{"id":6276,"date":"2013-02-20T09:00:07","date_gmt":"2013-02-20T17:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/?p=6276"},"modified":"2013-02-19T11:27:03","modified_gmt":"2013-02-19T19:27:03","slug":"spoken-word-fest-on-the-cutting-edge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/2013\/02\/20\/spoken-word-fest-on-the-cutting-edge\/","title":{"rendered":"Spoken-word fest on the cutting edge"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cIf you want to hear a poem about riding a unicorn, I\u2019m going to write that poem and it\u2019s going to make you cry,\u201d says Missie Peters, director of the Victoria Spoken Word Festival. Poetry written on the fly, or instant slam, is just one of the many manifestations of spoken word art showcased at this year\u2019s Spoken Word Festival.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Vancouver poet Jo Bee says performing spoken word is intimidating but anyone can do it (photo provided).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The third annual festival features performances by an ensemble of 12 emerging artists from across Canada, as well as poet of honour Johnny MacRae, and internationally renowned stand-up poet Mighty Mike McGee.<\/p>\n

Running February 27 until March 3, the festival continues to stretch the boundaries of spoken-word art, as the performers spend their days participating in workshops focusing on areas of artistry like mime, mask making, and puppetry.<\/p>\n

For Peters, giving poets the chance to enrich their art form was a driving factor for starting the festival.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne thing that spoken word doesn\u2019t have in Canada is a lot of opportunities to learn and grow,\u201d says Peters. \u201cI designed this festival in response to what I saw missing at the national level.\u201d<\/p>\n

Veteran performer McGee, whose combination of comedy and poetry grants him the label of a stand-up poet, has been witness to the progression of the spoken-word scene for over 20 years.<\/p>\n

\u201cBack in the \u201990s there were a lot of older people involved in slam poetry. Now the performers seem to be getting younger and younger,\u201d says Mcgee. \u201cThey seem to be a little more bold about what they\u2019re doing, and I like it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vancouver poet Jo Bee has been performing her poetry since she joined the first Vancouver Youth Poetry Slam team at 14. Even at such a young age, Bee, now 20, didn\u2019t feel intimidated about getting up on stage.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s nerve-wracking, but it\u2019s also a really accessible art form,\u201d she says. \u201cAnybody can write slam poetry. You see it and it\u2019s inspiring. It makes you want to get on stage and do it yourself. It\u2019s been an incredibly supportive environment to grow up in.\u201d<\/p>\n

For those interested in trying their hand at some spoken word poetry of their own, the last day of the festival features a public workshop for aspiring poets-to-be.<\/p>\n

If you just want to sit back and enjoy the show, every night of the festival promises to offer a unique experience.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery year the shows are something that you\u2019ve never seen before. This is really cutting-edge, one-time-only kind of stuff,\u201d says Peters. \u201cTo watch these poets that have only been working together for a week build something so deep and risky and memorable is really the highlight of my year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Victoria Spoken Word Festival
\nFebruary 27 to March 3
\nIntrepid Theatre
\nvictoriaspokenwordfestival.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cIf you want to hear a poem about riding a unicorn, I\u2019m going to write that poem and it\u2019s going to make you cry,\u201d says Missie Peters, director of the Victoria Spoken Word Festival. Poetry written on the fly, or instant slam, is just one of the many manifestations of spoken word art showcased at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6277,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,96],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6276","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts","category-february-20-2013"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6276","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6276"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6276\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6279,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6276\/revisions\/6279"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6277"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6276"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6276"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6276"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}