Celebrating the transformative power of words is the official mantra of Verses Festival of Words, Vancouver’s unique, cutting-edge, alternative literary festival, as it returns to East Van for its sixth year.
Over the course of 10 days, poets, performers and participants will mingle at venues across Commercial Drive, attending workshops, master classes, storytelling showcases, the launch of literary magazine Oratorealis and the Canadian Individual Poetry Slam championships (CIPS).
Five years ago when the festival launched (under the name Vancouver International Poetry Festival) the focus was primarily slam poetry – the rhythmic reciting of original material.
“We’ve grown exponentially, grown outside the poetry festival to include so many more people who identified beyond poet,” explains, Verses artistic director Jillian Christmas.
“We were able to broaden the components of the festival, we have stand-up comedy, singer-songwriters and conversation groups, and I think it brings an opportunity to look at the literary arts in a different way than we’ve been told to,” she elaborates.
Christmas says Verses is about community and extending what that means, offering stage space to artists not traditionally given any. The aim is to bring together people who learn from each other in experiencing one another, and inclusivity is fundamental.
A must-see this year is There Be Monsters, a premiere work by Amber Dawn, Ivan Coyote and Kai Cheng Thom.
The trio, along with some special guests, will share individual stories around the way we can transform trauma and the scars we accumulate throughout our lives.
“These artists have a breadth of experience, and it’s a really beautiful way of unifying anyone who has felt on the fringes in any way,” Christmas explains.
Innovative pieces like the Point of Inflection Cinemagraph Project breathe new life into the festival. Local artists Christoph Prevost, David Phu and Michael Champion have collaborated with 13 writers to create moving pictures accompanied by musical composition, centred around the idea of the focal moment of change or, “point of inflection.”
“We had no idea what to expect,” Christmas says excitedly of the work. “They highlighted elements even the writers didn’t expect to see. It’s surprising and rewarding to see what can happen when we blend our art forms together.
“Collaboration is one of the ways we can do anything original anymore, it can only exist in this one moment and we’re lucky enough to all be there.”
While the main event of the festival, remains CIPS, where nationwide slam poets vie to represent Canada on the world stage in Paris, there is still a little something for everyone. The Hullabaloo youth slam welcomes students to participate, while Teen Angst Poetry by Sara Bynoe takes you back to laugh at words that once made you cry.
Mash Poetics, a festival favourite where spoken word meets music, asks poets from across the county to write new works inspired by this year’s chosen album, Alanis Morissette’s Jagged Little Pill. Performed by a live band and hosted by renowned writer RC Weslowski, it promises to be a fun, danceable offering.
While Christmas says it can sometimes be difficult to find venues in East Van that are physically and financially accessible, it remains a priority to keep the festival at home on the Drive.
“We wanted to be able to pay back to the community, and the businesses who have been so good to all of these artists,” she says proudly. “They’ve supported us, a lot of them are our sponsors and we want them to feel included and know how important they are. We couldn’t have built up without them.”
Verses Festival of Words runs April 21-May 1 at select venues. VersesFestival.ca
