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2008 National Slam! with celebrity judge Sarah Murphy
Auburn Saloon
Wednesday, November 5 - Sunday, November 9

More in: Literary

Calgary-born journalist and poet Ian Keteku is a dragon slayer. Like Greek mythology’s heroic Perseus, Keteku fights demons, but his are the demons of domestic disputes, poverty and homelessness. Words are his weapons, his battleground a stage, and though his witty modern fable about his job as a dragon slayer always garners laughs, it has a deeper message.

This month, Keteku brings his larger-than-life duel to Calgary as part of the city’s spoken-word team for the National Poetry Slam. Along with his teammates, captain Wakefield Brewster, Jen Kunlire and Mysterysa, he will inundate the captivated crowd with his lyrical attack. The team will compete against 10 others in three elimination rounds. Each poem will be given a score out of 10, culminating in a battle between two teams fighting for the title of slam champions.

“Poetry” explains Keteku, “acts as a voice for the voiceless.” In other words, it opens the door for others to tell their stories and expose society’s prejudice and injustice. Sheri-D Wilson, who is the organizer of this year’s slam and head of the Calgary Spoken Word Society says this is the only way these problems can be overcome, and it makes poets and artists a brand of warrior.

Wilson says Keteku’s verbal prowess shocked her. “He came to the last slam and our jaws just dropped!” she exclaims. With this year’s lineup, she adds, the Calgary team will be formidable. She predicts that they’ll easily hold their own against heavyweights Vancouver, Toronto and Halifax, and, in the end, they just might win this thing.

The competition features poetry readings with luminaries like Moe Clark and Clifton Joseph, workshops and a last-minute slam for would-be performers. Wilson bid on the slam after seeing Alberta’s poetry scene flourish in the last few years. She started up the Spoken Word Society in November 2003 and began holding monthly slams two years later. At first, there was only about 20 people in the audience, but that number has since blossomed to more than 150. “Alberta is growing as a poetic centre, and poetry in the city is going to get stronger and stronger,” she says.

The origins of spoken word are hard to place. It includes genres as diverse as dub, hip hop, beat poetry and jazz and is also rooted in the oral traditions of native Americans, Africans and several other western cultures. The history of the poetry slam, on the other hand, is more concrete. It was established in the 1980s — the brainchild of construction worker and amateur poet Mark Smith, who held the inaugural slam at the Green Mill cocktail lounge in Chicago. It featured a match between two poets who were judged by the audience based on content and performance.

The slam, says Wilson, is a great way for artists to enter the spoken word community and learn new techniques and styles. “It’s not a form that you can sit down with a pen and learn about. You have to sit down with your ears, your body and your eyes,” she says. There are, including Keteku, several newcomers this year. Keteku’s teammate Jen Kunlire only started performing in April and slamming in May. She says competition is healthy. “It’s a great tool to expand my own writing, because you get to take so much in.”

It’s also a great way for artists to network, adds spoken word poet Moe Clark. The Calgary-born Métis artist has participated in several slams and now stands on the slam committee. Meeting so many performers, she says, has given her the chance to set up shows in a variety of Canadian cities. “It’s really great to see such an eclectic and diverse group of individuals coming and performing on the same stage,” she says, “It feels like a little dose of Canada”