“3, 2, 1, raise it!” yelled an excited crowd of approximately 100 in the tight, but intimate Mercury Lounge for the Capital Slam poetry season launch Sept. 17.
“Raise It” is a ritual where audience members pump their fists into the air at the Ottawa poetry series before nervous poets take the stage.
The energy in the room was filled with feelings of uncertainty and hopefulness for the upcoming season. New to the poetry scene was fourth-year communications student Derrick Gooden, who said he hoped to hear opinions “that aren’t being reflected in mainstream dialogue.”
Topics ranged from violent romantic relationships, the legalization of marijuana, addiction and single parenthood of a father to the harms of conformity.
English and philosophy student Sean O’Gorman was the highest scoring performer of the night.
“It’s the first time [I won] solo. I never thought I’d beat out Graeme [Loh El] . . . it’s a confidence boost,” said the Carleton student, who will duke it out with teams across Canada at the Canadian Festival of Spoken Word in Toronto next month.
While O’Gorman took the title, the spotlight was on the female poets.
In the male dominated scene, it’s rare to have more than one woman slam and compete; however, the show had a record-breaking turnout of females which didn’t go unnoticed, said Rusty Priske, co-director of the Capital Slam series.
“Top female poets left Ottawa around 2007 for various reasons, but series like Voices of Venus brought it back,” Priske said, adding that male dominance is a phenomenon unique to Ottawa.
One of the female poets who performed Sept. 17 was Kim Nguyen, also known as Kim Bit. Nguyen, a first-year mathematics student at Carleton, said there is a bit of irony in emphasizing female poets.
“We want to emphasize all females. The more we emphasize it helps, but it takes a way from seeing a poet as a poet,” she said.
Nguyen said she was motivated to perform after hearing Carleton graduate Vanessa Baker’s poetry.
The featured performer for the show was Megan Ann Ward, a poet from Victoria, B.C. Her poems were raw, refreshing and invoked inspiration for women to find their voice.
“Be loud,” she advised the women in the audience.
O’Gorman said Ward has a unique ability to inspire women as a poet.
“If I were to tell 100 women to come out on stage, maybe one would come out. But when [Ward] performs, 99 out of 100 women come out.”
