![\"Rusty](\"http:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/capitalarts\/wp-content\/uploads\/slam-J11-photo1.jpg\")
\nBurly bard: Rusty Priske performs at the Mercury Lounge.<\/p>\n
The stage is set. The lone microphone stands in front of the red velvet curtains, visions of Ottawa\u2019s Byward Market creeping in between the cracks of the drapes. The glittering disco ball hangs high above, its soft, shimmering lights bouncing off the surfaces of the room.<\/p>\n
Rusty Priske steps onto the stage. His smiling face is encased by a substantial red beard and set off by a pair of thick, black-framed glasses. His huge boots and ample frame take charge of the small stage. He looks out into the room, and every pair of eyes is staring right back at him.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The audience has filled the Mercury Lounge\u2019s small venue to the brim. People sit on chairs, tables, the floor, even other people. Everyone is welcome: young and old, suits and students, old favourites and first-time performers. The raucousness of the crowd falls into a single cry of \u201cRaise it!\u201d as all fists rise to the air and fall, into a dead silence of anticipation.<\/p>\n
\nBurly bard: Rusty Priske performs at the Mercury Lounge.<\/p>\n
Priske closes his eye, takes a step back from the microphone, and begins.<\/p>\n
To many, the scene would announce a rock concert over a poetry reading. But this is the newest addition to Ottawa\u2019s arts landscape: slam poetry.<\/p>\n
Ottawa\u2019s thriving slam poetry scene brings in audiences from all walks of life and consistently sells out shows. Each performer’s passion and individuality inspire a following. Crowds seem devoted to their favourite poets, and the art form flourishes by virtue of the sheer diversity of poets that Ottawa has to offer.<\/p>\n
A slam is one part poetry reading, one part competition. But the host is always quick to remind the performers that \u201cthe points aren\u2019t the point; the poetry is the point.\u201d<\/p>\n
There is room for 12 slam performers to sign up; each has three minutes to perform a poem. Five random audience members are chosen to be judges, and their scoring determines the evening\u2019s winners. The five poets with the highest scores then move on to the next round. Those five poets then each perform again, and the judges determine the winner of the night.<\/p>\n
The nightly winners’ scores are recorded, and at the end of the season the poets who had the five highest scores make up the team that represents Ottawa in the national slam competition at the Canadian Festival of Spoken Word. Last year, Ottawa took first place out of 11 teams from across Canada.<\/p>\n
And Ottawa said… Let there be slam<\/p>\n
Ottawa\u2019s first show dedicated entirely to slam poetry was Capital Slam, which premiered in October 2004. Local poets Elissa Molino and Greg Frankson (who goes by the pen name Ritallin) started Capital Slam. It is now one of Canada’s longest-running poetry slam series.<\/p>\n
Frankson says he began performing spoken word poetry in 2003 as a natural step from writing hip hop. \u201cAll music is, is poetry to a beat,\u201d says Frankson. He says he was frustrated at having only one venue, The Gold Star Lounge at the African Palace, which would occasionally host poetry slams.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe thought we could do a pure slam, and that would provide a place for people to practise and to get better,\u201d says Frankson.<\/p>\n
Frankson says the first few slams had fairly small crowds, but by the end of the first season they were selling out shows. What started as a monthly show now runs every two weeks because of slam’s popularity with both performers and audiences. Now, along with the Mercury Lounge, Umi Caf\u00e9 also has an ongoing slam poetry series, and Avant-Garde Bar and Caf\u00e9 Nostalgica have also hosted poetry slams.<\/p>\n
‘Raise it!’ the crowd shouts. All fists rise and fall, into a dead silence of anticipation.<\/p>\n
Local poet Rusty Priske is the slam master for this season of the Capital Slams. He organizes the slams, and irons out the fine details of making sure everything runs smoothly. Although he went to his first slam only a couple of years ago, he has already made a name for himself in Ottawa\u2019s poetry scene and was part of Ottawa\u2019s team that won at last year\u2019s national competition.<\/p>\n
\u201cRight from the first show, I was hooked,\u201d says Priske. He says he was just blown away by the poets he saw at his first slam: people like Steve Sauv\u00e9, John Akpata and Kevin Matthews. He says he was moved by what they were doing, but also saw that that connection with the audience was something he could achieve, too.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was just taken by what the possibilities were,\u201d he says. \u201cThis is just cool<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n Priske says that the Ottawa scene is unusual because it maintains so many different styles. He says that sometimes he sees cities that get their own style, which is distinct and interesting but may influence the way new poets find their own voices. For example, he says, Montr\u00e9al has a strong musical strain. But at any given Capital Slam show there is a mix of people \u2014 from classical poetry backgrounds and hip hop backgrounds, lyrical romantics and political activists<\/p>\n Frankson agrees. He says that the poets are varied, so they bring in varied audiences: \u201cYoung professionals, public servants sitting alongside the goths and the hippies. Everybody comes.\u201d This diversity, Frankson says, is what keeps the scene strong and growing.<\/p>\n At the Capital Slams, performers seem mostly to fall between ages 25 and 40.\u00a0 But the show is all ages; the audience consists of everyone, from teens to people who probably have teenaged grandchildren.<\/p>\n The long and the short of slam<\/p>\n The history of slam starts with Marc Kelly Smith and the Uptown Poetry Slam at the Green Mill in Chicago in the 1980s. It was all about trying something new, taking performance to the next level, having fun, but most of all was about opening up poetry to everyone. Smith says that at the time in Chicago, average poetry shows would draw in 15 people at most, and were \u201cstaid, formal, and really quite boring.\u201d<\/p>\n Smith says, \u201cThe show\u2019s always been a place where you can push the boundaries of what poetry was meant to be.\u201d The stage of the Green Mill has been graced with everything from classical forms of poetry to group sketches to a 78-year-old woman reciting poetry while performing yoga exercises.<\/p>\n The name \u201cslam poetry\u201d came from Smith watching a Chicago Cubs game. The phrase \u201cgrand slam\u201d kept coming up, which brought \u201cslam dancing\u201d to mind and all the energy and power that those ideas contain. He says he was also unsure about whether or not the shows would be a success, so he also liked the idea of calling them slams because \u201cit could be a grand slam, or it could be that we\u2019ll slam the door in your face.\u201d<\/p>\n Since Smith\u2019s first show, in 1984, slam has spread across North America and through Europe as well. Smith says that time and again, he sees people come to one of his slams and then go home and start their own shows that become immensely popular.<\/p>\n But a boys\u2019 club?<\/p>\n Although there is always a level of diversity in the scene, Priske points to the lack of female poets coming to perform at the Ottawa slams. There are usually only one or two female participants per show of 12 performers or more.<\/p>\n Danielle K.L. Gregoire has been a poet in Ottawa for years and one of the first slam masters of Capital Slam. She now lives in Lanark County and organizes the Lanark County Live Poets Society (LiPS). She says there used to be more female performers in Ottawa, but recent seasons have seen fewer and fewer.<\/p>\n \u201cIt seems like a self-fulfilling prophecy,\u201d says Gregoire. \u201cThe less we see ourselves represented on stage, the less likely women are to get up there.\u201d<\/p>\n ‘Young professionals, public servants sitting alongside the goths and hippies. Everybody comes.’ \u2014 poet Greg Frankson<\/p>\n Josie Frank just started performing slam poetry this year and says that although she has felt comfortable and safe entering the scene, there have been very few female role models. She says that this could be a result of the type of confessional poetry many women write.<\/p>\n \u201cIn my experience, the political poetry tends to receive higher scores, and not many female poets perform political pieces,\u201d says Frank.<\/p>\n This male predominance notwithstanding, Ottawa\u2019s slam poetry scene has grown exponentially.\u00a0\u00a0Five years ago, local poets only had one monthly chance to perform; now there are usually eight or nine monthly opportunities to perform at different shows in the Ottawa area.\u00a0 Poets from the original slams now run their own shows across town, and the inspiration from the old poets drives an influx of new poets.<\/p>\n \u201cOur poets continue to flourish because of all those opportunities to practise and get better,\u201d says Frankson.<\/p>\n A cycle of poetic inspiration<\/p>\n Apart from a Facebook group, the Capital Slam does no promotion. The shows sell out time after time from word of mouth. Priske says, \u201cPeople know about it; they want it, and I don’t see an end to that.\u201d<\/p>\n Karl Roth, 21, is a university student and a first-time audience member. He says he heard about slam through a friend and decided to sample a Mercury Lounge show.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was a great experience; I\u2019ll definitely go back,\u201d says Roth. Although he probably would never perform himself, he says he really enjoyed the show\u2019s relaxed atmosphere and enjoyed the poetry more than he expected.<\/p>\n Priske says that it comes down to getting new people interested and new poets involved. \u201cOnce [somebody] goes to one, they walk away with that one thing that they remember,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n The year 2010 promises to be an even bigger year for spoken word, as Ottawa has been chosen to host The Canadian Festival of Spoken Word. Ottawa\u2019s new team will have to defend their title against competitors from all over the country.<\/p>\n But as Frankson says, \u201cThe future is bright.\u201d<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Related Links<\/strong><\/p>\n Capital Slam Website<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Greg](\"http:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/capitalarts\/wp-content\/uploads\/slampoety-J11-photo2.jpg\")
\nGreg “Ritallin” Frankson can stimulate audiences’ brains.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/capitalarts\/wp-content\/uploads\/slam-J11-photo32.jpg\")
\nOttawa’s national slam team (from left<\/em>: Brandon Wint,\u00a0Komi Olafimihan, Ikenna Onyegbula, Rusty Priske, Ian Keteku).<\/p>\n