The time has come! March is the last chance for poets hoping to make the 2013 London Poetry Slam Finals to hit the stage and make their mark. If you’re a poet, grab your best words and come throw them into the microphone, and if you’re a poetry lover, grab a couple friends and come enjoy an inspiring night of spoken word.

NOTE* This month we will not have an open mic portion of the show (usually reserved for up to 3 performers who wish to share their work but not be part of the slam competition) Instead, we will welcome our Canadian Individual Poetry Slam rep Emilee Nimetz to drop a mini set to start the show! Emilee will be travelling to Vancouver in April, representing the London Poetry Slam, and needs all our support and love to get there!

This month we welcome Magpie Ulysses from Nelson, B.C as our feature performer.

Magpie Ulysses is a dynamic performance poet and storyteller known for charming and slaying her audiences with intense stage presence and thoughtful insight about humanity. Her “confessional poems hit hard and take the reader through intense visceral terrain, but never wallow” (Robert Priest, NOW magazine). Magpie began performing poems at the age of 17 in Calgary, Alberta. She has performed across North America at hundreds of events, sold close to 1000 chapbooks from her own hands, is a veteran of the Vancouver poetry slam, where she was a member of two national champion Vancouver poetry slam teams and was the winner of Vancouver’s 2008 CBC poetry Face off. Magpie was recently named a Poet of Honour at the Canadian festival of Spoken word (2012).

So much of her work surrounds the things we don’t say. She speaks on the topics of history, science, love, exploration, abuse, addictions, environmentalism, human triumph, sacrifice and struggle. She has been called “an anthropologist of the heart who doesn’t apologize for her vastness when she sets fire to the shade you took for shelter from this thing we call living.”

Slam is at our regular time (doors at 7:30, slam starts at 8), same place (London Music Club, 470 Colborne St), same price (ONLY $5), and same rules (sign up at the door, team pieces welcome, no props, no costumes, no nudity, no hate speech, original work only).

Bring your friends, your fam, your snapping fingers, and of course, your poems!
Check out our Facebook Group ‘London Poetry Slam’ for the event and don’t say maybe, say yes!
You can also follow us on Twitter at @LDNPoetrySlam

And don’t forget to join us for our monthly FREE Saturday workshop at King’s College from 12-2 PM . No experience necessary. Featuring our wonderful feature poet, Magpie. Magpie will be conducting a workshop focused on the power of the collective spirit. Together, attendees will choose one writer’s personal story and create a ‘group piece’ which can include either one voice or multiple. Through numeruous exercises – including personal writing times, small and large group activities – the two-hours will create the conditions for a connected cohesion of artistry.