It’s hard to imagine what drives a shaky, sweaty, nervous first-time poet up on stage to perform. He must speak out loud and in front of an audience of strangers, the innermost thoughts he scribbled on loose-leaf and hid in his sock drawer. It’s both a huge risk and a tremendous reward, all part of the fascinating world of spoken word poetry.
“Truthfully, it all started as a dare,” poet and competitor Vanessa Rotondo said via email. Rotondo, who goes by V on stage, had only intended to perform her poem as part of the open mic but all the slots were filled up.
“Rusty Priske, Ottawa’s Capital Slam Slammaster, suggested that I compete in the slam. I agreed, clearly not knowing what I was getting into,” she said.
For Toronto-based poet and Carleton grad Chris Tse, performing hadn’t even crossed his mind until some YouTube videos caught his eye.
“I’ve always written poetry,” he said in an email, “but never even thought to perform it in spoken word until I stumbled across slam poetry videos on YouTube in high school. I went out to see a Shane Koyczan show in Ottawa in first year, and then decided I wanted to try and do the same thing.”
Priske said he went to his first slam in January of 2006.
“I wrote my first spoken word piece the next day,” he said via email. “The first time I performed one of my poems was at the open mic portion of a Dusty Owl show that summer and I slammed for the first time at Capital Slam in September of that same year. I later become Slammaster—a position I still hold. Now I am also the Spoken Word Canada National Slammaster.”
“Spoken Word is the ideal mixture of artistic intention and energetic interactivity and the result of two mirrors facing one another,” Priske said.
Ottawa’s Capital Slam is an event held twice a month by the Capital Poetry Collective at Mercury Lounge, 56 Byward Market Square, and is open to everyone, the website states. As a Slammaster, Priske organizes events during the slam season, promotes slam poetry and fosters community and good sportsmanship.
The appeal of slam
V said she spent her youth trying to find her place through various other mediums to no avail. These included ballet, painting, pottery, piano, guitar, but nothing ever stuck, until she began spoken word.
“Consistency was certainly never my strong-suit,” she said. “As long as I can remember, I really enjoyed writing. I suppose that spoken word appeals to me so much simply because it fits,” she explained.
Tse said that it was the openness and diversity of the spoken word community that he loved and found most appealing.
“You can be black, white, fat, thin, urban, small-town, political, erotic, comedic, old, young, anything. Anybody can do it, and in my short time in the spoken word community, I’ve seen all types step to the mic.”
Priske spoke of the level of audience and artist connection that makes spoken word unique.
“What makes Spoken Word so special is the lack of filter between artist and audience,” he explained. “When you watch a Spoken Word show, you witness the Art at its most real. The poet gives you their words and performance and you receive it with only the other factors you bring to it,” he said.
“In the realm of slam, it is the ultimate in arts democracy as anyone can sign up and share their words and it is up to the audience to decide what they enjoy and what they don’t.
There is no secret council deciding in advance who will be presented as ‘this year’s hit,” he continued. “I also value the idea of having a voice—not in the political sense,” he added. “Though that is important as well—but an avenue to share thoughts, feelings and ideas to receptive ears. It is something that may be less an issue in the time of bloggers and social media, but as someone who lived much of his life before these innovations, having the opportunity to share is something I value greatly.”
The poet’s inspiration
“Everything,” Priske said.
“That is an incredibly vague answer, but it is true,” he continued.
“I write about things that make me angry. I write about things that make me happy. I write about things that amaze me. Sometimes I just write because I like the way the words go together.”
Tse unwittingly echoed the Slammaster.
“Everything I know, and somethings I don’t,” Tse said.
“My family is a huge source of inspiration,” he added.
“Specifically the history of my family (and the Chinese-Canadian diaspora,
in general) in Canada,” he explained.
“Racism and multiculturalism are common themes I like to explore in my poems, and I suppose within the North American spoken word community, that’s what I’m most known for, is speaking to minority issues in society,” he said.
V kept with the theme of the other poets.“On a good day, everything,” she said.
“Shallow or deep. From Oral B tooth brush bristles, to ballpoint pens, to big-scale self-realized revelations. (It recently occurred to to me that the new Ford Focus is a pretty amazing piece of machinery),” she elaborated. “Frankly, so many things have the ability to blow my mind. Often times, the simplest of things leave the longest of lasting impressions.”
Beating the butterflies
A large part of spoken word is the performance, and the poets admitted that taking thoughts scribbled in private onto the stage can indeed be a harrowing experience.
“There is nothing I find more exhilarating than stepping on stage to perform. I still get those butterfly battles that I got the very first time I stepped up,” Priske confessed. “And I am not sure if they will ever go away. I always know that for the next three minutes, all eyes and ears in the room will be focused on me and what I have to say, which is both terrifying and amazing. It is a privilege and I treat it as such.”
Tse agreed.
“It’s a rush,” he said. “Even now, six years later, I still get that adrenaline, that heart beat increase, when I get on stage. It’s a different context, obviously; not so much nerves any more, but more so excitement. I love it. It’s odd because I’m not the type to seek out the spotlight in my everyday life, but when I get on stage, I’m into it.”
V said performance is both deeply personal and openly public.
“Some of my most honest moments have been shared on stage and witnessed by a room full of perfect strangers,” she said.
“There’s something so significant in that . . . Pushing through my fears by taking personal risks despite what people may think, has had such an enormous impact on me. I owe it all to the ground that supported me, the stage . . . she gives me butterflies every time.”
Pride
“I’d say the first time I really experienced success in slam was when I became a member on the 2012 Capital Slam Team, becoming the first woman in nearly 7 years to break through a mostly male dominated scene,” V said.
For Tse, it was winning the national championship, “especially the manner in which our team took it,” he said. “That was awesome. Getting the opportunity to represent Canada at the Poetry Slam World Cup was also pretty special.”
Priske cited two moving experiences, and said both were about the people around him as much as himself.
The first happened in 2009, at the Canadian Festival of Spoken Word held in his hometown, Victoria B.C.
“I was the team alternate and I worked with the rest of the team—Ian Keteku, OpenSecret, Poetic Speed and Brandon Wint, as they wowed the audience and won CapSlam’s first national championship,” he said.
“Watching those guys get up on stage and do what they can do filled me with pride. I was blessed to have a part, however small, of such a moment.”
“The second happened last year,” he said.
“My friend (and former CPC Director) Danielle Gregoire organized a surprise party for my 44th birthday. As I looked on, one by one, poet after poet took the stage and either performed one of my poems or a poem they had written for me. I never really understood how many people my work has impacted until that night. I was humbled and inspired.”
Wisdom from the Stage
Tse advised new slammers to “write for yourself, not for the stage. The poets who stick around are the ones who show they don’t care about the points, but the poetry itself.”