Come on out to the Black Bull Tavern on Thursday May 19th.
For the 2nd year in a row you will help us select the Burlington Slam Project team to represent us on the regional & national stage. Although last year’s team was Burlington’s first, they placed 4th in a field of 18 and made to the finals stage. So this year’s team has big shoes to fill.
Curious to know who qualified? Yogi, P.O.E., Shoolie, Kay’la Fraser, Curtis Meyer, Tasha Fortunate, Tomy Bewick, Truth Is…, Brandon Williamson, Dan Murray, Erika Haygood, Duffman, Kevin Sutton, Lip Balm, Oskar Niburski.
As usual, there will be a $5 cover charge and festivities will kick off @ 8pm with sign-up for the open mic. Seeing as this is the finals it is a closed slam. Our guest hosted will be, Toronto Poetry Slam’s, Dave “BIG DEAL” Silverberg. In BSP tradition, we will forgo a feature so we can cram in more awesome local poets with a 3 round slam! As usual, the money that would normally go toward the feature will help the team cover the cost of attending the Canadian Festival of Spoken Word.
We have lots of great thing brewing for fans of performance poetry in the Burlington area. So let’s get down to it:
1. Straight To The Streets 2010 – It was the 5 year anniversary of this event this past weekend and it keeps getting bigger & better each year. The goal is give warmth to anyone willing to accept it. You can read an article about it by KJ Mullins on Newz4U.net and catch the man-on-the-street video of George Stroumbooulopoulos (CBC’s The Hour) encourgaing us or find the Open Minds Respect Events group on Facebook.
2. Blog Layout – In case you haven’t noticed, there have been some changes to the layout of the blog lately. I’ve updated the Upcoming Slams page for the next 3 months, the WTF is a Poetry Slam page now explains a slam as well as the rules. I’ve created a new page called Making The Team that leads to a page of this years team or a listing of the cumulative monthly standings for the current season. I’ve also expanded the About Us page with a link to Tomy’s Bio. very soon I’ll be adding my own bio.
3. Scores & Standings – In an effort to meet new SpoCan regulations and to be as transparent as possible with our scoring we have posted the scores from November and each month moving forward. It will be on the facebook group page, part of my Monthly Wrap-up, and from the Making The Team page.
… spread the WORD!
Hey poetry afficionados,
As part of the 2010 Canadian Festival of Spoken Word (CFSW 2010 Ottawa), we will be holding a Last Chance Slam (LCS) on Tuesday, October 12 at 1 p.m. Please disseminate this information in your local networks to any poet who is potentially interested in travelling to Ottawa to compete in the LCS.
We are going to have an advanced registration process for the LCS that looks like this:
On Tuesday, August 31 we will accept submissions for entrance in the LCS. To register, send an email to firstname.lastname@example.org with the subject line “Last Chance Slam Registrant” between 12 a.m. and 11:59 p.m. EDT on August 31. Entries improperly submitted will not be accepted. A draw will then be held on September 1 for the 12 slots in the LCS, with a public announcement of the results to follow.
If you have any questions about the LCS or about the slam tournament in general, please contact CFSW 2010 Ottawa National Slammaster Rusty Priske (rustypriske at rogers dot com).
The festival begins seven weeks from today – check out http://www.cfsw.ca/ for updates, information and more!
Thursday June 17th
*Featuring… The BSP Team Finals*
Why: After 4 months of qualifying, tonight we decide who is on the 2010/2011 (FIRST EVER!) Burlington Slam Project team. The team we will be sending to the Canadian Festival of Spoken Word (CFSW) in Ottawa this October.
Cost: Tonight the $5 donation to cover the cost of the team getting to, staying in, and coming back from Ottawa.
We’ll have a special guest host – the incredible and inspirational ELYSE MALTIN of the London Poetry Slam crew and May’s feature the Real Pile
And as always we’ll have an Open Mic for any and all types of performance; bring your guitar, your songs, your stand-up, your rants and ragtime showtunes – it’s all about getting it out there!
There will not be a feature for June, as the FINALS SLAM is the feature – a 3 round slam to pick the top 4 and an alternate. All funds will go towards the Team’s expenses for later in the year when they travel to Ottawa to compete against 17 other teams from across Canada.
Competing in the Finals will be:
Kayla “Kiki” Fraser
Ryan “Duffman” Duffy
Please spread the word; we really want to see our regulars, see some new faces and some old friends… Let’s make it a special night to remember.
Thursday April 15th
*Featuring C.R. Avery*
Why: Aside from winning a cash prize, February through May are the months to qualify for the team we will be sending to the Canadian Festival of Spoken Word (CFSW) in Ottawa this October.
Cost: We ask for a $5 donation to cover the cost of our feature performer and the prize money.
Beatbox poet, harmonica madman, C.R. Avery has lived in Vancouver. He is a unique performer, simultaneously singing, beatboxing, playing harmonica and playing guitar. He performs solo or with his band and has played onstage with Tom Waits, Ani DiFranco, The Be Good Tanyas, and Utah Phillips, among others. A top performer in the slam poetry scene, C.R. is in the poetry super group known as “Tons Of Fun University” (TOFU) with the Mighty Mike McGee and the incomparable Shane Koyczan (The guy who did the opening at the 2010 Winter Olympics).
- $100 CA$H PRIZE for the winner of the slam
- The first month to compete for the 2010 BSP CFSW Team
- Our feature is the winng team of the 2009 CFSW, ‘The Recipe’
When: Thursday Feb. 25th. Sign-up @ 8pm with Open Mic and then Poetry Slam to follow
Cost: We ask for a $5 donation to cover the cost of our feature performer and the prize money.
Our feature this month will be the 2009 Capital (Ottawa) Slam Team. Comprised of Emcee E (Ian Keteku), OpenSecret,(Ikenna Onyegbula), Poetic Speed (Komi Olafimihan), Brandon Wint, and Rusty Priske the Capital Slam team went on to win the national championship of the Canadian Festival of Spoken Word (CFSW) in Victoria, BC this past fall. CFSW 2010 will be held in Ottawa. So we thought we’d bring the reigning champs to Burlington to show us how it’s done. because this will the 1st month to qualify for the Burlington 2010 team we will sending to CFSW 2010!
If you think you’re up for competing on a National stage in the nations capital and meeting some incredible people & artists from across the country; then this IS where you want to be once a month on Thursday night!
What hopefully becomes an annual event, the first EVER QEW Poetry Slam, was a series represented by the slams in the cities connected by Queen Elizabeth Way highway (Toronto, Burlington, Niagara Falls & Buffalo). Bout 1 was in Toronto on December 4th and the 2nd (final) bout was in Buffalo on December 12th.
We are proud to announce that Burlington took home gold and some US cash as prize money.
The Burlington Slam Project will be hosting another event. Show & sign-up early for the poetry slam or open mic if you’re interested. Once the sign-up is done we kick things off with our open mic followed by the slam proper.
This month’s feature is Ntare Ali Gault. He is a slam poet, actor, playwright, and author of the book “The Sun Will Rise: A Memoir of an Urban family”. He is one of Buffalo’s best and we are privileged to have him.
As usual, we will be asking for $5 donation to cover the costs of our feature and the cash prize for the winner of the poetry slam.
Do you have what it takes to throw it down in front of a crowd? Do you want to try getting in front of people to share but don’t want to get booed off stage? Do you just want some awesome spoken word & poetry without having to go to Toronto?
Regardless of who you are… the Burlington Slam @ the Queen’s Head Pub is where you should BE!
Tonight @ 7:45 we’ll be meeting in the games room of the Queen’s Head (just north of Lakeshore on Brant St in Burlington). Each month we start off with the Open Mic. People from all walks of life and talent are given the stage. For 5 minutes we give them our attention and then our appreciation because let’s face it… just getting up on stage is frightening enough.
For those with a thicker skin & desire for competition we have the SLAM !! Each poet gets 3 minutes & 10 seconds to WOW the audience judges. Five judges score each poem Olympic style. The top & bottom scores are dropped to give each poem/poet a score out of 30. The poet with the most points wins! Be careful though! You can lose points for going over time, performing someone else’s poetry, or using props or costumes.
Between the 1st & 2nd round of the slam we have a feature poet. This month we have “The Split“. I’ve been told she has this almost magical ability to pull you into her stories and poems like you yourself are there. Don’t miss this!
We kindly ask for a $5 donation. ALL money pays for our feature poet and a cash prize for the winner of the slam.
Good luck and C U there !
Tonight we are celebrating the one year anniversary of the Burlington Slam Project.
No doubt there have been growing pains. Just like a new baby we are still finding our feet. Bumps and bruises won’t keep us down though. We are determined to bring amazing poetry to the people of the Golden Horseshoe.
To celebrate our first birthday with our we have a 3 for 1 feature: The Dream Chasers. They are Tomy Bewick, Dwayne Morgan and Leviathan Grant. Catch them the night before they launch the “I Hate Poetry” show at the Hamilton Fringe Festival until next Sunday. Through satire, humour, and the tackling of tough subject matter, “I Hate Poetry” breaks away from the poetry we hated as students, and offers a glimpse into the world of spoken word, offering something for everyone, no matter how they feel about poetry!
Individually these poets are a force to be reckoned with in the world of spoken word. Combined they are dynamite. So come out tonight for an evening of explosive and mind blowing entertainment. You can even be part of the show! Bring something to share on the open mic or sign up to win a cash prize in the poetry slam. On or off the stage you will have a blast.
$5 covers the cost of our feature and prize money for the Slam
The madness starts at 8 pm.
No more excuses… B THERE !!!