Vancouver International Poetry Festival 2011
While I most often write about music, theatre and dance, I am a big fan of other forms of art, including poetry (and poetry slam). The Vancouver International Poetry Festival 2011 will take place from Monday April 18 – Saturday April 23, 2011 and along with the information for my readers, they gave me a pair of tickets to the Vancouver Slam Team Finals night on Monday April 18 at the Rio Theatre. This should be a lot of fun.
On April 18th, the Vancouver Poetry Slam will celebrate its landmark 15th season with the 15th annual Vancouver Poetry Slam Team Championships, which will select Vancouver’s representatives at national and international poetry slam tournaments over the coming year.
It will also be the opening night for the inaugural Vancouver International Poetry Festival. The festival will host the 1st Ever Canadian Individual Slam Championship, with poets travelling from all across Canada to compete. But the festival will be about more than simply slam competition. Haiku, erotica, and storytelling are all fair game at this diverse six-day poetry showcase.
The lineup of events looks pretty awesome. Vancouver Poetry Slam is celebrating 15 years, and to be quite fair, I only knew about how much of a tradition this type of performing art was in Vancouver until 2003 (as one of my exes did poetry slam). You can get tickets to the Vancouver International Poetry Festival here.
And to win the tickets to my contest, all you have to do is tell me your favorite author on this blog post. Particularly, poetry is a form of art that I absolutely enjoy reading (and listening to, when it’s performed live). My favorite author is Pablo Neruda, and his Poem 15 “I like you when you are silent”, “Me Gustas Cuando Callas” (any idea why? ;)) – Neruda’s collection “20 Love Poems and a Desperate Song” is perhaps one of the most amazing works of poetry I’ve ever read.
I will draw a winner on Saturday April 16th at 11 am. I would strongly recommend you to check out the Vancouver International Poetry Festival 2011. It looks like it will be an amazing event.
My favourite poem is Robert Frost
A favorite poet is Rabindranath Tagore…. “Let me light my lamp, said the star, and never debate if it will dispel the darkness”.
My favourite author is Shel Silverstein.
My favourite poet is W. H. Auden. “Funeral Blues” is an amazing poem that encapsulates the utter despair that comes when grieving a loved one.
I recently got to see Zaccheus Jackson perform about ten minutes worth of his poetry, and he had the most beautiful lines I’ve ever heard. He also got me INTO poetry slam.
“pull it all apart so i can make a living rebuilding new cliche’s for the over-priced, under-fed demographic of this oh-so-progressive bubble-wrapped babylon. israel just turned 60 and already the flames of its’ birthing day rites threaten to consume its’ own holy land. muslim’s, christian’s, jews make war. soon there will be no-one left to praise the Lord. all for one and one for more. just one more. just one more.”
I really love Vancouver’s own Joy Kogawa.