Calgary's Monthly Slam & Open Mic
Now at
Dickens Pub
(1000 9 Ave SW)
Calgary Slam History
The Calgary Spoken Word Society was created in November 2003 by poet Sheri-D Wilson, with a mandate to promote spoken word poetry locally, provincially, nationally and internationally, through performance and education.
Sheri-D Wilson won the heavy-weight champion title of the USA defeating Andrei Codrescu in the Heavyweight Poetry Bout at Bumbershoot in 2003. The Society presented the first annual Calgary International Spoken Word Festival in 2004, and the festival grew steadily each year from there.
The Slam grew directly out of National recognition of the Society’s founder. In 2005, the National Slam of Canada presented Sheri-D Wilson with the Poet of Honour Award for her work as a Spoken Word Artist.
Inspired by that award in February 2006, she launched the monthly Calgary Poetry Slam under the banner of the Calgary Spoken Word Society. It gave up-and-coming poets a stage on which to develop their art. This led to the creation of the first Calgary Slam Team who travelled to Toronto in 2006 and competed in the Canadian Festival of Spoken Word (CFSW, or SpoCan). With Sheri-D as their coach, Calgary placed among eight cities entered in the National team competition that year, alongside Toronto, Ottawa, Vancouver, Winnipeg, Halifax, Montreal and Windsor.
Wilson served as Calgary Slam-Master between 2006 & 2012, and as Calgary Slam Team coach 2006-2016. In 2012 she invited several artists to join her, and the Ink Spot Collective emerged to run the Calgary Poetry Slam from 2012 until July 2018.
Sheri-D also served on the National Slam Council for many years and helped develop Slam in Canada.
The Calgary Poetry Slam event was a fixture in the city’s literary life, a monthly Slam and open mic. held at Dickens Pub. It fed winners into the Calgary team who represented the city at National and International competitions.
Calgary Hosted the 2008 National Slam
Calgary’s arrival on the National scene was swift: at the 2006 Spoken Word Canada board meeting in Toronto, Calgary was invited to be the 2008 festival host city, a mere two years since their monthly Slam started.
In November 2008, in conjunction with SPOCAN, the Calgary Spoken Word Society held the 2008 National Slam and Canadian Festival of Spoken Word.
The 2008 festival was hosted by Sheri-D Wilson, the 2006 Poet of Honour and the Calgary International Spoken Word Festival Artistic Director, its main organizer. The Calgary organizing committee delivered a complete festival model to include showcases, guerilla poetry, professional development workshops and the national slam championship.
Teams from across Canada participated including Victoria, Vancouver, Calgary, Ottawa, Toronto, Halifax and Montreal, along with a first-ever last chance wildcard team, a southern Ontario team who represented Peterborough, London and Guelph, plus the first rural team from Lanark County Ontario.
The Poets of Honour were D. Kimm, a Quebec performance artist and Festival Voix D’Amériques’ artistic director and RC Weslowski, Vancouver’s legendary poetry organizer.
In a tense closely contested final, the Halifax team; Shauntay Grant, iZrEAL, El Jones and Andrew Abraham, narrowly defeated Toronto’s Up From the Roots team to be the second city in CFSW history to repeat as champions.
Slam Teams Who Went To Nationals
2006 (Toronto):
Sabo, Jordan Dack, Kirk Ramdath, Wakefield Brewster
2007 (Halifax):
Shone Thistle, Moe Clarke, Sabo, Kirk Ramdath
2008 (Calgary):
Theresa Bagan, Wakefield Brewster, Ian Keteku, Jen Kunlire
Alternate: Kirk Ramdath
2009 (Victoria):
Wakefield Brewster, Josh Bartolomé, Jen Kunlire, Titilope Sonuga
Alternate: Melvina Germain
2010 (Ottawa):
Tyler B. Perry, Esau Tamura, Josh Bartolomé Andre Prefontaine
2011 (Toronto):
Erica Navickas, Erin Dingle, Andre Prefontaine, Paul Finkleman
Alternate: Sheryl Chantler
2012 (Saskatoon):
Erin Dingle, Andre Prefontaine, Dave Eso, Paul Finkleman
2013 (Montreal):
Erin Dingle, Christa Mayer, Nemo, Travis West
2014 (Victoria):
Erin Dingle, Desiree Gravel, Esau Tamura, Kevin Johnson
2015 (Saskatoon):
Cobra Collins, Griffin, Erin Dingle
2016 (Winnipeg):
Cobra Collins, Shaf, Britta, Mike Roberts
Slam-Master 2006–2012 / Slam Coach 2006–2016:
Sheri-D Wilson
Slam Dunkers
There have been many wonderful Slammers over the years! Below are the bios of a few poets who have continued to thrive as writers and community leaders in Calgary. Möe Clark, Ian Keteku, Jordan Dack, Titilope Sonuga – have also continued along the path of poetry, music, multidisciplinary creations and community building.
Shone Thistle represented Calgary at the 2007 Canadian Festival of Spoken Word and has received perfect scores at the world-famous Nuyorican Poets Café in New York. They have appeared in many journals and anthologies and served as Calgary Poet Laureate (2024-2026).
Erin Dingle is a Calgary poet of high esteem. Dingle performed on many National Slam Poetry Final Stages. For five years in a row Erin placed in Canadian Individual Poetry Slam – placing 2nd in the country in 2015. In 2016, they received the first-ever Zaccheus Jackson Nyce Memorial Award for Poetry and Community Spirit.
Andre Prefontaine was a three-time member of the Calgary Slam Team. He went on to a remarkable national career: winning Seven Slam Championship Titles in total, including two National Slam CFSW wins (once as team captain and once as coach). He also won two consecutive Canadian Underground Championships, two Haiku Deathmatch titles, and in 2016 won him the Canadian Individual Slam Championship in 2016, that sent him to the Coupe du Monde (2017 World Cup) in Paris, to represent Canada – where he placed 4th in the World!
Teacher-poet, Tyler Perry, teacher-poet, has three collections of poetry and his work has appeared in many journals. That teaching life feeds directly into organizing Can You Hear Me Now? Alberta's Youth Slam competition.
Wakefield Brewster was on the Calgary Slam Team three times and went on to become Calgary Poet Laureate (2022-2024). Frontenac House published his first book of poetry, WAKEword in 2023.
Cobra Collins made her entry into spoken word came in 2012/2013 when covering The Calgary Spoken Word Festival for BeatRoute Magazine. Seeing it live for the first time, she realized there was room for her, and a stage she could take, and started slamming. Since then, she has been active as a poet, mentor, coach, and captain. Presently, she is producer of the Calgary Slam.
Shafraz "Shaf" Ladak has been on the Slam Team and also represented Calgary at the Individual Slam in Vancouver many times. For seven years as was the Director of Communications for the Calgary Poetry Slam. He has MC’ed and created space for others to have voice through his school visits and mentoring.