Have you ever been to a poetry slam? Me neither — until last Monday. I didn't know what to expect or what it even was. I decided to attend the Youth Slam, for people aged 13–20, which is regularly put on by Vancouver Poetry Slam. Although the organization hosts slams every Monday, this one is always reserved for the youth.
The event was set to start at 8 p.m.. When I got there around 7:45, the place was already packed to the point that people were even being told to wait at the door. The slam was at Café deux Soleils, an admittedly hipster place (being on Commercial Drive, after all) where people drink juice and beer out of mason jars. It was quite warm and inviting from the moment I paid the $4 fee and entered. In a cozy setting like this, everyone was there to cheer each other on.
The event started with a few poets performing for fun, followed by the feature poet, Santiago Urena. The Youth Grand Slam champion of 2016, he recited some of his original works although they were not always in the style of slam. He intertwined stories from his Mexican heritage into his work, treating me to a vivid glimpse of his childhood.
I was asked to be a judge. I was told by the event's host that judges were picked at random from the audience, and that we were the poetry experts of the evening's slam which quickly got underway following Urena.
Twelve poets performed in the first round, with the top five moving onto the finals. If any poet were to go over the time limit of three minutes and ten seconds, the audience would shout, “You time bandit, you're ruining it for everyone but it was well worth it and that's okay because we're all gonna die!” If this was the poet's first time performing, they were welcomed with a hearty “please come back!”
The content of the slams ranged from politics, to women's rights, to empowerment, to even some socially taboo topics such as suicide, sex and various mental illnesses. All of the poets were very passionate, although you could definitely tell who were the seasoned performers and who weren't, as there was a distinct sense of preparedness with the former.
If a particular verse or two resonated with the audience, they were met with snaps — applause were saved until the end. The judges were given a mere five seconds at the most to decide on a score, which was either met with screams of “higher!” if the audience didn't agree or roaring applause if they did. What I found particularly interesting was that the scores tended to be pretty even across the board despite the host urging us to “judge on our own criteria.” For some rounds, there were occasional outliers whose scores were either much higher or much lower than the rest.
There was a short intermission in between the two rounds where, inevitably, the place cleared out somewhat and even a set of the judges left. According to the host, this happens fairly often. I found that those who made it to the second round were the ones who had experience and were arguably the most passionate. These five (or four, since one mysteriously disappeared between the two rounds) did not hold back and the audience's reception was similar.
The entire event was very fast-paced with high energy. I found it to be very enjoyable, seeing the youth so passionate about poetry, slam or otherwise. I would definitely attend again, and maybe even perform. It was a great experience and if you've never been, I highly recommend it.