City a haven for poetry
City hosting countRy’s largest spoken word poetry festival Oct. 22-28
The city is playing host to the largest spoken word poetry festival in the country later this month.
Canadian Festival of Spoken Word Nogojiwanong – Peterborough 2017 is happening Oct. 22 to 28.
There’ll be poetry slam competitions, master classes, workshops and feature performances at various locations downtown.
The Peterborough Poetry Collective partnered with Public Energy and Spoken Word Canada to host the event.
It’s the first time the festival has come to Peterborough – the smallest community to ever host – after launching in 2004.
Jon Hedderwick is 2017 festival director and member of Peterborough Poetry Collective.
As a city that’s already well known for developing high quality poets, Hedderwick said hosting the festival will really put the city on the map as a centre of poetry in Ontario and in Canada.
He’s also hoping it’ll draw out new voices.
“I’m expecting us to get a lot of new voices to our stages in the months and years to come,” Hedderwick said.
The festival director described spoken word poetry as a poetry for the people.
“This is a poetry that comes from the street. It comes from people’s lived everyday experiences and it’s meant to communicate emotions and ideas and feelings in a way that is immediately recognizable to your audience,” he said.
The festival kicks off with a Last Chance Slam on Oct. 22, giving poets one last opportunity to earn a spot on a wild card team to compete in the poetry slam tournament.
About 25 poetry collectives from seven provinces will be sending teams of up to five poets to perform with featured artists in the tournament. Poets will perform on their own or in teams and judged by five judges selected from the audience – that’s right, audience members will be judging.
“All of this works on the assumption that your gut is as a judge of what is or is not good poetry as is as the biggest expert in the world,” Hedderwick said.
Preliminary bouts are happening at The Venue and Shots at 6 and 8 p.m. concurrently from Oct. 24 to 26. Then semi-finals take place at Market Hall on Oct. 27.
Finals are at the closing gala Oct. 28 at Market Hall, where one team will be named the 2017 Canada’s Poetry Slam Champions. Before the finals, poets of honour Charlie Petch and Rabbit Richards will perform alongside the festival’s rising voice, Mitcholos Touchie. The night caps off with a performance by Toronto-based musician Lal.
Throughout the week, there’s also a performance and workshop for kids, an opening gala, a handful of workshops, panel discussions, master classes and a Main Stage Series nightly at 10 p.m.
Tickets to each event vary, with all access passes available for $40 per person or $30 for low-income earner, and some events are free. Tickets are available at www.eventbrite.ca/o/cfswca-15161243971 and at the door.
The Peterborough Poetry Collective, a small group of local poets, celebrates its 10th anniversary this year. It hosts monthly poetry slams at The Spill every fourth Thursday of the month.
For those who aren’t sure what to expect from a poetry slam, Hedderwick suggests simply checking it out.
“It’s not that every piece you’re going to hear every night is going to touch you immediately in the most deep way, but I have never brought somebody to a poetry slam that didn’t hear something that completely blew their hair back.”
NOTE: The festival’s website is at www.cfsw.ca.
This is a poetry that comes from the street. It comes from people’s lived everyday experiences and it’s meant to communicate emotions and ideas and feelings in a way that is immediately recognizable to your audience,” Jon Hedderwick