Rusty Priske at the Capital Slam semi-finales in Ottawa

'Darwin's Theory of Revolution'
      performed by Rusty Priske at Ottawa Capital Slam semi-finales, on May, 7th, 2011 

Slam, for performed spoken word, poetry pushed alive on stage, sharing its intensity & depth in front of an audience, the power of its living words.

Slam, for poetry gathered in small competition. Open to anybody, any voice, any message - but in a competition. With rules, 3-minute time granted to offer style & meaning & much more; juges given marks; marks leading to winner for each night, leading to a year-long ranking, leading to a champion.

And since we are in North-America, championships are divided into regular seasons and play-offs, or sort of play-offs.

The semi-finales of Capital Slam took place last Saturday night at the Alumni Auditorium of the University of Ottawa. The 12 best poets of the year, performing 2 poems in front of a crowd of 200 people including 5 judges. Yeah, this is art, this is sport, this is art & poetry sport, man - and sport with goals, not sport for pure beauty of art (not only). The 8 best seni-finalists are qualified for the final, the 5 best finalists are selected in the Capital Slam team for the Canadian championship...

Do I need to remind you that the Capital Slam Team is the 2-time defending Canadian Champion? That Open Secret from Capital Slam just won the Canadian individual tittle? That Ian Keteku from Capital Slam won the World Title?...

This is sport, this is city-size competition, and much more: this is a competition showing maybe some of the best slamers on the great circus of performing poetry...

The night was intense, sure, no suprise. It was impressive to see faces and hear voices previously heard in much smaller conditions. The stage of the Mercury Lounge feels small & friendly compared to the Alumni Auditorium, and the crowd definitely pushes performers, adds intensity to words already born intense and vivid. Great energy exchange: this might be one of the basic definition of poetry for me, and I certainly received my share of energy & intensity yesterday.

Apart from the words themselves, that's really this intensity that struck me, and quickly made me eager to build portraits of the poets. Intense poem associated to intense poeple brings intense characters, wonderful pictures and flows on stage. It would be fascinating to draw such performers - but I stopped being good at drawing at the age of 11. I could try to write some portraits - could be an interesting exercice.

But I started with a more basic approach to portraits, a more instantaneous. I played with my new camera friend. Took some pictures, shot some videos, from my row in the middle of the audience.

Obviously, the quality is often poors (could you please stand still for a while, poets) But there might be some interesting pictures to share once I get rid of the bad ones... Which might take a couple of days...

But we can start with this video clip from Rusty Priske performace. This is its second poem of the night, entitled 'The Darwins Theory of Revolution'. Intense, I suppose you've understood my focus now - but also beautifully crafted and playing with sounds.

More videos and pictures to come next week!

You can check the names of the 8 finalists here. The final will take place on Firday June, 10th at the Alumni Auditorium of the University of Ottawa.