Standings

Each year Vancouver assembles a Poetry Slam Team, which travels to the National Poetry Slam held by Poetry Slam Inc., and the Canadian Festival of Spoken Word, as well as performing in and around the Pacific Northwest. The Vancouver Poetry Slam Team is determined by play-offs in April and May. To qualify for the play-offs, a poet must finish in the top 16 during the regular season, which runs from September until April.

Below are the current standings for the slams that have been completed. Note: a lower-scoring second-place finish ranks a poet in a higher position than a higher-scoring third place finish. This is because the range of scores can be quite different on any given Monday. Only a poet’s highest-ranking performance will be listing in the standings below.

Final Standings for the 2007-08 poetry slam regular season are:

1st place scores over the season

• Nora Smithhisler 58.5
• Spillious 57.4
• Zaccheus Jackson 56.8
• Al Mader 56.0
• Lady Jessica 55.4
• Clint ‘Father Goose’ Wilson 55.0
• Scruffmouth 54.4
• The Svelte Ms. Spelt 54.2
• RadaR 50.5

2nd place scores over the season

• CJ 56.9
• Julian Bentley 56.5
• Faust McKenzie 55.6
• Sean McGarragle 55.5
• Richard Lett 55.3
• Mary Alice 53.9
• Shannon Rayne 51.5

The play-offs concluded May 5th at the WISE Hall. The 2007-08 Vancouver Poetry Slam Team will be: Scruffmouth, Zaccheus Jackson, RadaR, and Faust McKenzie. Scruffmouth won the overall competition and walked away wearing the newly minted championship belt (fashioned by Clint ‘Father Goose’ Wilson).

The summer season will start on June 2nd. Winners of poetry slams in the summer season will qualify to compete in the individual slam play-offs to determine which poet will represent Vancouver at the Individual World Poetry Slam being held in Charlotte, NC in December 2008.