, RC Weslowski and Sheri-D Wilson!
Live on POETV

Write Bloody North | Life After the Slam Q and A
2021-04-25 15:00 - 17:00 | POETV, https://www.caffeine.tv/, Canada
Join the Write Bloody North team in a discussion about some of the opportunities that exist for poets who have honed their craft at the poetry slam. Some of the topics we will discuss include publishing, editing, multimedia, film/television, touring and the future possibilities that exist for our artform. The panellists include Alessandra Naccarato, Brad Morden, Ian Keteku and Titilope Sonuga.
Live on POETV

Hullabaloo Finals Night Feature with Nisha Patel and our Inaugural Team Piece Showcase
2021-04-24 18:00 - 21:00 | EGM Update
This event is originating on the Unceded Ancestral Territories of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Wautuh Nations.

Once again we have something new and something traditional for you on our final night of Hullabaloo 2021.
We kick off the night with a feature performance by 2019 Canadian Individual Poetry Slam Champion, Nisha Patel. She is a dynamic and thought provoking performer that can make you laugh and break your heart often within the same poem. We are excited to have her help wrap up our festival. This show is also part of Nisha’s book tour for her new collection of work, Coconut. We encourage you to pick up a copy before, during and/or after the show.
“Nisha is an award-winning Indo-Canadian poet, artist, and public speaker in Edmonton, Alberta. She is the current Poet Laureate for the City of Edmonton and Regional Writer in Residence at Strathcona County and St. Albert. She is also the 2019 Canadian Individual Slam Champion, the 2019 Edmonton Slam Champion, and the Executive Director of the Edmonton Poetry Festival. Her debut collection COCONUT is forthcoming with Newest Press in April 2021″

Nisha’s feature will be followed by our first ever Team Piece Showcase. All the participating teams are creating Team Piece Videos to share with you this evening. Wild, weird, thought provoking pieces are what you can expect during this event as it brings our 2021 edition to a close. Stay tuned for more details.

Zoom doors are at 6 the evening begins at 6:30.
FREE, REGISTER HERE

Finals Night Feature with Nisha Patel and our Inaugural Team Piece Showcase
2021-04-24 18:00 - 21:00 | EGM Update
This event is originating on the Unceded Ancestral Territories of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Wautuh Nations.

Once again we have something new and something traditional for you on our final night of Hullabaloo 2021.
We kick off the night with a feature performance by 2019 Canadian Individual Poetry Slam Champion, Nisha Patel. She is a dynamic and thought provoking performer that can make you laugh and break your heart often within the same poem. We are excited to have her help wrap up our festival. This show is also part of Nisha’s book tour for her new collection of work, Coconut. We encourage you to pick up a copy before, during and/or after the show.
“Nisha is an award-winning Indo-Canadian poet, artist, and public speaker in Edmonton, Alberta. She is the current Poet Laureate for the City of Edmonton and Regional Writer in Residence at Strathcona County and St. Albert. She is also the 2019 Canadian Individual Slam Champion, the 2019 Edmonton Slam Champion, and the Executive Director of the Edmonton Poetry Festival. Her debut collection COCONUT is forthcoming with Newest Press in April 2021″

Nisha’s feature will be followed by our first ever Team Piece Showcase. All the participating teams are creating Team Piece Videos to share with you this evening. Wild, weird, thought provoking pieces are what you can expect during this event as it brings our 2021 edition to a close. Stay tuned for more details.

Zoom doors are at 6 the evening begins at 6:30.

Talk the Talk | What is your ritual?
2021-04-24 15:00 - 17:00 | Zoom
What is your Ritual that you do before you sit down and write a poem?
For this Talk the Talk Vancouver Poetry House’s Artistic Director Joseph Dandurand will share what it is that he does before he drops the first word of a new poem. For Joseph Dandurand, his ritual is somewhat fluid in the sense that he may add to it. For example, he just bought his first plant ever, an ivy plant in a rustic holder and it now sits on his desk. This with the 10 other things he does before he begins to write are for him a ritual. It eases him into the task at hand. It allows him the peace of mind as to why he is writing in the first place.
Vancouver Poetry House invites all creators, writers, poets, artists in general to come and share their ritual and to listen to how others begin their creations.
Please come with a good mind and a good heart and share your creative journey.
There will be ASL interpreters at this event.
FREE, REGISTER HERE

Joseph A. Dandurand is a member of Kwantlen First Nation located on the Fraser River about 20 minutes east of Vancouver. He resides there with his 3 children Danessa, Marlysse, and Jace. Joseph is the Director of the Kwantlen Cultural Center. Joseph received a Diploma in Performing Arts from Algonquin College and studied Theatre and Direction at the University of Ottawa. He has just completed his residency as the Storyteller in Residence at the Vancouver Public Library. He sits on a committee for the Canadian Museum of History and is tasked with consulting on the redesign of the new Children’s Museum. He has published 13 books of poetry and the latest are: I WANT by Leaf Press (2015) and HEAR AND FORETELL by BookLand Press (2015) The Rumour (2018) by BookLand Press in (2018) SH:LAM (the doctor) Mawenzi Press (2019) The Corrupted by Guernica Press (2020) his children’s play: Th’owixiya: the hungry Feast dish by Playwrights Press Canada (2019) his book of short stories and short plays for children: The Sasquatch, the fire, and the cedar basket will be published by Nightwood Press along with his poetry manuscript: Here we come (2020-21) He also is very busy Storytelling at many events and Schools.

Stage to Page
2021-04-24 12:30 - 14:30 | Zoom
Vancouver Poetry House is partnering with Stage to Page Performance Society to bring a special public masterclass for Verses 2021. Industry professionals from poetry, publishing, and theatre form an all star panel that come together to workshop new poems by spoken word artists. What happens when spoken word poets publish their work for other voices to read? In this workshop, professional performers will read new works by spoken word poets, and discuss the works. Come and learn more about the creation process, and many of the different ways that the work can manifest. This is a public workshop, and everyone is welcome to attend and watch the workshop. If you’re interested in text development and publishing, come and check this event out.
There will be ASL interpreters at this event.
FREE, REGISTER HERE
Our headline panellists for this event will feature:
Joseph Dandurand, Vancouver Poetry House
Brad Morden, Write Bloody North
Isabella Wang, Poet
Chase Lo, Actor, Dancer, Interdisciplinary Artist
Sedina Fiati, Actor, Producer, Community Builder
Poets will have their work performed by our panellists, have an opportunity to discuss the work with the panel, followed by an invitation to perform the poems themselves.
Our mission is to bring a cross-sector, interdisciplinary approach to support artists in the development of their work. Stage to Page has received rave reviews and has been mounted nationally.
To participate as a workshopped poet, please fill out the form: https://forms.gle/oKPtdpUkr3MnEZ1f7

Adventures in Poetryland
2021-04-24 10:00 - 12:30 | EGM Update
This event will be originating from the Unceded Ancestral Lands of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh Nations.

Adventures in Poetryland is our annual workshop series led by our Festival Feature Performers. This year they are Apollo the Child and Nisha Patel. These workshop are open to all students participating in Hullabaloo. It’s not open to the general public but it’s so cool we wanted to let you know about them. Apollo’s workshop starts at 10 am while Nisha will conduct hers at 11:15.
Here’s what Apollo has prepared…
“How to unify intention and artistic practice to write an effectively communicated poem. This workshop will help teach poets how to drive their idea home whether on the page or on stage. Poets will break down and analyze one of Apollo the Child’s (workshop leader) poems and write a collaborative piece using tools that were taught”

And this is what Nisha will be presenting…
“Speaking Up: Poetry About Difference”
In this workshop, participants will be asked to explore difference in their lives, and how to articulate challenge and triumph alike in ways that invite empathy and understanding, inviting audiences to overcome bias or preconceptions in witnessing and understanding truth.

Participants will be asked to brainstorm original, truthful stories from their own lives and have the opportunity to craft a poem centering their experience to be shared with the group, while confronting the question of “What is the most important story you can tell, and why?”

Hullabaloo All Star Slam 2021 and Individual Videopoem Festival
2021-04-23 18:00 - 21:00 | Zoom
This event is originating from the Unceded Ancestral Territories of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Wautuh Nations.

The All Star Slam is back. This year we have two of our festival features taking part along with a returning poet from 2020 plus our wonderful host Johnny D. Trinh. This year we feature Apollo The Child, Nisha Patel and Ruthless in a 3 round head to head All Star Slam battle. Johnny D. Trinh will once again be your ringmaster for this event. This year of course will be a bit different as we’re hosting this event online and in the evening.
Following the All Star Slam we will have our first ever Hullabaloo Videopoem Festival. Individual poets from our registered teams have put together some videopoems to debut at this year’s festival. We’ll take a look at what they’ve created and how they’ve incorporated multimedia into their presentation. We’re looking forward to some groundbreaking content. Please join us.
Zoom doors are at 6 with the evening starting at 6:30 and running til around 9.
FREE, REGISTER HERE
“Khaleefa ‘Apollo the Child’ Hamdan is a spoken word poet, hip hop artist, radio host, youth worker and is the former co director of the Urban Legends Poetry Collective. Apollo created the free after school youth writing program Youth Speak with the Ottawa Public Library and he hosts the Home Invasion Show on CKCUFM. His cinepoem ‘My Hero Drives a Cab’ was featured on Button Poetry and he was part of the CBC documentary ‘In Their Words’. Apollo has represented Ottawa a total of 9 times nationally. Apollo continues to be an active part of the art scene as he continues to grow and spread positivity.”
Nisha is an award-winning Indo-Canadian poet, artist, and public speaker in Edmonton, Alberta. She is the current Poet Laureate for the City of Edmonton and Regional Writer in Residence at Strathcona County and St. Albert. She is also the 2019 Canadian Individual Slam Champion, the 2019 Edmonton Slam Champion, and the Executive Director of the Edmonton Poetry Festival. Her debut collection COCONUT is forthcoming with Newest Press in April 2021
Ivy Edad aka ruthless is a Filipinx writer born in Manila, Philippines. In 2014, they moved to the stolen territories of Katie, Semiahmoo, Kwantlen, Kwikwetlem, Qayqayt, and Tsawwassen First Nations. Ruthless has performed on stages across Canada including the finals of Canadian Festival of Spoken Word in 2019 as part of Kwantlen Poetry Project. Their work can be found in pulpMAG, For Women Who Roar, and various other publications. Ruthless attributes their relationship to words with an indecisive lover. They write to make words love them back, and revels in the rejection they constantly receive.

Cotyledon Book Launch
2021-04-23 16:00 - 17:30 | Zoom
Cotyledon is filled with the poems that poets haven’t been able to share on slam stages, poems that are unconventional, poems that were crafted gently, and haven’t found a home for yet, poems that started out as a whisper, a brave thought, or an inkling. Poems that dream the world into a future poets want to be in.
Funds raised from this book will go towards supporting the organization’s youth programming. The chapbook will be shared in youth-focused spaces.
Many of the artists who have contributed to Cotyledon will be at the book launch to share their work. Kiran Shoker, Noah Lubendo, Amanda Wong, Sarah Jean Valiquette, Franz, Catherine Garrett, Avery Shannon and LJ Weisberg will be joining us at the launch.
Cotyledon prioritizes the voices of BIPOC, LGBTQ2S+, disabled, neurodivergent, and low-income writers and highlights the work of youth poets.
FREE, REGISTER HERE
Cotyledon includes works by Hailey Orrange, Catherine Garrett, Kiranjit Shoker, Monica Xin, Celine Tsai, Gabriela Martinez, N. Lema Lubendo, Brinda Sarma, Preeti Shah, Aslı Sözen, Rosa Hernandez, Sujash Purna, Avery Shannon, Dana De Samedi, Amanda Wong, Franz (the poet), Aurin Shaila Nusrat Sheyck, Ivy Edad (Ruthless), Cory McRae, Noémie Boucher, Yana Fershtein, Sammie Lee Wilhoit, LJ Weisberg, Gabriela Martinez, Amelia Coventry, Amanda Wong, S. J. Valiquette, Alex Masse, henry 7. reneau, jr., Avery Shannon, Qurat Dar

Hullabaloo
2021-04-22 18:00 - 2021-04-24 21:00 | EGM Update
Hullabaloo is BC’s Youth Spoken Word Festival featuring workshops, showcase performances and some of BC’s finest high school aged poets all sharing work for peers and audiences alike.
The 2021 Festival runs April 22-24th online via Zoom. Registration is open for all schools to take part in Hullabaloo 2021.
Participating poets will be asked to take part in poetry workshops of their choice as well as create work to be presented for online audiences.

This year will include an alumni showcase, a youth video poem screening, a team piece showcase plus our annual Spoken Word Jamboree and closing night Feature Performance. Schools from around the province are invited to attend.

Registration is $200 and included an online workshop with a spoken word poet from WORDPLAY the Vancouver Poetry House Poets in Schools Program. The registration fee is non refundable.

Hullabaloo Spoken Word Jamboree and Alumni Showcase
2021-04-22 18:00 - 21:00 | Zoom
This event is originating from the Unceded Ancestral Territories of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh Nations.
For the 2021 edition of Hullabaloo we keep some of the past and forge ahead with something new.Once again we will be having our Spoken Word Jamboree to kick off the festival. Our featured performer is Apollo the Child from Ottawa. Apollo will be performing a 20-25 minute set of his electrifying spoken word poetry.“Khaleefa ‘Apollo the Child’ Hamdan is a spoken word poet, hip hop artist, radio host, youth worker and is the former co director of the Urban Legends Poetry Collective. Apollo created the free after school youth writing program Youth Speak with the Ottawa Public Library and he hosts the Home Invasion Show on CKCUFM. His cinepoem ‘My Hero Drives a Cab’ was featured on Button Poetry and he was part of the CBC documentary ‘In Their Words’. Apollo has represented Ottawa a total of 9 times nationally. Apollo continues to be an active part of the art scene as he continues to grow and spread positivity.”
Following Apollo’s performance, we will have our first ever Hullabaloo Alumni Showcase featuring poets from our history. Underground Indies Champions and Team Champions, poets who are still creating in the world at large including Jacob Gebrewold, Shauntelle DC, Naseem Bahraini, Elle Jesus, Mariah Dear and Andy Warner.

Doors at 6:00. Show starts at 6:30 pacific and runs til 9. Via Zoom.

FREE, REGISTER HERE

Hullabaloo Spoken Word Jamboree with Apollo the Child and Alumni Showcase
2021-04-22 18:00 - 21:00 | EGM Update
This event is originating from the Unceded Ancestral Territories of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh Nations.

For the 2021 edition of Hullabaloo we keep some of the past and forge ahead with something new.
Once again we will be having our Spoken Word Jamboree to kick off the festival. Our featured performer is Apollo the Child from Ottawa. Apollo will be performing a 20-25 minute set of his electrifying spoken word poetry.
“Khaleefa ‘Apollo the Child’ Hamdan is a spoken word poet, hip hop artist, radio host, youth worker and is the former co director of the Urban Legends Poetry Collective. Apollo created the free after school youth writing program Youth Speak with the Ottawa Public Library and he hosts the Home Invasion Show on CKCUFM. His cinepoem ‘My Hero Drives a Cab’ was featured on Button Poetry and he was part of the CBC documentary ‘In Their Words’. Apollo has represented Ottawa a total of 9 times nationally. Apollo continues to be an active part of the art scene as he continues to grow and spread positivity.”
Following Apollo’s performance, we will have our first ever Hullabaloo Alumni Showcase featuring poets from our history. Underground Indies Champions and Team Champions, poets who are still creating in the world at large including Jacob Gebrewold, Shauntelle DC, Naseem Bahraini, Elle Jesus, Mariah Dear and Andy Warner.

Doors at 6:00. Show starts at 6:30 pacific and runs til 9. Via Zoom.

TICKETS

Hullabaloo
2021-04-22 08:00 - 2021-04-24 17:00 | EGM Update
Hullabaloo is BC’s Youth Spoken Word Festival featuring workshops, showcase performances and some of BC’s finest high school aged poets all sharing work for peers and audiences alike.
The 2021 Festival runs April 22-24th online via Zoom. Registration for returning teams opens on February 1st and open registration for all other schools begins on February 15th. Participating poets will be asked to take part in poetry workshops of their choice as well as create work to be presented for online audiences.

This year will include an alumni showcase, a youth video poem screening, a team piece showcase plus our annual Spoken Word Jamboree and closing night Feature Performance. Schools from around the province are invited to attend.

Registration is $200 and included an online workshop with a spoken word poet from WORDPLAY the Vancouver Poetry House Poets in Schools Program. The registration fee is non refundable.

Tips and Tools for Online Shows with Charlie Petch
2021-03-21 12:00 - 14:00 | Zoom
In this workshop, award-winning solo show performer, and lighting specialist for film and television, Charlie Petch, will take you through the principles of light, sound and script for online performance. Whether it is learning to light and sound better with what you have and dollar store solutions, or getting the gear you need to have an even more professional look, Charlie will show you tips and tricks and take you through the gear they use, and how you could set up a whole show that could have multiple lighting setups, and multimedia elements including projection and live music performance. Whether you are launching a book or crafting an entire show, you’ll find the advice you need from a fellow performer.
TICKETS
Charlie C Petch is an award-winning playwright, spoken word artist, haiku deathmaster, host and musical saw player. They have an upcoming poetry book with Brick Books in Fall 2021, a libretto “Medusa’s Children” forthcoming with Opera Q, and their multimedia play “Daughter of Geppetto” is also forthcoming with Wind In The Leaves, March 2021. Petch’s play “Mel Malarkey” got “Best of 2017” from Electric City Magazine, for the radio play/album “Odes & Acts”. Petch was the 2017 Poet of Honour for Spoken Word Canada, winner of the Golden Beret lifetime achievement in spoken word with The League of Canadian Poets, is a Youth Mentor with TDSB Creates and is the founder of Hot Damn it’s a Queer Slam. They are proudly trans, non-binary and disabled. Find out more at www.charliecpetch.com

CIPS Regional Qualifiers
2021-03-06 10:00 - 2021-03-07 18:00 | Zoom
VPH Regional Qualifiers: We recognize that with the global pandemic, many spoken word series have shuttered across the country. For folks whose local poetry slam is no longer active, we will be hosting 6 regional qualifiers: Pacific, Prairies, Northern, Central, Atlantic & French Speaking. Regional qualifiers will be held March 6 & 7, 2021. The deadline for regional qualifier registration is March 1, 2021.
Register for your regional qualifier by completing this form.
***Unlike the main competition, regional qualifiers will not require pre-recorded poems and will be conducted live on zoom.
Regional qualifiers will be as follows (ALL TIMES ARE IN PST):
March 6

French Speaking (Open to any poets who wish to slam in French across Canada) 10am-12pm
Northern (Yukon, Northwest Territories, Nunavut) 1-3pm
Prairie (Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba) 4-6pm

March 7

Atlantic (Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Newfoundland & Labrador, PEI) 10am-12pm
Central (Ontario, Quebec) 1-3pm
Pacific (British Columbia) 4-6pm

Regional qualifiers will not require pre-recorded poems, and will be conducted live on zoom. Registration will open in early February.
POETS ARE ONLY ALLOWED TO COMPETE IN ONE REGIONAL

A Master Class with Lillian Allen
2021-02-28 14:00 - 16:00 | Zoom
In this master class, we will explore the poetics of sound and utterance as we craft language and linguistic interventions to align politics and aesthetics. We will experiment with various strategies to texture voice as we become present to this particular moment that we find ourselves in.
TICKETS
Lillian Allen is a professor of creative writing at Ontario College of Art and Design University (OCAD). Two time JUNO Award winner and trailblazer in the field of spoken word and dub poetry, Allen artistically explores the aesthetics of old and new sounds in music to create her distinctive leading edge brand of Canadian reggae with new world sounds in her poetry recordings, with her powerful reggae dub poetry/spoken word recordings including her latest single Woken & Unbroken (2018), album ANXIETY (2012), her groundbreaking first solo Juno awardwinning album Revolutionary Tea Party, a Ms. Magazine Landmark Album, followed by another Juno winner, Conditions Critical. Her third album, Freedom & Dance and her recording for children and young people, Nothing But a Hero, were released to critical acclaim.

Video Release | Isabella Wang
2020-06-01 08:00 - 17:00 | BC
view on Youtube
Isabella was invited to Verses Festival of Words in 2020. After the festival was cancelled, Isabella agreed to do a reading on-line, producing a stunningly intimate performance of her work during this strange time of forced distance.
Isabella reads from:
prairie fire
Grain
and the recent publication of her work from Baseline Press, On Forgetting Language
At 19, Isabella Wang has been shortlisted twice for The New Quarterly’s Edna Staebler Essay Contest, and she holds a pushcart prize nomination for poetry. Her poetry and prose have appeared in over twenty literary journals, and forthcoming in three anthologies. She is an assistant editor at Room Magazine.
https://youtu.be/cGIKfc9v9uc

ApocaCIPS | 2020 Canadian Individual Poetry Slam Championship
2020-05-21 15:00 - 2020-05-23 12:00 | Bluejeans
The Canadian Individual Poetry Slam (CIPS) is a national event to determine the best slammer in Canada. Reserving your spot here will get you access to all four ApocaCIPS preliminary bouts and a seat at the finals.
Reserve your spot
ApocaCIPS Preliminary bouts 1 and 2, Thursday, May 21, 3-7pm PST
Canada’s best slam poets show us their strongest 2- and 1-minute poems in the first stage of a competition destined to crown 2020’s national slam champion!
ApocaCIPS Preliminary bouts 3 and 4, Friday, May 22, 3-7pm PST
CIPS poets bring us their 2- and 1-minute poems to the second stage of a competition.
ApocaCIPS FINALS, Saturday, May 23, 12pm PST (3PM EST)

The top 10 poets from the preliminaries advance to a final competition! Who will claim the title of 2020 ApocaCIPS Champion?

Video Release | Jules Koostachin reads Nanan from her book Unearthing Secrets, Gathering Truths
2020-04-28 08:00 - 17:00 | Youtube
Jules Koostachin reads Nanan from her book Unearthing Secrets, Gathering Truths published by Kegedonce Press.
To unearth our secrets means we must face our past, and in doing so, we will find our voice.
Unearthing Secrets, Gathering Truths delves into the life and the healing of an lnnininew woman from the ancestral lands of the Moshkekowok, now called Northern Ontario. It is through the process of writing broken poetry–visual poetry rooted in the haunting memories of her childhood–that she provides the reader a glimpse into the mind of child survivor who was saved by her ancestors.
This thought-provoking poetry sheds light on a personal account of how she comes to terms with intergenerational trauma inflicted by the residential school system. Unearthing Secrets, Gathering Truths explores the heartfelt and evocative fragmented experiences through the eyes of an Indigenous woman. Through the honesty of her words, she embraces the spirit world, the resilience of her foremothers, the integral healing powers of disassociation as a survival mechanism, and the richness of her mitewin–dreams–which reconnects her to herself. Through her poetry, she has found the courage to face her difficult past, and now as a mother, she is gathering the truths of her family to help in the healing process.
Cree from the Ancestral lands of Moshkeko, and a band member of Attawapiskat First Nation, Jules Koostachin was born in Moose Factory, Ontario where she was raised by her Cree grandparents. She is a PhD candidate with GRSJ at UBC with a focus on Indigenous documentary practices. Jules is an actor, academic, writer and a filmmaker. Her media arts practice addresses socio-political issues that urban and rural Indigenous peoples face.

Mashed Poetics
2020-04-21 19:00 - 21:00 | BC
At Mashed Poetics, poets are asked to write new poems based on songs from a featured music album. This iteration of Mashed Poetics features Spillious on acoustic guitar, performing the songs on the album Transgender Dysphoria Blues by Against Me.
Doors: 6:50 PM / Start 7:00 / on Zoom / $10
PURCHASE TICKETS
Side A

LJ Weisberg–Transgender Dysphoria Blues
Anotonette Rea-True Trans Soul Rebel
Tawahum–Unconditional Love
Marion J. Lefevre–Drinking with the Jocks
Emory Oakley–Osama Bin Laden as the Crucified Christ

Side B

Kit Tempo–Fuck My Life 666
Holden Wall–Dead Friend
Static Jam–Two Coffins
Spillious–Paralytic States
Beni Xiao–Black Me Out
