It was the night we’d all been hungry for. The Slam Finals determined who would be on the Toronto Slam Team reppin the city in major fests, like National Poetry Slam and the Canadian Festival of Spoken Word. And who’d be in the public eye a helluva lot more than most poets, what with fundraisers and poetry shows to get $$ to go to those fests.

In front of a packed wall-to-wall crowd at Hugh’s Room, the poets took the stage and dropped their hardest shit. Valentino went sweeping romantic and also tender, while Nolan brought the funny in two of his pieces. Kimiko didn’t shy away from emotionally wraught pieces on self-esteem and conviction. Ariel also went heavy with pieces about violent abuse and an ode to her father.

The audience got a taste of the poetically lyrical courtesy of Lara’s stage presence. And Peace gave us a hiphop flavour in his 2-minute song-poems. Truth Is gave us some old and new pieces in her stage time, doing a very un-Truth thing and not going over time. Tomy Bewick told people to “cut me” and also cried out how he prefers his U.S. presidents and coffee: “strong and black.”

Oh, and let’s not forget about the mind-blowing features: Shane Koyczan (Vancouver) and Mike McGee (Mass.) rocked the house with a 45-minute set filled with fart anecdotes, duets, heartbreaking poems on bullying and lines such as “I like you like muppets like fisting.” (On a side note, my mom was in attendance and asked me what fisting was. I just couldn’t man up and tell her. I just said it was something sexual).

And so who’s on the team? Truth Is, Lara, Ariel and Kimiko, with Tomy as the alternate. And guess what — it’s the first all-female team in Toronto, and perhaps Canada! A very historic night, and this new crew is hungry to drop the hotness. I can tell.

Expect to see a lot of their names in flyers and promo in events to come. And remember, the next Toronto Poetry Slam is May 23 @ Drake Hotel — the Anything Goes Slam!

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