Did you know they have dark brown squirrels in Canada?

Sorry I've been really irresponsible about keeping this thing updated. Believe it or not, much has happened since I first got here, a whole 2 days ago. I'm not even kidding. On Sunday I meandered through the streets of Downtown Toronto to Kensington Market. Apparently, they close off the streets there the last sunday of every month. Which means it's free reign for pedestrians, musicians, dancers, singers, artists and of course, poets. Yes, we went to Kensington Market, gathered with other poets and, well, spread the poetry love to the unexpecting masses. To be honest, I was doubtful. If I were walking in downtown New York City, and passed some guy lying in the street with a microphone, talking about god knows what in coloquial metaphor, I'd run away. But oh, how wrong I was. Though it was slow at the start, the poetry reigned in a good size, yet non responisive crowd of spectators. Non responsive as in they didn't laugh or clap or shout. It was an interesting sight, to say the least, being surrounded by poets and cafes and markets selling watermelons and flowers.

I've been thinking alot about why I chose Canada as my first stop. It's not that I was chickening out of going somewhere really radical- I considered multiple countries, but settled on Canada for a few reasons: 1) The Canadian Festival of Spoken Word is in October. This is obviously the most important reason. By being in Canada for the months leading up to the CFSW, I would be able to observe poetry competition and performance in action. 2) Starting in Canada makes buying an around the world ticket easier (you can only go in one direction with these tickets.) Starting on the east coast and moving westward also means I could be in Mexico for November (mmm warm winter) and in Australia for New Years. Niiice. 3) It just fell into place- the scene seemed strong, the contact seemed intellegent and motivated, and it was easy for me to get here.

I'm going to go ahead and state the obvious: Canada is NOT the United States. Sure, there are similarities, and sometimes when I'm walking around Toronto I feel like I'm in NYC on an alternate plane, but I've begun to really appreciate the subtle differences in the poetry here. Probably the most evident difference in style that I have noticed within these few days is the emphasis on performance. It seems that stage presence, energy and vocal tone are main focal points here. Even the poets I have spoken to so far have emphasized their background in theater as a main starting point for performance poetry. This is incredibly interesting when compared to many poets in the United States, who typically got their start in writing for the page, or story telling, or even music. That's not to say that content isn't as important in Canada- it most certainly is. The general sentiment seems to be that poetry must be poetry, whether it's spoken or written. The common goal of Slam and Spoken Word is to reach an audience that typically is not moved by poetry, be it through stage presence, content or venue (marketplace, bar, artsy cafe etc...) And it certainly seems, at least here in Toronto, that they are achieving this goal with flying colors.

Even more evidence of the Toronto Poetry scene's success in bringing poetry back go the people- tonight I will be attending a poetry reading unlike any other I have ever attended. I don't really know how to explain this, so I'm just going to give you the excerpt from the Sunday paper:
"Poetry that really rocks, or vice versa: The Art Bar, Clinton's long-running poetry night, rocks out with a Sex, Drugs and Rockin' Poetry theme. "Local rock stars" in attendance. Copose an original or pick a song to recite and get ready to wax poetic like a rock star.

Sounds amazing. I'll let you know how it goes.

So this is what life has been like so far, events pretty much every other night, sometimes two or three per day. It's intense, but for a poetry lover, it's pretty heavenly. I have yet to perform here in Canada. I'm still really trying to get a feel for what this scene is all about. There's an open mic on thursday. Perhaps I will perform then.

Til next time!