Erin Vahidi

Freestyle battlers, literary types, and lyricists all over the world, you ain’t got nothin’ on us Toronto Poets. Well- if we come together, at least.
Spoken word in Toronto seems to be a growing vice for creatives, word-lovers and activists in the city. It’s difficult to pinpoint the birth of this scene in Toronto, or the beginning of the art itself for that matter. The world embraced slam poetry after Marc “So What” Smith catered it to a larger audience. However, the art of spoken word has been a traditional custom for many cultures, and is essentially the African art of storytelling with a competitive component.

Although popularity is on the rise, slam poetry has yet to unify its various artists, causes, and scenes. Dwayne Morgan, founder of Up From the Roots and an extraordinarily talented poet, describes the Toronto scene in saying that “there are so many pockets of it right now, a lot of people have found stages and audiences that they’re comfortable with, and kind of live within those circles – as opposed to breaking out of those circles[ …] right now the scene is very fragmented, it’ll be interesting to see if there can be some unity”.

Fragmented, indeed. In my own personal experience I’ve encountered countless spoken word spots that all seem to be geared towards a specific audience.

There’s Leah Lakshmi who began Pink Inc, a spoken word performing youth activist group for queer rights, The Toronto Poetry Slam events started by Dave Silverberg, and of course the Up From the Roots events by Dwayne Morgan. This list goes on and on.
Toronto has two teams that compete in the Canadian Festival of Spoken Word; (Oct. 10th – 13th) the Toronto Poetry Slam Team, and the Up From the Roots Team.

I’d like to say this occurrence can be attributed to Toronto’s endless talent, but I can’t ignore the differences in the two scenes.
My first experience with spoken word happened to be at the Art Bar, located in the Victory Café. I was turned off from reading that night, because I myself had fallen victim to thinking; “How will this predominantly white audience respond to the issues I want to speak on?”

I’ve seen this happen over and over again. Morgan addressed the issue interestingly in saying; “I will and have performed everywhere, in front of every possible audience, and you never know if your work is any good when you stay in the same audience. You have to get out of your comfort zone. […] Your family’s always going to cheer the loudest, but what happens when you go to somebody else’s family’s house?”
This is not to say that in having these different circles, the art cannot grow. It can- and has. It’s very evident that Poets come from all different walks of life, and that it’s easier to express oneself in an environment where the audience will relate to your words.

However, Morgan raises a question that I have also been looking to answer. If you identify with a label, are you still a talented Poet? As artists, should we not try to push beyond the confines of what constitutes a “Political Poet”, “Urban Poet”, “Queer Rights Poet”, “Literary Poet”, “Love-Dwelling Poet” and whatever other stereotype we can be given? Is it a problem that I, as the author of this article am comfortable with using these stereotypes because I know the readers will know exactly what I’m talking about? It’s said that Toronto is a city of endless untapped talent, but it’s also been said that Toronto’s audience is one of the hardest crowds to step up in front of. In whatever form you choose, as an artist, expression with a message is activism.

The importance of this was demonstrated to me while speaking with Toronto Spoken Word Artist Anubis the Necro Nubian.
“At the end of the day of the day a poem is a poem whether it’s told by a black, a jew, an asian- […] poetry is not for the artist.”
Now, with all these Poets, all these scenes, all these messages and all of this activism, why is it that we can’t sit in a room with like-minded individuals and not label one another?

Personally, I would say the Toronto Slam Poets are some of the best- but we’re still sitting in different boxes. It’s not easy to be on the front lines of a battle for change in our society, but it’s even harder if you’re not looking for your allies.
Freestyle battlers, literary types, and lyricists all over the world, don’t worry.

Despite all we have to say, all of our poetic talent, Toronto’s still the screwface capital.