2006 Calgary International Spoken Word Festival

Welcome to the third annual Calgary International Spoken Word Festival!

Awesome Oral Tradition.  Spoken Word Poetry.  This is Language.  This is Jazz.  This is Hiphop.  This is Dub.  Voice-Dance.  This is Poetry in the Words of the People.  Stories in the Voice of Truth.  This is Calgaria, the hotbed of Canadian Culture.

Thank-you!  …To the financial supporters – federal, provincial & municipal governments, corporate sponsors, publishers, individual donors, and the festival members who all make it possible to present remarkable poetry …To the many volunteers, without whom these events could not happen …To the poets, who continue the great revolution of ideas, word, and song, and …To you the audience.  Without your ears and eyes, the words we sing would be silenced in a desolate, dark, and lonely space with no electricity or running water.

(Aside)  Language is of paramount concern.  When language becomes extinct so do stories, ideas, culture, and ways of seeing.

In maintaining our reputation for being cutting-edge, this year the festival has acquired a bloggist to address and document our oral histories in action.  Check out our website, and feel free to post your comments.  That way we’ll all be e-volved.

Poetry, I wish I could quit you.