Poets from around the world wow enthusiastic crowd
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The Ontario International Poetry Slam kicked-off its second installment on Sat, Sept. 10. A packed and energized audience at the River-Run Centre yelled, stomped, and cried their thoughts.
The event was hosted by Guelph Spoken Word, a community of poets who compete on the local and national levels. The collective seeks to promote their craft, as well as promote and foster up-and-coming artists through competitions on the third Saturday of every month at local space, the eBar. However, they recently brought international attention to Guelph while hosting the Ontario International Poetry Slam which showcased the work of poets from across Ontario, Quebec, England, and the United States. City councillor and creative director Mark Mackinnon facilitated the event.
“We just put $5,000 in the hand of poets that’s going to further their career [and] further their passion. Whether that’s like, ‘Okay, so now I know my rent’s taken care of and now I can actually stay home a little bit and write, or I can go on tour, or I can go produce album. I can actually do things that are going to facilitate my love for spoken word,’ and that is literally why we do this,” Truth Is, the event’s host and local spoken word legend, said following the final round. “I would definitely say it was a success.”
Truth opened for internationally-renowned Canadian spoken word poet Shane Koyczan last spring.
The event began early in the afternoon with preliminary bouts starting at 1 p.m. and continuing into the evening. Three preliminary bouts trimmed the competition from 33 poets down to 12.
Among the 12 finalist poets were two Guelph locals; Fannon Holland, and University of Guelph’s own Erin “E-ratic” Aspendlier.
Contestants varied from young adults to middle-aged professionals, however, the passion for the art and the engagement of the crowd remained the same.
The rules gave the poets three minutes for their poems and a 20 second grace period in order to wrap up. The poets who went over time would be administered a 0.5 point time penalty for every ten seconds they were over.
Members of the audience were selected prior to the show to score the poets out of ten. Four judges were public judges—revealing their score to the agreement or disagreement of the crowd—and the last three judges scored privately. The highest and lowest scores would then be eliminated and the three median scores were added for a final score out of 30.
After two rounds of finals, four poets remained. Finally Tomy Bewick took the top prize with a heart-wrenching poem. The poem discussed the longest two minutes of Bewick’s life—the moment his daughter was born discoloured and unable to breathe. The crowd choked in suspense only to catch their breath when Bewick disclosed that the longest two minutes ended with the breath of his daughter. Bewick’s daughter was present in the audience and watched her father win the competition with a poem dedicated to her.
“This day has been an emotional rollercoaster, but an amazing experience all the way through,” Bewick said, “I’ve been here early and I’ve had the opportunity to see amazing poets, […] there are so many class acts. All I can really say is thank you.”
Cash prizes were awarded to the four poets that competed in the final round. In fourth place, Twoey Gray earned free admission to next year’s event; in third place, Bassam received $500; Cassandra Myers took second place at $1,500; and Bewick was awarded for first place with $3,000 in cash.
“I think it is a great thing for spoken word, it really gives people a reason to tune-in. And as unfortunate as it is, money does raise people’s interest levels, but you’ve got talent here from all over and I just wanna see that keep expanding,” said Bewick.