Toronto Poetry Slam @ The Drake Hotel (Underground), Toronto, ON - Sat Nov 24th!

We're back with another fun spoken word battle-concert, this time featuring a super-talented American poet!

Rage Almighty is best known as an international, award-winning poet. He has received many accolades, included being named the Runner- up at the 2016 Individual World Poetry Slam Championships, awarded Teaching Artist of the Year with Louder Than A Bomb, won the 2014 National Poetry Award for Best Spoken Word Album, 2014 North Texas Spoken Word Awards for Poet of the Year and 2017 Bayou City Slam Champion , and was named one of the Top 15 best creatives in Dallas by CoSign Magazine. Rage also has been a five-time Dallas Slam Team member, the 2013 Dallas Grand Slam Champion & he represented the United States in the Paris World Cup Poetry Slam.

He has been featured in Season 4 of Lexus’ Verses and Flow and has opened for multiple musical artists such as Brand Nubian, T.I., Dead Prez, Kindred the Family Soul, Chrisette Michelle, Urban Mystic, and world-renowned poets Saul Williams and Nikki Giovanni.

Hosted by Tanya Neumeyer.

Open mic available too! 5 slots max.

Location:  The Drake Hotel (Underground), 1150 Queen Street West, Toronto, ON

Time:   7PM

19+

Tickets: $7 DOOR

For info click here

ACCESSIBILITY INFO:
The Drake Hotel has 1 step at the front door on Queen St. W. There are no steps and a button to open the door on Beaconsfield (west side of the building)
To get from the lobby to the Underground, there are 19 steps to the doors/bar level, then 4 steps leading from the bar area to where the chairs are setup. Bathrooms are back on the same level as the bar in the Underground. A wheelchair accessible, gender neutral washroom is on the main lobby level.

Toronto Poetry Slam @ The Drake Hotel, Toronto, ON - Fri Dec 22nd!

It's our regular season finale slam before Semis begins in Jan and it's s special slam because we are welcoming back a fan favourite - MAGPIE ULYSSES!

Hosted by Alyssa Ginsburg.

Magpie Ulysses is a dynamic performance poet and storyteller known for charming and slaying her audiences with intense stage presence and thoughtful insight about humanity. Writer, Rabble Rouser, fancy talker; Magpie began performing at the age of 17 to save her life. Since then she has performed across North America at hundreds of venues, is a veteran member of two national champion Vancouver poetry slam teams and was named a Poet of Honour at the Canadian festival Of Spoken Word In the Fall of 2012. Magpie has spent much of the past seven years heavily involved in the arts while living in and around rural BC. Having spent the past few years raising a new human and caring for her grandmother through alzheimer's disease, she has become increasingly interested in questions surrounding memory, place, body, aging and how we choose to tell our own stories. Website

Location:  The Drake Hotel,1150 Queen St W, Toronto, ON

As always, doors at 7 signup 730 show 8

$7 cover. Open mic available too.

ACCESSIBILITY INFO:

The Drake Hotel has 1 step at the front door on Queen St. W. There are no steps and a button to open the door on the west side of the building on Beaconsfield. To get from the lobby to the Underground, there are 19 steps to the doors/bar level, then 4 steps leading from the bar area to where the chairs are setup. Bathrooms are back on the same level as the bar in the Underground. A wheelchair accessible, gender neutral washroom is on the main lobby level.

If you have any accessibility needs, please let us know in advance so we can attempt to accommodate you.

Questions? Email info@torontopoetryslam.com

Toronto Poetry Slam @ Brigantine Room, Harbourfront Centre, Toronto, ON - Thurs Oct 13th!

Toronto Poetry Slam presents a night of poetry with purpose. Join us as the city’s top spoken word artists share poems inspired by three of our short films. From meditations on schizophrenia and low-income housing to thoughts on the refugee experience, this is a night of important rhymes you’ll remember.

Featuring poetry by:
David Silverberg
Patrick de Belen
Valentino Assenza
Rahul Gupta
Cathy Charlie Petch
Ian Keteku

Hosted by Brendan McLeod

Location:  Harbourfront Centre, 235 Queens Quay West, Toronto, ON

Time:  8p - 11p

Tickets: $18

For tickets click here

For information on the Reelworld Festival click here

Toronto Poetry Slam @ The Drake Hotel, Toronto, ON - Sun Sept 6th!

It's a back to back kind of world for us! We're rockin the Drake once again on Sunday Sept 6 with a special feature set from Beth Anne Ellipsis, repping Guelph!

Hosted by Tanya Neumeyer!

Featuring you too! Anyone can sign up for the open mic or slam. Come with 3 poems ready for the slam, in case you make it through all 3 rounds.

A Guelph-based performance poet, Beth Anne Ellipsis crafts her words to reflect the lives of herself and those around her. Her work is earth inspired and speaks to the struggle that we all face to find our true selves and home in community. She is a member of the Guelph Poetry Slam Team and has competed in National poetry slams across the country. In 2008 she founded Guelph Spoken Word; a performance poetry arts organization. Beth Anne creates platforms for all people to write, find their voice and dialogue with one another through artistic expression.

Venue: Underground, The Drake, 1150 Queen Street West, Toronto, ON
Cover: $5
Time: Sept. 6, 2015,
Time:  7 p.m.

Note: The Drake Underground is not wheelchair accessible

Toronto Poetry Slam @ The Drake, Toronto, ON - Fri Sept 26th!

TORONTO POETRY SLAM: Featuring the 2013 CFSW CHAMPION TPS SLAM TEAM

They won the Canadian Festival of Spoken Word in October 2013 and now the 2013 Team is reuniting for one last show on Sept 26!

You're in for a treat, Toronto!

BIO: On April 21st 2013 a new Toronto Poetry Slam team was born. These five riveting wordsmiths articulate those feelings we have no words for, those emotions better left unsaid, and those moments which make life enjoyable.

Comic OPTIMUS RHYME, teacher KLIGGY, day-dreamer IF, rapper PHILOSOFLY and slam poetry veteran DAHVEED DELISCA might seem like an unlikely team of poets, let alone friends. But on the 9th of November 2013 the collective proved otherwise as they became the Canadian Festival of Spoken Word national champions.

The quintet reunites for a special TPS feature performance on FRIDAY September the 26th. Not to be missed!

Caution: watching these poets might lead to serious joy, tremendous laughter and you might fall in love and pee your pants, simultaneously. Discretion is advised.

Hosted by 2013 + 2014 TPS slam team coach IAN KETEKU

Doors 7 pm
Sign-up 7:30
Show 8:00

Location:  The Drake Hotel, 1150 Queen Street West, Toronto, ON

Brought to you by the Toronto Poetry Project

Facebook event page here

Toronto Poetry Slam @ The Drake Hotel, Toronto, ON - Sun Sept 7th!

Local wordsmiths and performers shine at Toronto Poetry Slam, providing an evening of spoken word, lyrical mastery and friendly competition before an always packed house. $80 goes to the best performance of the night, so if you think your literary creations have what it takes to win, be sure to sign up at 7:30PM. And don't forget your sense of humour!

Location:  The Drake Hotel, Underground, 1150 Queen Street West, Toronto, ON
Type: Other
Cover: $5
Time: Sept. 7, 2014, 7 p.m.
Website

Toronto Poetry Slam featuring Rusty Priske from Ottawa @ The Drake Hotel, Toronto, ON - Sun Aug 10th!

We're back for a hot slam during the hot Toronto summer! (But all good, cuz the Drake has A/C)

Our spoken word competition features the amazing RUSTY PRISKE from Ottawa! He's been getting on stage to share his poetry for eight years and in that time he has been on the Capital Slam team SIX times, including 2009 when the team won the National Championship. He is a former member of The Recipe and the Copper Conundrum and his work has appeared on eight CDs, in four chapbooks, and his two full-length poetry books, Rusty Priske: Trapeze Artist and the brand new This is Day One.

Rusty has been the Slam Master at CapSlam for six years and is also the Spoken Word Canada National Slam Master and the founder of the VERSeOttawa Hall of Honour.

His greatest contribution to Slam in Canada may be the proliferation of the word 'Penultimate’.

Location:  The Drake Hotel, 1150 Queen Street West, Toronto, ON

Cover:  $5 all night.

Doors 7 signup 730pm show 8

Remember, those coveted seats get filled quick, arrive late and you'll be standing (and crowd-surfing!)

All ages

Questions? Email info@torontopoetryslam.com

Toronto Poetry Slam featuring V from Ottawa @ The Drake Hotel, Toronto, ON - Sun Jun 15th!

We're back with another poetry slam featuring the top spoken word artists in the GTA!

This time, we're featuring a poet long overdue to be on our stage: V from Ottaawa

Watching V step onto the stage and share her poetry is comparable to seeing a mild-mannered journalist step into a phone booth and turn into Superman. V has a knack for grabbing audiences from the first word. Her performances are usually accompanied by collective gasps and peals of laughter, but she is just as comfortable sharing fragility, using spoken word to dance between volcano, and candlelit vigil. V has represented Ottawa two years running at the 2012 and 2013 Canadian Festival for Spoken Word, reigns as Toronto’s 2013 Last Poet Standing and recently placed second in 2013's Toronto International Poetry Slam. She released her first anthology, Since February, a diverse and heartfelt collection last year and is currently anticipating the June release of her first spoken word album, entitled, " Watch Your Driving", along with a Dan Rascal produced cinepoem funded by the Ontario Arts Council and the City of Ottawa. Her upcoming projects will involve humanitarian aid efforts, building social, environmental and arts-program capacity in Eastern Africa.

TWITTER
@thevpoet
Cinepoem Teaser Video "R.I.P. Ms. Focus"
http://vimeo.com/94579807

Doors 7pm, Signup 7:30pm

Show 8pm

Cover:  $5

Open mic available too

Location:  The Drake Hotel, 1150 Queen Street West, Toronto, ON

Questions? Email info@torontopoetryslam.com
Toronto Poetry
@TOpoetryslam

Toronto Poetry Slam featuring Alessandra Naccarato @ The Drake Hotel, Toronto, ON - Sun Aug 11th!

On SUNDAY AUG. 11, we're back with another Sunday Slam, this time featuring one of Toronto Poetry Project's own, the very talented Alessandra Naccarato! (This is her last TPS gig in Toronto before she leaves us for Vancouver!)

@ The Drake Hotel, 1150 Queen St W, Toronto, ON
Doors 7, signup 730, show 8
Open mic available too
$5

This is part of our regular season, to determine the 2013 TPS Team

Featuring Alessandra! She s a writer and performer whose work bares the mark of the highway. A three time national slam finalist, the former chair of Spoken Word Canada and Artistic Director of Montreal's Throw Collective, she represented Toronto in the 2012 Women of the World Poetry Slam and coached the Toronto Poetry Slam team to a national broze medal. Having performed on stages from New York to Buenos Aires and in every major city in Canada, she has been featured on the cover of Nightlife Magazine, The Montreal Mirror and FFWD for her “incisive, raw poetry that packs a visceral punch” (Nightlife 2010). Her first full-length album, alongside band The Wild Hunt, will be released next spring.

In the fall of 2013, Alessandra will begin a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing at the University of British Columbia. Toronto Poetry Slam will be her final public performance in Toronto before moving to Vancouver. She will be accompanied by members of The Wild Hunt, Jennifer Slade (Vocals, Harmonium) & Matt Hayter (Guitar).

Www.alessandranaccarato.com

FB event invite: https://www.facebook.com/events/1404259016460318/

More info

http://torontopoetryslam.com/