Marcus Jameel lights up the stage at the Canadian Festival of Spoken Word, held at the Univeristy of Ottawa this week.
It’s not the first time Ottawa has sent a local team to compete in the annual Canadian Festival of Spoken Word – but it’s the first time the city has sent two.
CFSW, held in Ottawa this year and ending this weekend, is a national competition featuring teams of poets from across the country.
Two local teams, Capital Slam and Urban Legends, have been battling it out this week for a championship on their own turf.
But the question isn’t about who won or lost, it’s what this says about the diversity and growth of Ottawa’s spoken word community.
“One team cannot possibly contain all the poetic talent that we have here in Ottawa,” says Jessica Ruano, local poet and publicist for the festival.
Founded in 2004, Capital Slam is the longest-running poetry slam series in Ottawa.
A poetry slam features three consecutive rounds of poetry where each poet performs and is judged by five audience members. The poets with the highest score advance to the next round, culminating in a first place winner.
Urban Legends, created last year by former Capital Slam poets Marcus Jameel and Ian Keteku, offers a new venue and a new vibe.
Jameel, co-founder of Urban Legends, says the series was originally created to offer Muslim poets the opportunity to perform in a non-alcoholic venue.
The slam, now held at Carleton University, is a convenient place for students to gather, where word of mouth travels fast, he says.
Urban Legends, held on a monthly basis, uses a gladiator circle format where the competing poet is surrounded by his audience.
“You’ll see a lot of political, social and world issues being spoken about at Urban Legends,” Keteku says. “Whereas at Capital Slam, anything goes from comedy to horror and the audience will love it.”
Jameel says Urban Legends is more youth-centred, more hip and more up-to-date with new trends and styles while Capital Slam features an older crowd.
Christopher Tse, a member of the Capital Slam team, disagrees. “Urban Legends caters to a young crowd because it’s on campus,” he says.
“But in general the crowd that’s embracing spoken word right now is young.”
He says Capital Slam is still a place where people come to compete, while Urban Legeds offers a great environment for a poet to get their message across.
Tse says Capital Slam reflects the local poetry community’s diversity, “We have everything from free-love poets to stand-up comedians to rap-inspired poets.”
Despite their differences, Jameel and Tse agree there is no rivalry between the two poetry circles, and that spoken word in Ottawa can only grow from here.
With 70 poets in last year’s Capital Slam season alone, and frequent sold out shows at the Mercury Lounge, the growth has been exponential, Tse says.
Jameel says new poetry slams like Urban Legends also help increase the quality of local poetry.
“The level of competition at Urban Legends has been very high, and has pushed poets to step up their game,” he says. “It will continue to call new poets.”
Ruano says Ottawa poets are enjoying national and international success, and that people are starting to notice.
“Ottawa is becoming the central spot for spoken word not only in Canada, but in all parts of the world.”