Slam Dunk!

Vancouver, Day 11

Today's highlight was without doubt the Vancouver Poetry Slam.

When we visited Café Deux Soleils last week we noticed a sign advertising this weekly event and decided that we'd go along. And I'm delighted that we did.

We called into the café earlier in the day for some delicious scrambled tofu and hash browns before having an afternoon nap in sunny John Hendry park. By the time we got back to Deux Soleils the place was heaving and we were lucky to get in for the Slam.

For those who haven't been to a Poetry Slam before, it's a competition over 3 rounds in which poets perform their work in time-limited slots and are scored by audience members, with competitors being whittled down to 3 prize winners by the end of the night.

Tonight's event was warm, welcoming, friendly, supportive, diverse in terms of performers and content - and a huge amount of fun! The one-minute dance party whilst the scores were totted up was a nice touch too. We discovered that this Monday night event has been running since 1996 and is Canada's longest running Poetry Slam. I know I'd become a regular if I lived locally!

The poets were political, personal (and as we know, the personal IS political), serious, humorous and very skilled.

A particular favourite of mine was Coral More who was placed 3rd in tonight's event. The three poems she performed all touched me deeply and when we had a brief chat afterwards she was absolutely lovely!

Here's a clip of her performing at a previous slam... www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ttAar8u5u4

Additional 'half time' poetic and musical entertainment was provided by the brilliant Lucia Misch http://www.vancouverpoetryhouse.com/blog/wordplay/our-poets/lucia-misch/ and here's a YouTube clip of her performance of 'Intersectionality' filmed this very night! www.youtube.com/watch?v=cR7C3iRrWJE

How's that for up-to-the minute? You can all imagine you were there too. Which would've been the icing on the cake!