Hello poetry enthusiasts,

The Vancouver Poetry Slam Finals Night is only one month away. This is the biggest poetry night of the year, the culmination of eight months of qualifying and semi-final poetry slams. Eight of the best performance poets in the city will compete for four spots (and an alternate slot) on the Vancouver Poetry Slam Team, and the top poet will be crowned Grand Slam Champion. More importantly, this is your chance to experience some of the most incredible poetry being written and performed anywhere in Canada.

Finals Night this year will feature Individual World Poetry Slam champion, Joaquín Zihuatanejo!

When: April 19th, 2010, doors at 7pm, show at 8pm
Where: Rio Theatre, 1660 East Broadway (by Commercial Dr.)
How much: $12 in advance ($13 online), $15 at the door
(Group rates available for schools.)

Last year’s Finals Night featuring Shane Koyczan (now of Olympic opening ceremonies fame) was completely sold out, and we expect the same could happen this year, so get your tickets early.

You can buy tickets every Monday at Café Deux Soleils during the Vancouver Poetry Slam, or at any time online through our secure web ordering system at:

http://vancouverpoetryhouse.com/vanslam/153

Our feature, Joaquín, has been called by critics, “one of the most dynamic and passionate performance poets in the country, melding equal parts comedy, poetry, and dramatic monologue into a crowd-pleasing display of verbal fireworks…always thrilling, Joaquín’s hilariously manic presentation is full of compassion and nuance, never sacrificing substance for style, leading many to call him poetry slam’s answer to John Leguizamo.”

A National Poetry Slam Finalist, Grand Slam Spoken Word Champion, and HBO Def Poet, Joaquín has performed his poetry at universities, conferences and poetry slams all over the Unites States, Canada, Mexico and Europe.

In 2005, Joaquin was featured on season five of Russell Simmons Presents Def Poetry for HBO. Filmed in front of a live audience at the majestic Supper Club Theater just off Broadway in New York City, Joaquin performed in front of a capacity crowd and received a standing ovation for his performance.

The Vancouver Poetry House AGM will be held:

Sunday March 7
3-4 pm
Cafe Deux Soleils
2096 Commercial Drive

Agenda includes
-Financial, President’s and Program Reports
-Election of Officers
-New Business

Membership renewals are due at the AGM. Membership must be current to participate in the AGM and to vote. Membership fee is $5. Yes, you can buy memberships at the AGM itself.

Hope to see you there!

On January 31st, the Vancouver Poetry Slam will be having a Van Slam Family Meeting to discuss and decide on the following topics/projects…

So for those that are interested…

The January Van Slam Family meeting will be held on January 31st at 6:30 PM at the Brittania Community Centre (1661 Napier Street) , specifically at the Learning Resource Centre. We’ve rented the space for 2 1/2 hours and I hope we finish in 1 hour but on the off chance we can’t eat through everything in the first hour and a half we’ll take a break then for 5 or 10 and then come back and go through the rest.

1) VOTING: The election of the local slammaster
2) INFORMATIONAL: Finals Night at the Rio
3) INFORMATIONAL: Canadian Indies
4) Possibly something from the Rules Committee
5) VOTING: Changing the Youth Slam proceeds from going from half to Van Slam and half to the youth slam to all going to the Youth Slam
6) VOTING: The purchasing of a video camera for the slam for the purpose of video taping and posting on youtube, our myspace, website and facebook groups poems from the 2nd round of each and every slam
7) VOTING: The Rookie of the Year Award
8) VOTING: Proposed Van Slam Budget for 2010 and financial update

All of the topics have been posted for discussion on the Vancouver Poetry House forum so please chime in on any and all topics there.

Hope to see you all there,

Sean and Duncan

The Vancouver Poetry Slam’s second annual Women of the World playoff bout might have been the best show of the winter. Café Deux Soleils was cram-packed, and there was a line of people waiting to get in for much of the show. Jessica was on-point as host and ringmaster, exhorting the crowd to yell “Vagina” through the whole evening. Gyno-power was in overdrive, and it was awesome to behold. Our feature Lisa Slater demonstrated why she’s been one of the best in the city for several years now.

The poets competing had qualified for this bout by scoring highly in slams over the past few months. The top eight point-getters who earned a spot in last night’s battle were: Antonette, Julie Peters, Katrina, Magpie Ulysses, Marcela, Shannon Rayne, Sonya Littlejohn, and Tessa. They all brought poetic thunder to the stage in a back and forth bout that wasn’t decided until the third and final round.

In the end, the winner was the poetic tower of power, Julie Peters!

She will be Vancouver’s rep at the Women of the World poetry slam, held in Columbus, Ohio from March 10-13.

From Sean McGarragle the Vancouver Poetry Slam Slammaster:

This is an announcement for the upcoming Van Slam Family meeting where we will be discussing and voting on many things from a proposed new points system to the election of a new Van Slam International Slammaster. The agenda is listed bellow.

Anyone can attend the meeting. But to be able to vote you need to have attended (volunteered, performed, being a judge or just an audience member) at least 4 times in the past 6 months at a Vancouver Poetry Slam event.

Van Slam Meeting August 30th
Location: The Learning Centre in the Brittania Community Centre Complex
1661 Napier Street
Time: 2:00 PM till 4:00 PM

Items on the Agenda:

1) Proposed Rules Changes from the Rules Committee with regards to the qualification for the Van Slam playoffs (discussion here: http://vancouverpoetryhouse.com/forum/smf/index.php/topic,684.0.html)
2) Proposed Rule Changes with regards to the maximum number of slam one can compete in during the regular season
3) The election of a new International Slammaster (Lisa Slater is not seeking re-election) If you are interested in running for this position let Sean know. (discussion here:http://vancouverpoetryhouse.com/forum/smf/index.php/topic,580.0.html)
4) Introduction of our wonderful new volunteer coordinator
5) Proposal with regards to recording all of the regular season slams from Warren Dean Fulton
6) Promotion of the Honour Code at the Slam
7) Update on T-Shirt and Cd Sales from Chris Gilpin
8) Update from Lisa Slater and RC Weslowski from NPS
9) Update on the weekly slams from Sean McGarragle
10) Preview of the Upcoming season and CFSW from Sean McGarragle

The meeting will not last longer than 1 hour and 45 minutes. We will be starting on time, please do not be late. And if you’re unsure where it is I will be in front of the Brittania Library at 1:30 PM. Hope to see you all there.

The 2008-09 edition of the Vancouver Poetry Slam’s Finals Night was a raging success, selling out the Rio Theatre. Over 450 poetry fans packed the place, booing and cheering, as eight poets vied for four spots on the Vancouver Slam Poetry Team. That’s the largest audience for a Finals Night since the Vancouver Poetry Slam started in 1996. The continued growth of audience interest in this grassroots arts movement proves that performance poetry is more popular than ever in Vancouver.

After three rounds of poetic jousting, RC Weslowski emerged as this year’s Grand Slam Champ. Joining him on the Van Slam Poetry Team will be Johnny Macrae, Nora Smithhisler and Chris Gilpin. Duncan Shields and Steve Miller tied for the team’s alternate spot.

This is Nora’s third team in four years. Chris Gilpin’s second consecutive team. And RC’s sixth team in, well, a decade or so. The only other person who has been on six teams in Shane Koyczan, who put in a killer feature set, breaking out several pieces from his new CD “Shut Up and Say Something”.

Thanks to Sue McIntyre for organizing all our awesome volunteers. Thanks to Sean McGarragle for hosting, and being a fantastic slammaster. Thanks to the Svelte Ms. Spelt for bout managing. And thanks to the staff of the Rio Theatre for helping make the night such a big success.

Vancouver Poetry House
Annual General Meeting
February 16, 2009

PRESIDENT’S REPORT

Since our last AGM in March of 2008, Vancouver Poetry House has gone through a number of changes while continuing with our core programs.

Vancouver Poetry Slam had its first full year of new leadership and weekly slams. Participation at youth and alt slams as well as at regular slams has increased steadily. Additional significant accomplishments include the creation of a Van Slam Constitution and Honour Code, and the creation of a Rules Committee. The Slam has also received a grant from the Canada Council for the Arts. This has been used to fund performances by spoken word artists from across Canada at our slam.

Word Play Poetry in the Schools program continued to provide poetry workshops in local schools. After a brief rest period, the program has undergone a reorganization, involving more poets in direct outreach to schools.

In July, Poetry House participated in the Summer Dreams Reading Festival. In October, we hosted a workshop about sexual harassment and sex role stereotyping in the arts community.

The Vancouver Poetry House website was re-designed. Participation in site’s forum has steadily increased this year.

Current projects include: The presentation of the Salt Lines Tour in March, and Van Slam Finals Night – moving to the Rio Theatre.

Thank you to everyone who has done the work of Poetry House this year, volunteers, board members and participants in all of our activities. Thanks and best wishes to our outgoing Board members and welcome to those who will be joining us for the coming year.