Festival crosses over

“It’s a dream festival,” says director and founder Sheri-D Wilson. “It’s 10 years and it marks a turning point.”

Now a decade into exploring the boundaries and borders of poetry and spoken-word, the Calgary Spoken Word Festival will be offering its largest and arguably most diverse lineup to date throughout the month of April.

Dubbed X-Dream Thinking, this year’s festivities will see 100 artists descend on the city for 40 events that run until the end of April.

Festival favourites such as performance artist Baby Dee, pioneering New York literary giant and activist John Giorno and “Poetry Czar” Bob Holman will rub elbows with Calgary artists, including Poet Laureate Kris Demeanor, experimental wordsmith Derek Beaulieu and novelist Suzette Mayr.

As always, there will be a number of boundary-blurring artists, who mix musical adventure with a love of words: Joey Keithley of pioneering Vancouver punk-rockers DOA, hip-hop artist Transit and underground rocker Little Annie, among others.

“This year, there’s a lot of crossover with storytelling and music,” says Wilson. “It’s not just poets and people who write, it’s people who are interested in stories and humour and music. It’s poetry and things that make you think.”

For a lineup, visit calgaryspokenwordfestival.com.