(Scores are here - Mike)

It was a night of beginnings: the first slam of the official Toronto Poetry Slam season; the first time Vancouver spoken word poet Sean McGarragle has featured at TPS; and the first time the slam stage has been graced by so many new poets. In fact, there were practically only two TPS veterans in the first round - Yehuda Fisher and Ziy.

The first round gave us a good chance to see the various flavours of poetry out there: Livingstone Lacroix mixed song with her verse; Macer was dubbed the “Canadian Dr. Suess” by yours truly for bringing an appealing storytelling vibe to his poetry; Yaseemi gave the audience the blunt truths, no sugar coating; and Ziy returned to TPS after a year hiatus to rock our faces off with poems both classic and new.

But the freshest voice on Saturday night was also the highest scoring. Free Will, straight outta Ottawa and on the Capital Sleam 2007, brought the heat with memorized pieces on injustice, social activism and how people view money. Free Will powered into the third round to battle it out with Ziy and Yehuda, and he ended up the winner on Saturday night, earning him a spot in the semi-finals.

Not to be forgotten is Sean McGarragle, who blessed the stage with wonderful slices of his life. I don’t think anyone will forget lines like “Even if her period was gremlins” and “bodyfisting a fairy.” Oh Sean, always giving us such pleasant visuals.

Note that the next slam is coming up sooner than you think, on Nov. 10, and it’s at a different venue: Cervejaria, 842 College. It’s the slam’s two-year anniversary featuring The Fugitives, so get ready for a blow-your-soul-away kinda evening.

It was a night of newbies, veterans and surprise rib-ticklers. As for newbies, several slam competitors were virgins to the Toronto Poetry Slam stage, including Shannon, Emily, Dave and Lady Loxx. They each brought a spicy flavour of performance poetry the audience had never seen before, especially Dave — he performed in German and English! Oh, the foreign appeal of TPS just got stronger.

In the second round, the always entertaining Electric Jon rocked the Drake with R.D. backing him up on vocals, while another veteran, Truth Is, kicked it into high gear with some classic poems of hers. The newbie Lady Loxx (dressed oh so fine in high heels and mini skirt) power-punched our minds with hard-hitting rhymes and potent content, giving her the edge to make it to third round.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. A huge kudos must be lavished on the guest feature, comedian Chris Gibbs. He had everyone laughing heavily at his punchlines on British accents, raising a child, sympathy cards and saving our Winnipeg Jets. I’m sure 3 minutes of his material at a slam would garner him at least a 9.3 from judges.

In the third round, veterans Truth Is and Lara battled it out against Lady Loxx. Both Truth and Lara performed poignant poems of heart-wrenching verse, but it was Lady Loxx who won over the incredibly loose judges (including Knopf Canada publisher Diane Martin). It’s always refreshing to see a newcomer to the slam take home the $75 and the confidence to return for another slam in the future.

The next slam will be on Oct. 27, and I know that’s a long time for many of you, but rest assured the slam scene will be buzzing with activity: From Oct. 10 to 14, the Canadian Festival of Spoken Word descends on Halifax, and many local poets will be competing in this mega-slam: White Noise Machine, Amanda Hiebert, Krystle Mullin, Arianna, Truth Is, Boonaa, Leviathan, Tomy Bewick, Dwayne Morgan, and more. In a week or so, check out www.cfsw.net

There was a different vibe in the air in August than at other slams. It was a mixture of anticipation and excitement, as many of the slammers this month were newbies to the TPS stage. How did the rooks fare? There was Stacey wowing us with both a stunning singing voice and a delightful poem on masturbation; we were treated to some sensual poetry courtesy of Tungi; and Abs rocked the intro from his album, spoken word style, giving us a taste of what this Toronto MC can do on the slam stage.

The judges were tough (but consistent) the whole night, but they were loving the poetry that flowed from Ritallin and Kate. Ritallin endured some bad luck, drawing first in the first round and second in the second round, so he couldn’t strategize too heavily. When it was all said and done, Kate came out on top, as well she should have — her pieces on Mansbridge and a video camera were performed with the plucky energy we’ve expected from this talented poet. Congrats, Kate!

Kudos to the guest feature, Knock Knock Who’s There Comedy. Scrambling our brains with a quirky and risque multimedia presentation on storytelling, the comedy troupe added a fresh flavour to the slam vibe and gave everyone a good laugh (even if they felt guilty about it).

The summer months are heating up with more poetry, so make sure to hit up Last Call Poets on August 26, Dementia 5 on August 30 and the slam on Sept. 8.

Source: Wordfreak’s flickr set - click for more

Electric. And I’m not talking about Jon. I’m referring to the vibe in the room, to how my skin felt hosting the Toronto Poetry Slam Finals Night in front of 230 people crammed inside Hugh’s Room in west-end Toronto. As expected, the audience was hungry for powerful poetry and the eight finalists didn’t disappoint.

We were treated to off-the-page stand-up poetry from the White Noise Machine; an article stuffed inside a performance piece courtesy of Krystle Mullin; emotional drenchings from our own slice of Hollywood, Amanda Hiebert; well-timed comedic rant-poems a la Arianna; team-piece mastery courtesy of Gypsy Eyes, with some help from Tomy Bewick; one heckuva romantic poem blasted by Valentino Assenza; intense portraits of physicality from Jill Binder; and potent social justice brain-punches thanks to Truth Is.

Between the rounds of talented poetry, Hugh’s Room got its first taste of Shane Koyczan, one of the most prolific spoken word poets in Canada. Even though he featured thrice last week in Toronto, this set was filled with 3/4 new material Torontonians haven’t heard in July, and it was his final cover piece of a Taylor Mali classic that brought the house down.

When the dust settled after the final round, Toronto Poetry Slam had its top four poets and its team going to Halifax for the Canadian Festival of Spoken Word. Note that a scoring/ranking error on Saturday night resulted in me naming Truth as a team member and Amanda Hiebert as the alternate. Upon further review, it’s the reverse, and I apologize for any confusion.

• Arianna
• Krystle Mullin
• White Noise Machine
• Amanda Hiebert
• Truth Is… (alternate)

So now the fundraising efforts begin, and slam fans should look forward to a few months of the Team rockin stages and practising hard for Hali, and likely a slam-off with the Up From The Roots team (January TPS co-champ Boonaa, TPS fixture Tomy Bewick, 2006 TPS member Leviathan, and UFTR founder Dwayne Morgan), Toronto’s other CFSW team. There should be tons of opportunities to catch these all-stars on stages across the city, but if you got a hankering to go the CFSW in Halifax, we’d welcome some hometown support. It’ll be a festival to remember.

Wow. That three-letter word sums up the talented wordblasts we all enjoyed at the TPS Semi-Finals at the Cervejaria back room. Twelve poets sweated and emoted through two rounds, giving us enough mental nourishment to last until the finals. Here are some of the highlights, in my humble opinion:

• Krystle getting massive laughs with her “Skip-It” reference. Toys ARE funny.
• Arianna hobbling on stage like the trooper she is and belting out two brand new pieces
• Tomy Bewick floating through the room like a poetic warrior, delivering his poem with the energy we’ve come to love from Bam-Bam.
• Electric Jon’s duet with Spencer, which was awesome and brave, considering he trashed his chances at making the Finals (two point deduction for team pieces). But EJ doesn’t care about competition, which is why we dig him.
• Val rocking the second round with a new poem on self-loathing, complete with lines about Field of Dreams and masturbating to the Aunt Jemima package
• The White Noise Machine giving Advertising a new flavour, as he does every time he performs his now-classic piece
• Jill Binder getting heavy on us one round, and then flipping the script and going funny. Well done.

Not to be missed was R.C. Weslowski’s set after round one. The Vancouver spoken word master didn’t disappoint audiences who were hungry to learn how the night was filled with poetry, thanks to Steve Nash. We also gobbled up his call-and-response pieces, and many of us will forever the risque jokery of his Terry Fox bit. Who knew Toronto audiences could be so sensitive?

When the dust settled, the scores (courtesy of Shram) gave us the top 8 moving on to the Finals. In order from highest to lowest, here are the poets you’ll be hearing on July 21:

So mark your calendar and Facebook your friends — the July 21 Finals are shaping up to be another fun and electric night. And thanks for supporting spoken word in the city.

R.D. completely naked. Jill Binder performing with live art. A chicken suit. Those were some of the highlights at May’s Anything Goes slam, which encouraged poets to think outside the rule box. Costumes, music, multimedia and bird-suits were allowed, and poets let their creativity glisten. Through the night we saw Jill use a PowerPoint presentation to act as her inner voice, and Val shone with his best performance of the “gino poem” complete with sunglasses and cigarette-in-T-shirt-sleeve.

There were some grumblings about a rebel judge giving 10s through most of the night, but that’s what happens when a video DJ from Winnipeg named Richard Altman is chosen as a judge (Dementia 5 lovers are well-acquainted with his mash-up vids). The scores were generally favourable through the night, dipping massively only for R.D.’s scream-poem in which he stripped down. Finally, we’ve had nudity on stage at Toronto Poetry Slam. Let the nudist poets come out of the closet!

In the third round, the packed El Mocambo audience was treated to some sparkling talent: Kate stormed through the slam with well-crafted poems that were both touching and vivid; Valentino showed us remarkable range by giving us the funny, the tender and the rowdy all in one set; and Truth Is won the audience over so quickly with her power-punch style, she came out the TPS victor with a solid 29.

The feature performer Wordburglar held down the end of the night with a tight set of snappy punchline rhymes and dope beats. Too bad the tired standin’ folk had to leave before he rocked the floor, but it was their loss: ‘Burg got the place jumpin with his last two songs, as many poets started shakin’ their booties like it was 1999.

Very soon, our dear webmaster will post the final scores from May, thus letting us know which poets made it into the semi’s. I will be contacting those poets individually to give them notice. The semi finals begin on June 23 at Cervejaria and that’s bound to be a hype show. Perhaps the Best. Show. Ever. Yeah, I said it.

National Poetry Month brings out the poet in everyone, which explained the large amount of rookies rocking the Drake Hotel stage at the Toronto Poetry Slam on April 14. The newbies sported some colourful names — Tripp, Reflect, Awd (sacrificial) — and their poetry ran the gamut from hip-hop a capella to blunt blog-entry poems. Ariel, the most beloved of the rooks, made the third round while Tripp impressed the judges enough to slip into the second round.

The most striking part of last night’s slam was the judging stinginess. Several poets got scores below 6, and barely any judges hovered above the 9.0 mark. In a TPS first, celeb judge Mark Kingwell gave R.D. an unprecedented 0. Yes, a 0. The judging tightness made for some scary low scores that can hurt a poet’s overall standings in vying for the team, but that also meant it was anyone’s slam. In the third round, Arianna, Krystle and Ariel competed in a rare all-female final bout.

Krystle wowed the 170+ crowd by inviting Soulfistikato to join her on stage for a beatbox-poetry combo, giving the audience a much-needed surge of energy. After Ariel dropped a heartfelt slice-of-life poem, Arianna busted one of her classic autobiographical pieces that earned her the top spot in the third round, and winning her a berth into the semi-finals in June. Congrats, Ar!

This month is insanely busy for spoken word poetry, so please check the listings section of this site for a local event droppin’ near you. Also, come out to the May 20 Anything Goes slam at the El Mocambo, featuring indie rapper Wordburglar.

Until then, peace love and poetry!

• Joe Fiorito covered the story slam in one of his recent columns for the Star.

  What was I doing there? I have told narrative tales before, sometimes in this space; my ear is always bent. I was asked to be a judge.

  Judging is subjective, but if I were a publisher on the lookout for the Next Big Bright Young Thing, I’d troll the story slams for talent.

• We now have an online event listings submission thing, which people apparently like, since three new events have been posted in the two days since it went live (there is no reason for you to not experience some spoken word in the coming week). Use it to tell us about your events.

Storytelling took centre stage at Cervejaria for Toronto Poetry Slam’s first ever Story Slam. The night was filled with entertaining stories about workplace horrors (thanks Joe), fur trader tales (kudos to Ann) and the inane rituals of an average Toronto hospital (Mike Smith is a funny man).

After the first round, the packed house was treated to one of the best spoken word troupes in the world, The Fugitives from Vancouver. Besides being incredibly awesome human beings, The Fugitives tickled our cerebrals with music-poetry hybrid folk-song-stories. The crowd was mesmerized (trust me, I counted the unblinking eyes staring in awe). Their set perfectly set up the powerful poetry that descended on our ears in the second round.

Amanda’s piece about her mom (a TPS classic, by now) wowed the judges, even the usually low-scoring Joe Fiorito of the Toronto Star. Then Mike Smith brought down the house with a killer piece on a police confrontation, which had everyone clapping for more.

In the third round, Tomy Bewick almost brought a certain slammaster to tears with his piece on a friend ravaged by substance abuse. But it was Amanda’s knack for storytelling poetry that earned her first place, and a berth into the semi-finals in June. Well-deserved win, Amanda!

Keep checking this site for updates, and hope to see all you spoken word fans at the April show at the Drake, featuring Barbara Adler (cuz we didn’t get enough of her with the Fugitives).

Team qualifier standings updated here. Detailed scores here. - the web guy

It was a slam to remember for many reasons: Record amount of possible competitors, 23 vying for 12 slots; the most amount of audience/fans in recent memory, with the unofficial tally coming close to 170 through the night; first time Krystle Mullin has won a Toronto Poetry Slam, even though she’s been on the slam team at the Canadian Festival of Spoken Word; and also the first time Valentino Assenza has made the third round, which he wonderfully deserves.

February’s slam featured raucous applause for Electric Jon’s power-raps, Truth Is’ emotional thunderclaps and guest feature Ritallin’s soulful poem-songs. Everyone in the crowd elevated the energy to an unprecedented level, and from the stage I could feel the love in cool little wavey thingies. It was beautiful.

The final round saw Truth, Valentino and Krystle battle for a playoff berth and $75, with Krystle scoring the highest and winning mad love from practically everyone in the room.

Props to birthday girl ‘Tasha — and Tomy Bewick’s sweet birthday call-out — and guest judge DJ Abdominal.

Look forward to seeing you at the Feb. 24 Last Call Poets slam (see Listings) and the next TPS on March 24.