Browse > Home / Archive: June 2008

Random Bits roundup for 2008-06-30

June 30, 2008

  • looking for someone in Owen sound to take a couch and a couple other odd bits to the waste transfer station, wiseman@theowen.com #

Written by · Filed Under Administrivia 

Random Bits roundup for 2008-06-26

June 26, 2008

  • getting ready to edit an interview about th eWiaerton Farmers market! #

Written by · Filed Under Administrivia 

Poetry SLAM competition

June 25, 2008

POETRY SLAM COMPETITION

Saturday, July 5th 7pm

Above Stedman’s, Downtown Durham

Free Admission

The 2008 winning Toronto Slam Team

will compete against

the Grey Bruce Slam Team

(our own hungry poetic gladiators)

in an ‘Anything Goes’ slam

on July 5th at 7 pm.

Show starts on the stroke of the hour.

Come early to get seats.

SLAM! hit both Owen Sound and Durham last year with the Words Aloud presentation of the Toronto Slam Team, introducing to many and seducing more, the art of competitive spoken word poetry.

Many inspired poets from the area have now begun to form their own slam team and are gearing up to showcase their stuff in their first ‘unofficial’ competition against the Toronto Slam team.

This is an event not to be missed. If you did not get a chance to see the Toronto Slam team last November, prepare to see poetry like you’ve never seen. – dynamic, theatrical, electrifying and IN-YOUR-FACE!

An Above Stedmans,  SGB Youth Literacy & Words Aloud Event

for more information: kristananderson@hotmail.com

(519) 363-2771

Toronto Slam Team

White Noise Machine – profane, profound, political, White Noise’s poetry swings between baroque and bombastic.  A regular on Toronto stages, a repeat slam champion, four-time hometown rep in the Canadian Festival of Spoken Word, he is perilously in love with anyone who is in love with language.  He is also city hall columnist for Toronto’s NOW Magazine, under the bizarre pseudonym Mike Smith.

Krystle Mullin has a distinct raspy voice that may well be taller than she is (she stands only 5.3). But a lack of vertical height hasn’t stopped this spoken word artist from reaching unimaginable heights in a short period of time.  She has been performing for just over two years and has already toured across Canada, been a member of the Toronto Slam Team twice and implemented a program that integrates spoken word poetry into Ontario high schools. Her style and rhythm borrow from folk, hip-hop, and hillbilly practicalities.

Arianna Pozzuoli has no idea why the most expensive coffee in the world comes from monkey shit.  Her pants don’t always fit and right now her left ankle is swollen from walking.  She loves cheese almost as much as she loves spoken word. In December 2006, she competed in her first poetry slam and won.  In February 2007, she placed in the top 30 at the International World Poetry Slam in Vancouver.

Truth Is – A great leader and powerful public speaker of our time was noted for using thunderclap rhythm with a distinctive voice, blending ecstasy and despair. That would also be a perfect description of Truth Is. . .. Her passion is only surpassed by her desire to explore and express the truth itself and this becomes obvious when her poetry is spoken. As a member of the 2006 Canadian Festival of Spoken Word Toronto Slam Team she experienced a third place finish amongst grueling and intense competition, she is also a Toronto Poetry Slam & co-ESC Mississauga Slam Champion. Truth Is. . . has been performing spoken word at schools, music & word events leaving a wake of inspired people in her path for many years, but has only been slamming for just over one. She has also had a piece aired on FLOW 93.5 FM. This is only the surface. For more please contact her at truthisellipsis@gmail.com

Yogi (Jogindra) began reading his poetry to the public in 2007 after discovering Toronto’s Dimentia Five spoken word open-mic series online. Quickly, Yogi has become a stalwart in the Greater Toronto Area’s spoken word community. Not only has Jogindra been a feature performer at the Cryptic Chatter and Rochdale Rhymes and Readings series but he also has qualified for Toronto Poetry Slam’s 2008 team.

MC Dave Silverberg is artistic director and host of Toronto Poetry Slam, a monthly spoken word competition starring the top performance poets in the Toronto area.  He also co-produced the 2006 Canadian Festival of Spoken Word, hosted the inaugural Luminato Poetry Slam and regularly runs a spoken word stage at Toronto’s Word on the Street. His book of poetry, Bags of Wires (LyricalMyrical), was recently published.

Grey/Bruce Slam Team

Kristan Anderson is the one responsible for rainy days, tedium and why you haven’t gotten out of bed all day. He is the self annointed master procrastinator with an infectious knack for drawing others towards his cause of nihilism. He is also responsible for trying to organize a slam team in a county that up until last November had no idea what slam was. Kristan’s not quite sure he’s got a handle on it either but he enjoys leading large groups of people into no man’s land, with a haughty smile and a kick in his step. Kinda like minks diving off cliffs. What can we say… he’s a thrill seeker.

Eric Braul – I’ve been doing spoken word as a serious interest since the fall of last year, Words Aloud festival. I like sounds, words, and art. And blending them together. I also write music. I come from Kincardine, moved to Owen Sound, now I’m back near Kincardine. I ride my scooter around the countryside, flowers on the back rack, and stop for a picnic. Maybe later I’ll come to a cornfield and paint pictures of cows in fields, sunsets over the lake and pretty girls with flowers in their hair. I finish my picnic and the sun’s gone down, and I’m on my way.

Zoë Kessler has been a writer since she was nine years old.  “Which doesn’t make me a great writer; it makes me tenacious,” she says.  Zoë was born in Toronto but escaped early to Montreal, thank God.  She’s a published author and freelance writer who’s written for Maclean’s Magazine, Today’s Parent, and many other magazines and newspapers.  She’s currently combining her love of words, music and sound by freelancing for CBC Radio.  Before she met Kris, she thought slam poetry was when you smacked your thigh on a sharp table corner while stumbling your way to the stage at an open mic reading, having imbibed a little more than you should’ve.  Knowingly two-timing Brigit, Muse of Poetry, Kris Andersen has become her Pagan Poetry God and honorary Muse.  Without him sweet-talking her into this, she wouldn’t even be here.  Thanks, buddy.

Caroline Menzies was born in Wiltshire, England and spent the next twelve years in Lancashire, quite close to Liverpool. After emigrating to N. America with her family, she lived for a year and a half in Michigan before settling permanently in Canada, though by then she had somewhat of an identity crisis fueled by her weird accent and having everyone she met constantly insist she recite lines from Beatles movies. She is now an Owen Sounder by choice and loves it, except in February, when she loves no one and no place, and spends the month writing hate poems. Caroline works as manager of the Owen Sound Artists’ Co-op during the day. By night she contends with the three, yes three, teenagers living in her house, her husband, editorial cartoonist, Robert Menzies, and five animals. Needless to say she is often hairy. She also likes to write whenever people leave her alone. She is new to the slam circuit. Be kind!

Loren San Cartier is a 18 year old from Owen Sound. She is world travelled and makes a mean shepard’s pie. She’s been writing from a very young age and yelling about stuff from an even younger one. She dreams of one day doing the impossible of making Saturday Night Live funny again.

Stephan Walke just finished surviving four years of highschool with relatively few battle scars. He still suffers that childish tendency to believe that his family is the best and most loving in the world, I guess you could call it ‘being grateful’. This, however, does not turn him away from the lust to leave his beautiful home and community in Paisley, and see things he’s never seen. With most of his time spent on a stool with an instrument of some sort, he is looking for more… something.

Written by Jesse · Filed Under Events, The Arts 

Random Bits roundup for 2008-06-20

June 20, 2008

  • anyone out there have experience with gardens and black walnut… I put in a sizeable garden that now in danger of juglone toxicity??? help! #
  • what I wish I knew about black walnut b4 I panted the garden http://tinyurl.com/3ppb7d #

Written by · Filed Under Administrivia 

Next Page »

‏