History
The Vancouver Poetry Slam is the longest running poetry slam in Canada. What follows is an informal history of the Van Slam as remembered by those who were there from the beginning. To find out more about the evolution of poetry slams as an art form, click here.
Late 1995 - Early 1996
James P. McAuliffe and Graham Olds start up the Vancouver Poetry Slam at the Grind Gallery. McAuliffe becomes the original slammaster.
1996
The first Vancouver Poetry Slam team is formed. On the team are Alexandra Oliver, Cass King, Andrea Thompson and Justin McGrail with SR Duncan as the alternate. The team travels to Portland, Oregon for the National Poetry Slam. The team causes a stir and is captured on film in the movie SlamNation. Vancouver’s NPS notoriety begins.
1996 - 1997
There is no team but Andrea Thompson travels to NPS to compete as an individual poet.
1997 - 1998
Graham Olds takes over as slammaster. A team once again is sent to compete at the National Poetry Slam. Cass King is on the team again along with Jen Griffin, Hugh McMillan and the Svelte Ms. Spelt. Cass King finishes 5th overall in the individual rankings at Nationals.
1998 - 1999
The slam has been running successfully at the Vancouver Press Club for about a year and a half. However, the Press Club’s lease runs out. The Slam moves to the Purple Onion in Gastown. The change in location causes difficulties and the slam goes from packed houses to barely pulling in 30-40 people once a month. Still, a team is put together featuring Cass King, Shane Koyczan, RC Weslowski and Laurel Albina. They travel to Chicago along with Graham Olds, SR Duncan and The Svelte Ms. Spelt. The team finishes its highest ever, and misses making the finals stage by .1 in a semi-final defeat. This is the first team for Shane and RC. Shane makes it to finals stage as an indie poet and finishes 6th overall. The first Salmon Slam takes place at the WISE Hall featuring teams from Seattle, Vancouver, Portland and a “best of” Bay Area team from California.
1999 - 2000
The slam continues to bounce around from venue to venue. It moves from the Purple Onion to Café Deux Soleils for the first time. Audiences improve. Shane Koyczan, The Svelte Ms. Spelt, Al Mader and RC Weslowski make the team. NPS is held in Providence, Rhode Island, the burial home of HP Lovecraft. Shane Koyczan wins the individual title at NPS and becomes the first Canadian to do so.
2000 - 2001
The slam continues at Café Deux Soliels. Some notoriety around the slam has been created thanks to the hungry talent hitting the stage on a regular basis. The likes of CR Avery, Overload aka Wayne Mercier, Fernando Raguero, Noel Pion, Dare Dawda, Zeechilla and many others want a crack at making the team. In the end the 2001 team is comprised of Cass King, Shane Koyczan, RC Weslowski and CR Avery. The 2001 team decides to perform nothing but group pieces at the National Poetry Slam (held in Seattle, Washington), the first time a Slam Team has done this. Shane effectively says he will sacrifice a shot at repeating as Indie Champ for the sake of the team concept. Once again a Vancouver team makes history. The team is asked to feature on the Finals Stage. CR Avery causes a stir with his beatboxing abilities.
T. Paul Ste. Marie starts up Thundering Word Heard, a poetry and music showcase at the Montmartre café, and becomes a great supporter of the slam community.
Somewhere around this time, Cass King and the Svelte Ms. Spelt create the NPS Honour Code and present it at slammasters. It effectively suggests that poets agree to play fair and remember that “The points are not the point. The point is the poetry.” Meanwhile the Poetry Slam changes venues once again and moves to Zesty Restaurant. The Salmon Slam returns.
2001 - 2002
After a number of lacklustre audiences and shows at Zesty Restaurant (including the first feature by Buddy Wakefield less than a week after September 11th where fewer than 12 people came out to the show), the slam moves back to Café Deux Soleils where it continues to this day. In 2002 the slam team is consists of Shane Koyczan, CR Avery and 2 “rookies”, Barbara Adler and Fernando Raguero. NPS is held in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The Svelte Ms. Spelt is given the Spirit of the Slam award by Marc Smith, the creator of the modern day Poetry Slam. The Spirit of the Slam is handed out in recognition to someone who has shown dedication to the art form above and beyond the competition. Spelt aka Angus Adair is the first Canadian to win the award. There is no Salmon Slam.
2002 - 2003
The poetry slam begins to gain momentum with audiences in Vancouver. Full houses begin to sporadically appear. The slam continues at once a month. However changes are afoot. Local poet Vlad E. Vostok aka Zeechilla passes away. The Van Slam creates a trophy in his honour for the annual slam team championship. Darek Dawda moves to Winnipeg and starts a slam team up there. Winnipeg joins Vancouver in Chicago for the 2003 National Poetry Slam. Vancouver brings a veteran team comprised of Shane Koyczan, RC Weslowski, Barbara Adler and CR Avery with Al Mader as the alternate. Expectations and hopes are high that this team can do well. They finish 1st overall after day one. On day 2 they finish 3rd in a bout that features some of the highest scores ever at a slam at NPS. Despite having the highest overall score of any team, the Van Slam team has a 4 ranking and does not make semi finals. Shane finishes in the top 5 in indies once again. In 2003 Dwayne Morgan organizes the 1st ever Toronto Individual Poetry Slam that takes place over the Labour Day weekend. Shane, Barbara, RC and Darek Dawda compete. Dawda finishes 2nd overall.
2003 - 2004
Darek Dawda, Oni the Haitain Sensation, and Anthony Bansfield create the Spoken Wordlympics, a national Canadian Slam tournament that is held in Ottawa in October 2004. In the meantime the 2004 Van Slam team is created featuring Barbara Adler, Brendan Mcleod, CR Avery and Shane Koyczan. They travel to St. Louis for one of the worst National Poetry Slams ever. Later on in 2004 Vancouver sends two slam team to compete in the Spoken Wordlympics. The 2nd team is made up of RC Weslowski, Fernando Raguero, Overload and Al Mader. The Adler, Mcleod, Avery, Koyczan contingent win the National team competition and Brendan Mcleod wins the National Indie Slam title. During the summer of 2004, Sean McGarragle creates the West Coast Poetry Festival. It’s a mix of “page and stage poets.”
2004 - 2005
Brendan Mcleod represents Vancouver at the World Poetry Slam in Rotterdam, Netherlands and comes in 2nd overall to Kat Francois from the UK. Back home increasing crowd numbers have encouraged the slam to happen the 1st and 2nd Monday of every month as the slam begins to operate all year long. New poets continue to come out to strut their stuff on the Van Slam stage including a slew of strong female talent. Magpie Ulysses, Amnesia Jane Smith, Kim Shaughnessy, Sue McIntyre, Nola and Gena Perala are just a few. Other noteables hanging around include Patrick Swan, Zaccheus Jackson and TL Groves. In 2005 Vancouver once again creates 2 slam teams. One team goes to NPS and both teams will compete in the Spoken Wordlympics, held in Vancouver. RC Weslowski is asked to be Artistic Director for the Festival and declines to compete for a slot on the teams. Team one features Brendan Mcleod, Barbara Adler, Amnesia Jane Smith, Magpie Ulysses and Zaccheus Jackson. Zaccheus is unable to travel to NPS, this year held in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Upon their return Mapgie opts to try out for the 2nd Vancouver team and makes the squad. Also on the team are Patrick Swan, TL Groves and Kim Shaughnessy. At the 2nd annual Spoken Wordlympics (now known as the Canadian Festival of Spoken Word) a Vancouver team claims the National Team title once again. It’s Vancouver’s second slam team, featuring Magpie, Patrick Swan, Kim Shaughnessy and TL Groves. The festival is an artistic success but a financial failure. Many poets go home happy.The Salmon Slam is also relaunched.
2005 - 2006
This will end up being the final year of Graham Olds as Slammaster of the Vancouver Poetry Slam. Graham and his wife Janine move to Vancouver Island. Organizational reigns will handed over to RC Weslowski and the Svelte Ms. Spelt. Spelt officially becomes the “slammaster of record.” Vancouver decides to create only one slam team this year. For the 2006 National Poetry Slam and the Canadian Festival of Spoken Word the team is made up of RC Weslowski, Magpie Ulysses, Patrick Swan and newcomer Nora Smithhisler. The team has a modicum of success in Austin, Texas for NPS but a strong bond is created between the team members that helps to reinvigorate the slam scene to some degree. They go on to capture the National Slam Title for Vancouver once again at the Canadian Festival of Spoken Word. It’s the 3rd year in a row a Vancouver slam team has captured the title. Vancouver’s slam scene is recognized as the Mecca of Slam in Canada.
2006 - 2007
In February of 2007, Vancouver hosts the Individual World Poetry Slam (IWPS). This is the first time that a Poetry Slam Incorporated flagship tournament has been held outside the United States. The festival is both an artistic and financial success with sold out houses at Cafe Deux Soliel, Rime, and Zesty’s every night. Artistic Director Angus Adair (also known as the Svelte Ms. Spelt) takes a well deserved bow on Finals Night stage at The Rio Theater – along with the tireless and talented organizing committee (RC Wesloswski, Steve Duncan, Jim McKnight,Sue McIntyre, and assistant director Sean McGarragle) – in front of a standing room only crowd of over 650 people from all over the city and the continent. The IWPS also marks the 1st time that a competitor from a First Nations group has officially represented their aboriginal nation in a PSI tournament.
T. Paul Ste. Marie dies suddenly, striking a hard blow to Vancouver’s poetry community. Thundering Word Heard was the winner of the WestEnder’s “Best in the West” award for Best Open Mic from 2001-2003. T.W.H. closes down, but plans are put in motion to restart it.
In June of 2007, RC Weslowski travels to France to participate in the World Cup of Poetry and represent Vancouver and Canada in the international slam competition that has taken the place of the Rotterdam event. Weslowski finishes 2nd overall behind Anis Mojgani from the United States. A mostly new Vancouver Slam team is created featuring Fernando Raguero, Zaccheus Jackson, Scruffmouth aka Kevan Cameron and a returning Nora Smithhisler with Sean McGarragle as the alternate. This team will travel to Austin, Texas once again to compete at NPS and then to Halifax, Nova Scotia for the Canadian Festival of Spoken Word to defend Vancouver’s national title.
Vancouver has also created its first ever Youth Slam team featuring Sasha Langford, Ben Nixon, Andrew Pendragon and Olivia Berger-Hawthorne. The Salmon Slam continues in July 2007 with Seattle taking home the Salmon Slam hammer.
2007 - 2008
The new slam season is about to begin. The slam continues at Café Deux Soleils every 1st, 3rd and 5th Monday. Crowds are larger than ever. Poets from around the world are eager to feature at this event. Poets continue to emerge from seemingly out of nowhere and keep the slam energized, such as Superboy, Faust McKenzie, Trevor Spilchen, CJ, Richard Lett, Bill McNamara, Lisa Slater and many more. They help keep Vancouver’s Poetry Slam scene the strongest in Canada.