YorkSlam
Each year, communities across the country send teams to compete in the national slam championships at the Canadian Festival of Spoken Word, produced by Spoken Word Canada (SpoCan). In 2012, YorkSlam aims to join the SpoCan family and be represented at CFSW. The series is the first-ever regularly running slam series in York Region, and will attract some of the very best poets from across the region and beyond to show off their poetic skills for local audiences.
Shows are on the fourth Wednesday of every month at Jake’s on Main Bar & Grille, located at 202 Unionville Main Street in Markham. Doors open at 6 pm and the show begins at 7:30 pm sharp. Poets should arrive a half-hour before showtime to sign up to slam. There is also a short open mic to start off the show, so if you don’t want to compete you can still bring words to share.
All this goodness for the low price of $5 at the door!
The dates for the first season of shows are:
January 25 (featuring Ritallin)
February 22 (feature TBA)
March 28 (featuring Christian Drake)
April 25 (feature TBA)
May 23 (featuring Alessandra Naccarato)
June 27 (Finals)
The top eight scoring poets over the course of the season will be invited to compete in the Finals. The top five poets at Finals will form a team that will represent YorkSlam at two upcoming events: the new SLAMtario provincial slam championship event scheduled for July 2012 in Toronto; and at CFSW in Saskatoon in October 2012.
Rankings will be posted here after each show. To qualify for Finals on June 27, a poet must:
- Slam in at least two shows between January and May;
- Be ranked in the top 8 of all poets who compete during the season.
The top eight are determined by a system originally devised by Cytopoetics Creative Director Greg Frankson called the Frankson-Priske Ranking Method. Slam scores and placements at monthly shows are both factored into the ranking system, so that the discrepancy between judging on individual nights is balanced by placement relative to other poets in a slam.
If you have questions about the ranking method or any other aspect of the organization of YorkSlam, please send a message to the Cytopoetics Events Manager at events [at] cytopoetics [dot] ca.
