Verses Festival of Words celebrates poetry and more virtually, April 22 to May 1
Performances, workshops, masterclasses, and music merge in the online fest
Edmonton Poet Laureate Nisha Patel appears at the 2021 virtual Verses Festival of Words. Photo by Timiro Mohamed
Verses Festival of Words happens online from April 22 to May 1.
For its 2021 edition, Verses Festival of Words has translated some of fans’ favourite parts of the fest to an online format and added new events that have grown out of this past strange year.
The Vancouver Poetry House project all kicks off with Hullabaloo, BC’s Youth Spoken Word Festival, running April 22 to 24. The public can join the youth audience at three of the events, Hullabaloo Spoken Word Jamboree (featuring Ottawa’s Khaleefa ‘Apollo the Child’ Hamdan), All Star Slam and Individual Videopoem Fest, and Hullabaloo Finals featuring 2019 Canadian Individual Poetry Slam Champion Nisha Patel.
Stage to Page is producing a special public masterclass on April 24. Industry professionals from poetry, publishing, and theatre come together to read and discuss new poems by spoken word artists.
A spoken-word and music mashup, Mashed Poetics returns to Verses for its 50th edition. The April 27 show features Rat Salad performing Black Sabbath’s album Paranoid and poetry from Justin McGrail, Deanna Smith, S.R. Duncan, Alexandra Oliver, David Geary, Brandon Wint, Khodi Dill, Cass King.
There are also events where people can take in performances of spoken word artists plus learn from and interact with them, with highlights Lee Maracle, Isabella Wang, The Northwest Kid, and El Jones.
Vancouver Poetry House artistic director Joseph Dandurand, who’s also the director of the Kwantlen Cultural Center, will share what he does before he drops the first word of a new poem in an April 24 Talk the Talk: what is your ritual?
Stay tuned for more coverage in Stir. See Verses for more information.
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