The 5th annual Verses Festival is not a mere celebration of words, but a celebration of voices and viewpoints from poets across Canada. Since undergoing rebranding three years ago, the festival continues to get bigger and better each year. The recent transition has led to a more diversified festival lineup that includes a wealth of spoken word performances, slam poetry events, and poetry workshops spread throughout Vancouver for first timers and seasoned poets alike.
New to the event this year is a curated exhibit of visual poetry entitled That One Thing You Said, a collaboration with local poetry magazine Poetry Is Dead. Tucked away inside a Latin American restaurant along Commercial Drive, the quaint gallery features works by five Canadian visual poets: Jordan Abel, Dina Del Bucchia, Lindsay Cahill, Helen Hajnoczky, and Eric Schmaltz.
The exhibit blurs the lines between visual art and poetry while taking a closer look at how the role of language has shaped each poet’s worldview and relationships on an interpersonal, social and global level. Some pieces are illegible and undecipherable to the viewer, hinting at the transformative power of language as a tool for communication, or rather, the lack thereof. And isn’t this what poetry, at its core, really achieves? This art form is unique in that it can speak to readers without requiring them to fully understand the context of its symbolic reference points.
At the heart of the festival is the Hullabaloo series, a competitive youth slam that kickstarts the season. Fueled by spirited energy and infectious enthusiasm, aspiring teams engage in friendly interschool competition to see whose school has the best poetic chops and is most deserving of the coveted shark trophy.
According to Hullabaloo Events Coordinator and local Vancouver poet RC Weslowski, it is important for today’s youth to get involved in the poetry scene because these events create situations where young people are validated and listened to in a way that goes beyond being seen as “target markets” for corporations. One of the most pleasant surprises for Weslowski is seeing youth poets surprise themselves with the power of their own words—realizing that what they have to say resonates with others, that their work can connect people on a larger scale.
Get a sneak peek of this year’s festival line up at the Hulla-Verses Remixer opening gala this April 26 at 7:30 pm at the York Theatre.
The Verses Festival of Words runs from April 23 – May 3, 2015. For more information and a complete schedule of events, visit the festival website.