Messages

31

General Discussion / Re: Slammers Breaking Through

« on: January 06, 2009, 09:13:40 PM »

And let's not forget the Canadians...

Shane Koyczan (NPS winner) performed along Feist at Canada Day celebrations in Ottawa. Mark Berube, one-third of poetry troupe the Fugitives, played alongside Raine Maida (Our Lady Peace) last year. And there's a spoken worder here named Isis who is now part of this electronica-rock outfit called Thunderheist, and they're tearing it up.

And the city to watch in 09? Montreal. Their slam scene is starting back up again, and they're killer.

32

General Discussion / Looking for pro-Obama anti-Bush poems to cover...in Canada!

« on: January 02, 2009, 03:45:12 PM »

Dave here from Toronto Poetry Slam.
So in Toronto, we're organizing a Jan. 19 event called BYE BYE BUSH, a show featuring poetry n' music celebrating Obama's presidency and Bush's long-awaited departure. I know, what's Canada doing celebrating a US event? Well this is a global event, in my opinion, and we think Toronto would love this kind of poetry show.

I'm lookin to do a cover poem that night. A piece celebrating Obama or critiquing Bush (intelligently!), and all style are welcome. Want to also let our audience know about the amazing talent south of the border, which is why I'm bugging you at PSI instead of my fellow Canucks at SPOCAN.

Please email poems (text or video links) to info@torontopoetryslam.com

We promise to mention the author and any website you got, for more info.

Thanks.

33

General Discussion / Re: Purchasing bout footage?

« on: September 03, 2008, 08:16:39 PM »

But what about the prelims? Where they filmed at all?
And is something like the Team Finals able to be purchased, just that?

34

General Discussion / Re: Your Madison NPS Top Ten?

« on: August 23, 2008, 09:02:06 AM »

In no particular order....

-Bringing Toronto to its first National Poetry Slam, and enjoying the wide-eyed wonder of my team as they take in their first prelims

-High-fiving the Vancouver squad when we arrive at the hotel, it was instant comaraderie

-Seeing Paris slay it in the prelims, subtitles and all

-Swimming w/ poets at Inn on the Park. God that was relaxing

-Getting my Afghan food on at Kabul on State

-Helping lead the how to start a slam workshop, meeting Steve Marsh for the first time, and lovin the laughter bubbling from the Maui slammaster. Best. smile. ever.

-The Team Urbana team pieces, from the robo one to the musical beatboxing poem. damn they're talented

-The Canadian Embassy: Vancouver decided to dub their hotel room the Canadian Embassy and invited anyone and everyone to cipher til 5am each night. Sacramento and Columbus stepped up, among others, and it was glorious to hang with poets outside the venues

-Rachel and Marty from LouderArts...Fuck they're good. Definitely, Toronto Poetry Slam needs to see em

-The beers of Madison: Don't know about you guys, but my buddy Mike and I sampled some amazing craft brews at the Great Dane and other restos, from a cherry ale to some killer stouts. Actually, that's the reason Mike came with the Team...he's a huge beer nerd and he said Madison is topnotch for fine brews.

35

General Discussion / Finally, a social network for spoken word artists

« on: June 28, 2008, 11:40:59 AM »

I know everyone is frustrated with Facebook/MySpace chaos, but wouldn't it be nice to finally have a social network just for spoken word peots?

My friend Jess got one going and I encourage you all to join. It's free and easy to use.

Find it at
http://wespeak.ning.com/

Could be a great way to connect with other artists and get discussions going with poets all over the world

p.s. There's a strong Canadian presence on the site cuz Jess (although she's American) came through Toronto and Ottawa a lot to hang with our slam crews here

36

General Discussion / Slam order draw question

« on: March 05, 2008, 12:52:56 PM »

Dave here from Toronto Poetry Slam.

So for our semi-finals, for the 12 finalists, poets perform based on a draw that determines their order for the first round. 1 through 12. Then in the second and final round, the order is reversed from 12 to 1 (with a sacrifice between rounds). I'm wondering whether this is a recommended method or if you would suggest going random in the second round too, so that #12 spot is screwed over by going last in the first round and then first in the second round. Then again, them da breaks, right?

Do you think this structure is unfair?

btw, the scores are cumulative in the semi-finals. The top 8 poets move to the Finals, where the draw order is determined in the same way.

37

General Discussion / Re: Member request archive

« on: February 19, 2007, 07:41:38 PM »

Dave Silverberg, slammaster in Toronto, representing eastern Canada.

Pleasure to be part of the PSI community.

38

General Discussion / Hello from Toronto

« on: February 10, 2007, 05:48:02 PM »

Yo SlamMasters et al

I run the Toronto Poetry Slam in Canada, and just want to introduce myself and let you guys know how we rock it in Canuckland.
TPS has been going on for 16 months, we just sent our first poet to IWPS (she placed 27th, holler!), the Slam sends a regular team to our version of the NPS, the Canadian Festival of Spoken Word, and the audience numbers are mind-blowing.

If you want to check out what we do, hit up www.torontopoetryslam.com
I'm always looking for advice, feature suggestions, etc., so throw em my way whenever you want.

Was a pleasure seeing some of you in Vancouver, I'm still recovering, still gotta get a poem out of me from that week.