Ottawa Slam Team Takes CFSW For 2009
Well it’s all come to a close. A lot of the people that were part of this festival have already left, or are leaving. Sitting here in the hotel lobby seeing some of them file out makes me a little sad, of course, I’m even sadder that I have had a week filled with poetry, and now it’s time to go back to work….blech!
Last night was a beautiful night. First and foremost that the finals took place in a wonderfully beautiful venue. The Victoria Music Conservatory, which is essentially a big church, but with theater size capacity, and absolutely awesome acoustics. It was a building that was completely calibrated for music, but I gotta tell ya, hearing poetry in that place was absolutely awesome, and seeing people fill the place making last night’s event the most heavily attended CFSW final ever made it all the more awesome.
The night started out wonderfully honouring two amazing spoken word artists for their contribution to spoken word throughout Canada. The honourees were CR Avery and Andrea Thompson, who both performed two short, but memorable sets. CR Avery did my favourite of his pieces, a tribute poem to Pierre Elliott Trudeau. Also before the actual competition three teams that did not make the final performed a highlight piece from the festival, and it gave myself, Yehuda, and Ariel a chance to reprise the “Coming Out Bi” piece which went over well yet again.
The competition itself brought forth some extremely powerful individual and team pieces, and while all teams gave a valiant effort, the night clearly belonged to the Ottawa slam team, who each and every time performed a memorable power piece that sent them way ahead of the competition that night. Their themes included, a memorial piece to a sister, a child that was killed, and the highlight of the night for me was a very powerful piece about a ballet dancer that met with a horrible demise.
They completely owned the final, and completely deserved the title. It was great to be a part of this festival, there was a lot to be learned for sure, and it definitely is making me re evaluate things, and I can see it definitely impacting my writing, and the direction I am headed as a poet and spoken word artist. It was great to see old friends, and make some new ones, see you later Victoria, thanks for being so nice.
