At many moments at last night’s Toronto Poetry Slam Semi Finals, the room was so quiet you could hear a sweat droplet run down someone’s neck. At other moments, sudden waves of laughter forced a poet to pause between lines. Those two contrasting scenarios summed up the memorable semi-finals poetry at the Drake Underground: Round 1 brought us the funny and the quirky, for the most part, while Round 2 delivered body-slams of emotional honesty.

In Round 1, Arianna, White Noise, Amanda and Macer kept things humorous but insightful, giving us a taste of their classic repertoire. It was also beautiful to see Jogi command the stage on his first playoffs appearance, while Ziy held her own with a whollop of a Middle East essay. Gypsy Eyes strayed from the funny theme by letting us into his relationship with his mother. Twelve poets gave us new flavours of spoken word with every piece, and the enthusiastic crowd energized the poets (and this MC) with a hailstorm of boos, applause and “what kinda score is that?”

J.W. Baz from Chicago absolutely slayed it on stage as the poetry feature, delivering his thoughtful poetry with impressive poise. It’s obvious why this cat has been a finalist at national U.S. slams. Props to Baz’s range – one poem remembered dancing to funk 45s with his father, while another poem listed off reasons why he falls for crazy women…or is it vice versa?

Round 2 got serious, as Amanda attacked a cop-pedophile in Sasketchewan with a powerful barrage-slash-unsent letter. Krystle showed us another side of her life by unveiling a new ode to her mother. Ziy reminded us about community’s strength in the face of same-old-same-old, and White Noise gave us the new hook for the night: “Muzak makes me want to murder.” And if you missed Lara’s new poem, I feel sorry for you: beg her to do it once again at her next feature.

After two rounds of nutritious poetry, we got the top 8 moving on to the Finals (in no particular order): Amanda, Krystle, Ziy, Arianna, White Noise Machine, Gypsy Eyes, Jogi, and Truth Is. These 8 will battle it out in another two-round wordfest on April 26, at Hugh’s Room. Tickets are $10 in advance, $12 at the door, 8pm. Featuring C.R. Avery from Vancouver. For advance tickets, call 416 531-6604.

HUGE kudos to Lara, Idriis, Macer and Wade for rippin it like they always do, and also a hearty shout-out to the lovely audience filling up the Underground last night. We do this for you, truly.

See ya at the finals…

This entry was posted by Dave under Slam roundups.