Round Three: The Crowning & Poets of Honour

Round Three: The Crowning & Poets of Honour
November 08, 2008 – Central Library, John Dutton Theatre (616 Macleod Trail SE)
8:00 pm, $5

MCs: David Silverberg (Toronto)

8:00 National Slam Finals

9:00 Poets of Honour: D. Kimm (Montréal) & RC Weslowski (Vancouver)

9:30 Reading: Regie Cabico (Washington DC)

Later: Music with DJ Sublight!

This was it! The final night of competition that lead to the crowning of the 2008 winning team. For a second year in a row team Halifax won a well-deserved top spot in the competition. Their hard-hitting poems about race and gender identity consistently struck a deep cord with the audience, and night after night Halifax’s performance was a tightly honed showcase of sharp oral skills. Washington DC’s Regie Cabico delighted the crowd with poems about sexual identity, his Filipino upbringing, and life in America. A show-stopping force to reckon with, he showed everyone there what it truly means to captivate a crowd. Poet and multidisciplinary artist D. Kimm (Montreal) received the Poet of Honour award for the great contributions she has given the Spoken Word community, especially in French-speaking Canada. The founder and Artistic director of Voix d’Amériques (FVA), one of the most respected festivals devoted to spoken word, poetry in performance and vocal experimentation in Canada, D. Kimm has been at the forefront of the Oral Tradition for decades. She performed one piece in French, one piece in English, and one bilingual piece accompanied by the beat-boxing rhythms Eddy-the-original-one. Networking, collaboration and community fused into a palpable presence during the five days of events. This year’s second recipient of the Poet of Honour award was long-time Vancouver SLAM organizer, RC Weslowski. In 2007, representing Canada, RC finished 2nd in the world at the World Cup of Poetry Slam Competition in Bobigny, France.