Huntville Festival of the Arts sponsors workshops in conjunction with poetry month
By Gillian Brunette
Slam poetry, otherwise known as performance poetry, is only now becoming a recognized art form in Canada despite its popularity south of the border, where it was born 21 years ago.
“Poetry slams are spoken word competitions where poets perform pieces on stage before a panel of judges,” explained Toronto performance poet Dave Silverberg.
“The judges award marks from zero to 10 based on content and the performances.”
Silverberg was at Huntsville High School last week, where he conducted two short classes on the art for Grade 9 and Grade 12 students.
“This was to introduce the students to slam poetry and its nuances and to challenge them to put together some poetry for a workshop at Sutherland Hall on April 26,” said Huntsville Festival of the Arts general manager Rob Saunders.
WORDS IN MOTION: Huntsville High School Grade 12 writer's craft teacher Kirsten Corson shares a laugh with performance poet Dave Silverberg, who conducted a couple of workshops for Grade 9 and 12 students last week.
In keeping with its mandate to provide arts outreach education programs, the festival is sponsoring the workshops which are, coincidentally, being held during National Poetry Month.
“A year ago we were looking for an opportunity to link in with the high school in an artistic way. I was researching options and came across a travelling performance poetry group from New York and then found a similar group in Toronto,” Saunders explained.
When he broached the idea to the high school’s English department it was favourably received, with the result that some 50 to 60 English and drama students will attend the April 26 workshop, along with some area adult poets who have asked to sit in on the proceedings, Saunders said.
Silverberg is planning on bringing with him four poets from Toronto – Gypsy Eyes, Amanda Hiebert, Electric Jon and Mike Smith – to work with the students.
“They are all Torontonians who have won slams in one form or another and performed or hosted events throughout the city. Amanda has been on the Toronto slam team for five years now,” he said.
The team competes at the annual slam competition, which was introduced in 2003 at the Canadian Festival of the Spoken Word, a one-of-a-kind-in-Canada event that features workshops and competitions, said Silverberg.
Meanwhile, Toronto, Ottawa, Halifax and Vancouver are currently the only places to hold monthly poetry slam events.
The poets can compete as individuals or with others. No props or costumes are allowed, but personal instrumentation (clapping, stamping for example) is acceptable. Each performance must be within three to 10 minutes. “For every 10 seconds they are over they lose one point,” said Silverberg.
Poems have to be original – “After that pretty much anything goes.”
There is no criteria with respect to subject matter as long as its not hateful or racist, and profanity is allowed. “It’s up to the judges to determine where [profanity] is too much,” Silverberg said.
The judges at each event are picked from the audience just prior to the start.
“I try to avoid people who know the poets and I’ve also introduced celebrity judges,” said Silverberg.
The April 26 workshops will afford the budding poets an opportunity to perform before their peers and perhaps at the festival’s summer event, the Poetry Cafe.
To learn more about performance poetry in Toronto, go to www.torontopoetryslam.com.
