Celebrating the Women of Ottawa Slam

Saturday, January 28, 2012 - 7:00pm

Arts Court
2 Daly Ave
Ottawa, ON
K1N 6E2

This January 28th, Ottawa will see the city’s first ever Women’s Slam Championship at Arts Court.

While there are always a large number of women involved in Ottawa's spoken word and slam community, the impression still exists that they are less represented in the scene than they could be. Capital Slam co-organizer Rusty Priske believes that what is needed to get more women performing is to have role models: seeing women competing on the slam stage will inspire new women performers to get in front of the microphone themselves.

That is the idea behind the Ottawa Women’s Slam Championship. Organized by VERSe Ottawa (a literary coalition which organizes VERSeFest, the city’s international poetry festival) and coordinated by Priske, the slam - to be held January 28th - will feature twelve of the city’s best female performers, drawn from the history of slam in Ottawa.

From Capital Slam co-founder Elissa Molino, through veteran slammers like two-time Canadian Festival of Spoken Word veteran Festrell, to newcomers to the scene like Canadian Youth Slam champions CauseMo and Scotch (the youngest competitor at 14 years old), the field will take in the history, and the variety, of women poets that Ottawa has to offer.

“I’m very excited that Ottawa is having a women’s slam,” Capital Slam co-founder Greg “Ritallin” Frankson said, on hearing the news. “If you’re in the Capital Region, you need to go to this.”

In a poetry slam, competitors have three minutes to perform their poem, and judges selected from among the audience rate their performance. The top four performers from the Women’s Slam Championship will also be invited to perform at a special showcase at VERSeFest, which runs from February 28th to March 4th this year.