Spoken Word Festival

Most people head to Banff for skiing and scenery, but for artists, the idyllic Alberta town is also home to a mecca of artistic creation: The Banff Centre. Every year, The Banff Centre hosts residencies for hundreds of artists from a multiplicity of disciplines, encouraging collaboration, innovation and excellence.

In 2005, spearheaded by local celebrity poet Sheri-D Wilson, The Banff Centre was host to a summit of spoken-word artists that led to the development of the Spoken Word Arts Network (SWAN), an international collective of like-minded creators. Last year, SWAN reunited for residencies and development at the Centre, building the momentum that has resulted in this April’s initiative — Canada’s very first Spoken Word Program.

This year’s program features an all-star faculty that includes Ian Ferrier of Montreal’s Wired on Words; D. Kimm, artistic director of Montreal’s Festival Voix d’Amériques; Sheri-D Wilson, artistic director of the Calgary International Spoken Word Festival; and Bob Holman, the “poetry guy” for About.com, founder of New York City’s Bowery Poetry Club and instructor at Columbia University.

“I believe The Banff Centre to be the premier arts facility in the world,” says Holman. “The setting, the buildings, the performing and recording facilities, the creature comforts are unparalleled.” Holman is thrilled to be granted the opportunity to develop his poetic practice. “In the United States, there’s a fantastic slam scene, there’s HBO’s Def Poetry Jam, but you won’t find conferences dedicated to spoken word,” he says. “The Canadian poetry community has been very open to the study of spoken word.”

The program incorporates a unique teaching style wherein everyone — students and faculty alike — focus on their own work, using the opportunity to learn from each other’s process. “These are students of all ages and backgrounds, people who are ready to dedicate themselves to their art,” says Holman. “Because this art is so inherently individualistic, the first thing you have to do is listen — to the room, to the sound system, to the people around you.” He will encourage students to explore multi disciplinary performance. “With performance, you can engage the culture at every angle,” he says. “There’s no reason a poem can’t be a film. The challenge is to create an image track that will translate as directly and viscerally as black words on white paper.”

The program’s lineup of students is nearly as star-studded as its faculty, featuring 15 early- and mid-career artists: Shone Abet, Luna Allison, Kristan Anderson, David Bateman, Jill Battson, Möe Clark, Marci Denesiuk, Kathy Fisher, Corey Frost, Catherine Kidd, Dale Lee Kwong, Kirk Ramdath, Ali Riley, Michael Sheely and Rebecca Singh.

“It’s a bright beam of sunshine for me,” says Catherine Kidd, who comes to Banff from Montreal. “When I first saw the ad for the program, I said, ‘Sigh, that looks like fun, too bad I can’t go.’ It didn’t even occur to me that I should apply until Ian Ferrier pointed out that it was ridiculous for me not to go.”

Kidd, who spent several weeks last year in South Africa, intends to use the residency as a chance to develop her Africa-centred poetry project. “I want to look at urban alienation using African wildlife,” she says. “If you look at the mythology surrounding hyenas, for example, they’re scapegoats. Everybody hates them, because they’ll eat the rotten wretched stuff that no one else will touch. The truth is, hyenas have the most efficient digestive systems of any animal in that ecosystem. I want to write about them as people on the fringes, about whom there are all these beliefs and suspicions, but who are going about their lives just fine, thank you very much.

There are two opportunities to catch a glimpse of the program’s excitement. First up, there’s Student sPEAK, back-to-back performances by all of the program’s students on April 11 at 8 p.m. Then, on April 12 at 8 p.m, Faculty Blast-Off showcases the four faculty members. Both events take place at The Club in The Banff Centre. Admission is by donation.