“SPEAKout seeks to Inspire its community with values that advocate for people’s betterment; ones that stress the Respect of self and of others. SPEAKout presents Entertainment, but with a purpose to engage its community and to challenge the status quo. SPEAKout seeks to find points of overlap between different communities, and advocates for communities to find common grounds for dialogue & peace. SPEAKout strives to find the points of overlap that we all share; to foster understanding and establish a common framework to build healthy and diverse communities together.”

With a top prize of $300, a lot of amazing poets are going to be clambering for the gold in this competition, and there’s still a little time to sign up. The application date has been pushed back a few times and now rests on December 28th. Anybody interested in competing should visit SPEAKout’s website (http://www.speakoutpoetry.com/) and apply. There is a $10 application fee, and I believe, if a poet so chooses, the BSP can provide the fee, provided that it be paid back from winnings, and a donation be made afterwards to the 2012 Burlington national team. Contact Tomy Bewick or Nea Reid for details.

Tickets for this event can be purchased through SPEAKout’s website, and are currently sitting at $12 for 1 and $20 for 2.  The event will be taking place on January 21st, 2012 at the art gallery of Hamilton.

Write for Rights – This Year’s Cases
http://www.amnestyusa.org/writeathon/cases.php

BSP December Slam – http://www.facebook.com/events/230369607030866/

Celebrate International Human Rights Day on December 10 by taking part in Amnesty International’s Write for Rights Global Write-a-thon.

Burlington Slam Project – November 17th

Fantastic news for the Burlington Slam Project – our PSI fundraiser was a MAJOR hit. Thanks to EVERYBODY who came out to support! As a result of this effort, the BSP has raised enough money to apply for our PSI certification – Mission Accomplished baby!

And if that’s not enough, we had an amazing slam with an amazing feature!

Open Mic brought us a wide array of talent – Long time BSP supporter and helper-outer (It’s a word now, deal with it.) Michelle Darby dropped an original poem; something BSP had been waiting to see for a LONG time. Old friend and another BSP supporter (and creator of this here website) Duffman spit out a cover piece, and youth poets Freddie and Pickle handed us a little team piece. We also got to see a glimpse into the future by tiny poets Valerie, Gavin, and Isobel – The oldest of these kids is 12 and they’ve got the guts to get up on that microphone already.

The slam consisted of a dynamite line-up with 7 poets competing – Familiar faces included Yogi, P.O.E., Kay’la Fraser, Dan (AKA Dan Murray(AKA Dan)), and Truth is…

And what?! New faces! TPS 2011 team member and nightmare fuel for citrus lovers everywhere Cathy Petch came down for the first time and brought a kind of magic as only she could (Just trust me.) And finally, new face Rouge Hill hit the mic and delivered some serious pen skills. I’m sure I’m not the only one hoping to see some more from this gent!

Of course, every slam needs a winner, and this month, it looks like one victory just wasn’t enough for The P.O.E. as he brought out some new work that blew the lid off of Philthy McNasty’s and made him champion for 2 months in a row. Coming in a very close second was Truth Is… and coming in a very close third was Cathy Petch.

And with all of this, as though it WASN’T ENOUGH – We were honoured to receive Universal Champion of Everything (Not the official title) Jovan Mays, as he delivered a -wide- selection of themes and pieces, from hilarious to heartbreaking to flat out infuriating – this is a man who can very easily turn the room into an extension of himself and make it feel however the hell he wants it to. Presence has a new definition in my personal dictionary.

As a final note – While P.O.E. won the slam, I have to say that the real winner of the night was Tim Peters’ homemade Grape Juice. Seriously. It’s incredible.

Slam Community – Guelph Poetry Slam turns 3!

Two days after BSP, our sister slam, the Guelph Poetry Slam, celebrated its 3rd anniversary with an -amazing- head to head slam competition. Victory was determined by crowd volume, and I’m not going to lie – picking between a pair of poets is HARD when they’re both incredible. Tough decisions, but one can’t complain that there are too many good poets, I suppose!

Readers will be happy to hear that Burlington made some -serious- progress through the night. 3 of the final 4 slammers were our own home-base poets – Tomy Bewick, Yogi, and The P.O.E. – the 4th semifinalist, not someone to be ignored, was Guelph Mastermind and love poet of hyper-unmatchedness Matthew Dryden.

P.O.E. ended up taking the win after a fierce battle with Tomy Bewick. He will be undergoing testing for poetry steroids before his next competition, I promise.

Congratulations to the Guelph Poetry Slam for hitting an amazing milestone! Here’s to 3 more years!

That’s all for now folks! Be sure to come out to BSP December 15th at Philthy McNasty’s for a feature by your very own Burlington Slam Project 2011 CFSW team! National Semi-finalists Yogi, The P.O.E., Dan (AKA Dan Murray(AKA Dan)), Oskar Niburski, and Kay’la Fraser will be giving you a BIG dose of what they got up to over the summer (And they’ll be giving someone else a chance to slam!)

Until then everybody, talk hard!

We’re a week away from November’s Burlington Slam Project, and it promises to be an amazing time, but I’d like to take a moment to bring everybody’s attention to an amazing initiative coming up shortly afterwards.

Straight to the Streets is a movement with a very simple concept: Collect clothes, divide them up, and hand them out to the homeless, taking the time not just to donate clothing, but perhaps an ear to listen as well.

It will be taking place this year on Saturday, November 26th in Toronto. (Meet up is at Queen & Bathurst @ 11 AM)

There are a few ways to help, if you are interested in being a part of this.

First is to donate clothing. Any gently used warm clothing – Blankets, Sweaters, Coats, Toques, Mitts, Hats, etc…can be donated – but please make sure it is CLEAN. Ask any family and friends to contribute as well.

Second is to participate in the event itself – join up with a buddy and walk the streets, hand out clothes, and lend an ear to a person who may feel that the world has forgotten them.

The link to the facebook event is here: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=229855590404335

If you would like to participate, either by donating clothing, handing clothing out, or helping to coordinate, please get in contact with Tomy Bewick. You can also feel free to bring clothing to the Slam on the 17th.

Homelessness isn’t going away, and we all know it. This is intended to give a layer of warmth (both physically and emotionally) to the people who are going to be facing a very cold winter head on; to give them some clothing and let them know that people are thinking about them.

So please, donate, come out, meet a friend, and hear a story or twelve. Be a part of something beautiful in the face of a very hostile season.

October has been a jam-packed month for the world of slam, not only did CFSW go down, but the Burlington Slam Project put on an impressively large night at a very comfortable venue!

Canadian Festival of Spoken Word

Just a quick note here about CFSW – It was a big week in Toronto as 20 teams from across the country came out to represent their respective slams. Competition was extremely fierce, with some very hard-hitting teams on the bill. Despite all this, your Burlington team placed FIFTH in the country, after being knocked out in the semis by the dastardly Edmonton and Urban Legends teams. Edmonton took home the win this year, with Up From the Roots (featuring faces we all know and love – Tomy Bewick, Dwayne Morgan, Shoolie and Lishai) taking a 2nd! Urban Legends finished 3rd, with Kingston Pen taking the 4th. Feel free to youtube some of the cfsw 2011 performances and see some of the poetry that left a crater in our Province’s capitol.

October Burlington Slam Project Aftermath

Due to a booking mix-up with the Black Bull, this month saw our slam at Philthy McNasty’s upstairs section. Couches, blue lights and our own bar! After a few solid open mic performances, including Michelle, Tim and Jay, we ventured into the slam proper boasting 10 poets! Round 1 was a fierce affair, with names ranging all over from our usual regulars like POE and Yogi to first timer Justin, BSP newcomer but TPS regular Eytan, and even our March feature – Alessandra Naccarato! The evening was coming alive with hard-hitting poems, and some of the Burlington team’s team pieces – and what better way to lead into the night’s feature than with nothing but the highest energy.

Unfortunately, Mike McGee was unable to make it out, but that still meant we had 2 -amazing- features to delight and entertain us – namely Lucia Misch and RC Weslowski. It’s really no wonder these two have taken a stage together – both hold the ability to be unendingly charming and side-splittingly funny, but can turn on a dime and deliver some pieces heavy enough that we grew concerned for the structural capacities of the venue. Archivist’s choice? Check out RC Weslowski’s “Trigger Bang Boom” and Lucia Misch’s “Animals being Assholes”. Both are on Youtube.

2nd round began with Tomy doing a 2nd sacrifice to keep the energy going after the break and led into another warzone of poetry with points attached. As we all know though, there can only be one winner. Eytan came in 3rd after dropping his “club song” piece, earning 1 point toward finals. Yogi took 2nd after bringing out a 3-person team piece from CFSW entitled “Down the River” and got himself 3 points toward finals. And the night’s winner, with a staggering total score of 59.1/60 was The POE after throwing down “Superheroes are dead”. POE has earned himself 5 points towards next year’s finals, and capped off with an encore performance of Counting Crows’ “Round Here” in the style of a spoken word piece.

Next upcoming BSP

November’s slam will be on the 17th. We’ll still be at Philthy McNasty’s upstairs lounge. We’re also working on getting the Burlington Slam Project PSI certified so we can send next year’s team to the US Nationals as well as CFSW, so we need PEOPLE! Come out! Bring tons of folks! The feature for the month will be Jovan Mays. You can see more info on the home page in the “upcoming slams” section, or check us out on facebook at http://www.facebook.com/groups/20525417663/

Until next time kids – Talk Hard!

Canadian Festival of Spoken Word

Once again Burlington is sending a team to the national stage.  And with the festival just a quick jaunt down the QEW in Toronto you can easily catch every minute of the action!  The action kicks off Tuesday Oct. 11th @ the Drake Hotel Underground and culminates with the finals at Metro United Church on Saturday Oct 15th.  You for details on event of festival passes check out the festival website (CFSW.ca).  The latest info will likely be on the Spoken Word Canada Facebook group page.

Thursday October 20th – 3 Features For 1 Price – ONLY $5 !!!

3 amazing features for the price of 1 at a special location: Upstairs at Philthy McNasty’s (250 Brant Street, Burlington) @ 7:30.

McGee, Misch and Weslowski are a mélange of might mouthed performance poets who have won and done some things that would make their grandmothers proud in the world of poetry. Mike McGee is the 2006 Individual World Poetry Slam Champion and the 2003 National Poetry Slam Indie Champ. Lucia Misch has been the 2007 and 2008 South Bay Area Youth Speaks Champion. RC Weslowski was a Canadian Festival of Spoken Word Team Champion in 2006 along with being named the festival’s poet of honour in 2008.

The three of them are banding together to show the world how much fun three talking muffins can have while traveling together. They want to be your friends and give your faces a good ear job.

But we can’t tell everyone ourselves.  So in the meantime…

Spread The WORD!

The first reveal was that this slam is going to be our first “Anything Goes” themed slam.  That means you can use props, costumes, musical instruments, and do covers!  The only rules still in effect are scoring and the time limit of 3 min and 10 sec.  Because as much as we all LOVE poetry the bar does close eventually!

You may recall a few months back that Jogindra ‘Yogi’ Siewrattan won our logo contest.  Well Yogi has been busy working on a whole new branding for BSP (logo, blog header, & flyer design).  At the same time, yours truly has been working on a new blog layout to match this new vision.  All the behind the scenes work is done.

So we are proud to announce that the new blog layout and header have officially been launched!  So take a tour of the blog and leave a comment on this post (under the News section) to let us know what you think!

Until next time…
                               …keep spreading the word!

As usual we are having an open mic, slam, and feature performer.  This month our Feature is David Perez.  David has toured and slammed all over the world and has realeased his first poetry book “Love in a Time of Robot Apocalypse” (which hopefully will be for sale at the slam).  Read more about him on the Upcoming Slams page.

For an extra dose of fun this month will be our first ever “Anything Goes Slam”.  That means slammers can use props, costumes, musical instruments, and do covers!  The only rule still in effect is the time limit (3 min 10 sec) because as much as we all LOVE poetry the bar does close eventually!

Don’t think the fun stops there!  We will also be making a few more special announcements the night of the slam.  So you have to come out to find out!

As always, the night kicks off at 8pm and cover is only $5 (Only $5?????)

Until next time…
                               …Spread the word!

We had a jam packed house (in fact we had to get extra chairs 3 times!), we found out who won the new logo contest (congrats to Jogindra Siewrattan for winning the contest and the $80 prize), and thanks to Dave ‘Big Deal’ Silverberg for hosting a night of down-right fantabulous poetry!

We had 8 competitors (Tomy ‘Bam-Bam’ Bewick, Jogindra Siewrattan, The P.O.E., Dan ‘AKA Dan Murray’, Henrick ‘Shoolie’ Sales, Ryan ‘Duffman’ Duffy, Kay’la Fraser, and Oskar Niburski).  Both Tomy Bewick & Shoolie stepped down because they are both going to be on the Roots Lounge team.

We HAVE received confirmations from all team members. So your official Burlington Slam Project Team 2011-2012 is: Kay’la Fraser, Jogindra Siewrattan, The P.O.E., Oskar Niburski, and Dan Murray as the alternate.

Next slam is Thursday June 16th featuring Steve Miller from Vancouver.  Until then…

…Spread The Word!

For the 2nd year in a row you will help us select the Burlington Slam Project team to represent us on the regional & national stage.  Although last year’s team was Burlington’s first, they placed 4th in a field of 18 and made to the finals stage.  So this year’s team has big shoes to fill.

Curious to know who qualified?  Yogi, P.O.E., Shoolie, Kay’la Fraser, Curtis Meyer, Tasha Fortunate, Tomy Bewick, Truth Is…, Brandon Williamson, Dan Murray, Erika Haygood, Duffman, Kevin Sutton, Lip Balm, Oskar Niburski.

As usual, there will be a $5 cover charge and festivities will kick off @ 8pm with sign-up for the open mic.  Seeing as this is the finals it is a closed slam.  Our guest hosted will be, Toronto Poetry Slam’s, Dave “BIG DEAL” Silverberg.  In BSP tradition, we will forgo a feature so we can cram in more awesome local poets with a 3 round slam!  As usual, the money that would normally go toward the feature will help the team cover the cost of attending the Canadian Festival of Spoken Word.

Also, this month we will be revealing the winner of our Logo contest.  The winner’s submission will be the new BSP logo and will get $75 CASH!!