Holly has won 4 slams this season and was voted by this year’s competing poets as the best representative for LPS (note: you get the chance to vote every time you slam!). She is headed to the Vancouver International Poetry Festival April 23 – 28, 2012. Holly will be competing alongside 39 other poets from across the country vying for the title of Canadian Indie Champion.

The festival will include events such as a Haiku Death Match, a late night Nerd Slam, an Erotica show and a return of the poets brunch courtesy of Johnny MacRae and Steve Miller. Charles Hamilton serves as tournament director, and Open Secret (Ikenna Onyegbula) returns as the defending champ.

Regular slam rules apply: no music, no props, no costumes, no nudity (boo this rule), no animal acts, just you and a microphone for the time allotted for that round. If you go long, 0.5 points are deducted for each 10 seconds you go past the time limit. Differing from a regular slam though is that time limits vary from round to round. C.I.P.S. follows basically the same format as the Individual World Poetry Slam and Women of the World Poetry Slam.

All registered competitors will participate in two preliminary bouts, each bout consisting of ten poets. The first night they will perform in a round of one-minute poems. The second half will be a round of four-minute poems. Order is drawn randomly for the first (1 min) round and will be the reverse for the second (4 min) round.

The second preliminary bout will occur the next night. It will also be composed of ten poets each, shuffled around so that as few poets as possible face each other in both prelims. This night starts with a round of two-minute poems (random order), and then a round of three-minute poems (reverse order).

The top ten poets from the preliminary bouts will advance to the finals stage. Ranking is determined by, firstly, the poet’s placement in each round, and then, if necessary, by scores. For example, a poet might place second in the one-minute round, third in the four-minute round, seventh in the two-minute round, and first in the three-minute round. This would give them a total rank of 13 (2+3+7+1). Lower ranks are better. If two poets are tied in rank, their total scores can be used as a tiebreaker.

On finals night, the poets will be performing three-minute poems. The first round will consist of ten poets. The top seven highest-scoring poets will move on to the second round. Then, the top four highest-scoring poets from the second round move on to the third and final round. The highest scoring poet in the third round becomes the Canadian Individual Poetry Slam Champion. It’s a blank slate each round, not a cumulative score from all three rounds. The order in each round is determined by random draw.

For more information on the Vancouver International Poetry Festival, visit http://vancouverpoetryfestival.com/ or search Vancouver International Poetry Festival on Facebook.

Place: London Music Club, 470 Colborne Street, London ON

Cover: PWYC $5 minimum, or get in FREE if you volunteer!

Feature Poet:

Our feature poet this month is Keisha Monique, a spoken word poet, musician and sculptor who has been creating since the age of nine. In addition to having her poetry featured on radio, television and film, she is also a two-time feature at North Americaʼs largest spoken word concert, ʻWhen Sisters Speakʼ. She has also been a featured performer both nationally and internationally from book cafeʼs to festivals. As a musician, Keisha Monique trained with Drum Master Muhtadi of Muhtadi International Drumming in 2006 and has since lent her talents to the Stephen Lewis Foundation AIDS Benefit Concert where she opened for artists such as Saukrates, K-OS, Jully Black, Nelly Furtado and Alicia Keys. Whether performing for the Free The Angola 3 Fundraising Concert or the Future Leaders Conference in Kingston, Jamaica; at University of Torontoʼs Diaspora Voices: New Directions Conference or Johannesburgʼs Arts Alive Festival, her words reflect the harsh reality of everyday struggles fused with the courage to not only face them but heal from these experiences.

*Wondering where your $5 goes? The cover charges go towards venue rentals, a prize for the winner ($60), remuneration and travel expenses for our guest features, and if extra funds allow, prizes for the other finalists. The cash also covers our free workshops and incidental costs like photocopies, posters, etc.

Place: London Music Club, 470 Colborne Street, London ON

Cover: PWYC $5 minimum, or get in FREE if you volunteer/slam and bring a friend!

Feature Poet:

This month we welcome Vancouver-based writer and musician Brendan McLeod as our feature poet. Brendan is a former Canadian SLAM poetry champion and World SLAM runner-up.

His first novel, The Convictions of Leonard McKinley, was longlisted for the 2008 Re:Lit Award for fiction. His first play, The Big Oops, toured the country last summer. His music group The Fugitives was nominated for a 2007 Canadian Folk Music Award. He teaches spoken word at Langara College.

www.brendanmcleod.ca
www. fugitives.ca

*Wondering where your $5 goes? The cover charges go towards venue rentals, a prize for the winner ($60), remuneration and travel expenses for our guest features, and if extra funds allow, prizes for the other finalists. The cash also covers our free workshops and incidental costs like photocopies, posters, etc.

Come on out for our next Poetry Slam on December 16th, again at the London Music Club.

July 16, 12pm-2pm. Free!
Palace Theatre, 710 Dundas Street East (in Old East Village)

Get ready to feed your mind. July’s feature poet, David Perez, will be leading this month’s free workshop.

David will lead a writing-based workshop designed to generate content that elicits engaging performance. Believing firmly in the importance of premise, he will offer exercises that help writers find the stories that “write themselves.” This is especially helpful for writers interested in narrative or persona poetry. He will also present activities that jump start the writing process no matter how severe the lack of inspiration.

London Poetry Slam has teamed up with Aeolian Hall to bring you one of the world’s biggest slam poets:

Shane Koyczan and The Short Story Long

Aeolian Hall, 8 PM Thursday June 16,  Doors at 7 PM

“Shane swallowed the stage with the power of his verse, stepping from subdued deep hot sad love poetry to hip-hop power chord
meta-meter, throttling the crowd with the weight of his rhymes, and effectively wiping the stage with us.
And so, a whole new generation of rhyme readers will be born.”

- Dave Bidini, author/musician

In a world where poets rarely intersect with stardom, the Opening Ceremonies for the 2010 Winter Olympics introduced us to Shane Koyczan with “We Are More”, a piece originally commissioned by the Canadian Tourism Commission.   Koyczan emerges in a new wave of 21st century poetry that dares to belong to the people and speak directly to them in their own voice.

Koyczan is both a writer and spoken word virtuoso. His first published collection, Visiting Hours, was the only work of poetry selected by both the Guardian and the Globe and Mail for their Best Books of the Year lists in 2005. Koyczan followed up on the success of Visiting Hours with Stickboy, a novel in verse that chronicles the dark and lonely journey of a bullied child gripped by helpless rage.

Koyczan also breathes life into the new genre of talk rock with his band The Short Story Long. A trio (Olivia Mennell, Maiya Robbie, and Stefan Bienz) whose musical range stretches from folk to funk, from ambient to rock, showcasing all of the beautiful in between, have along with Koyczan created a whole new style of song/verse. Winning “Best New Artist” at the BC Interior Music Awards in 2009, receiving standing ovations at festivals across Canada, and selling out theatres and café’s alike, the band is turning heads on the Canadian independent music scene. Koyczan is establishing himself in yet another unique way through his work with Short Story Long and a recent recorded collaboration with two time CBC Radio 3 Award Winner Dan Mangan.

Tickets : $20 advance, $22 door, $15 with student card. Tickets available at The Aeolian box office, 519-672-7950, 795 Dundas St E, online and cash only atGrooves and the Village Idiot. For more about Shane Koyczan visit http://koyczanpoetry.tumblr.com/

Where: Palace Theatre (Procunier Hall) 710 Dundas St East

When: May 28. Doors @ 7, show @ 8.

Tickets: $10 cash at the door.

facebook event >

Tam Duong will be opening for C.R. Avery, his music is renowned for being thoughtful and thought provoking. He sings with a gentle intensity and captures imaginations with his poetic storytelling. Artists such as John Mayer, Al Green, Jason Mraz, Jimi Hendrix and Eric Clapton help Tam to blend jazz, blues, and pop, creating a refined yet soulful sound. You can listen to Tam’s music at www.tamduongmusic.com

Time: Doors Open at 7:30pm, Slam Starts at 8pm. A collective meeting will take place at 7:30 to which all are welcome.

Location: The London Music Club (470 Colborne St.)

Cover: PWYC Minimum $5

Poets who slam get in FREE if they bring a friend

Feature Poet: Kahsenniyo Wilson

Kahsenniyo is a Mohawk wolf from the Six Nations of the Grand River Territory. She is one of the co-founders of Young Onkwehonwe United (Y.O.U.), a youth movement based out of Six Nations that is committed to creating positive opportunities for our youth to heal and learn. Kahsenniyo uses her spoken word poetry as a way of provoking thought, healing, and teaching about Indigenous issues here on Turtle Island. Her strong militant performances have moved audiences across the province.

May 21, 12pm-2pm. Free!
Palace Theatre, 710 Dundas Street East (in Old East Village)

Get ready to feed your mind. May’s feature poet, Charles Hamilton, will be leading this month’s free workshop.

Charles Hamilton’s poetry explores place–the cities we live in, the people we come in contact with and the bodies we in inhabit. This workshop will deal with what it means to write about a place, and how to mix reality with poetry and performance with words.

Time: Doors Open at 7:30pm, Slam Starts at 8pm

Location: The London Music Club (470 Colborne St.)

Cover: PWYC Minimum $5

Oh, and if you slam you get in FREE!

Feature Poet: Charles Hamilton

Charles Hamilton is spoken word artist and journalist based in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.  He is the Executive Director and Slam Master of Tonight It’s Poetry, Saskatoon’s only weekly poetry series.  He is two time captain of the Saskatoon Slam Team.  He has slammed in venues across Canada, sharing his work everywhere from  high school classrooms and to music festivals. In 2009 he represented Saskatoon at the Individual World Poetry Slam Championship in Berkeley California.  Hamilton has shared the stage with such spoken word legends as C.R. Avery, Shane Koyscan and Mike McGee.  When he is not performing poetry Hamilton works a radio journalist with the CBC.  He has one self published chapbook titled Eulogies.