In a limited number of words, Shawn Conner explains why you need to attend this year’s Verses festival.

1. Buffy Sainte-Marie.

The singer brings her trademark strength, wisdom and all-around-Buffy Sainte-Marie-ness to the annual spoken-word festival, which is now in its eighth year. She’ll appear with multimedia artist Ronnie Dean Harris, poet Mitcholos, and musical duo anusáyum. (April 22 at 8 p.m. WISE Hall)

2. Storytime.

In the Vancouver Story Slam Invitational Verses 2018 Edition, 10 storytellers share original tales in a competition for cash and prizes. The show features past participants as well as new performers. (April 25 at 6:45 p.m., WISE Hall)

3. Beam us up.

Commercial Drive’s Storm Crow Tavern is the setting for Spoken Nerd, a spoken-word salute to all things nerdy. This is an open-mic event that also includes scheduled spoken-word artists such as Kitty Stryker, an Oakland writer and founder of the website ConsentCulture.com. Costumes, for audience members and performers, are encouraged. (April 25 at 3 p.m., Storm Crow Tavern)

4. Couldn’t stand the weather.

An annual feature of the Verses, Mashed Poetics mixes poetry and music from a specific album. This year’s record is Stevie Ray Vaughan’s 1984 album Couldn’t Stand the Weather. Eight poets perform new work based on songs from the record, which a live band performs. (April 25 at 9:30 p.m., WISE Hall)

5. Morning slam.

Vancouver’s Molly Billows, Calgary’s Erin Dingle, and Saskatoon’s Zoey Pricelys Roy compete in Hullabaloo All Star Slam Showcase No. 1 (Showcase No. 2 is sold-out), a threeround poetry slam that takes place in the morning. Johnny Trinh hosts, local students (grades 9-12) judge. (April 20 at 9:30 a.m., Rio Theatre)