To celebrate 15 years of spoken word in the city, Urban Legends Poetry Collective (ULPC) is bringing all kinds of poetic resonance to Ottawa in a weekend full of incredible events.
From Sept. 13-15, ULPC is hosting a triple-bill season opener that includes a variety of artistic performance and poetry.
“When Urban Legends first started, we were hijacking classrooms in Carleton University in order to put on poetry slams,” says Director of ULPC Billie Nell. “We have come a really long way since then, and we wanted to kick off our 15th anniversary season with something new and exciting for our community.”
Image from a ULPC performance. Photo provided.
New and exciting, indeed. Starting on Sept. 13, there will be an open mic which Nell says is open to anyone who would like to share poetry on their stage. The open mic will also feature highly acclaimed and experienced artist Shasparay, who hails from Austin, Texas.
“Shasparay has performed on national and international stages,” says Nell. “It’s really, really special that we now have the resources and capacity to bring her over and share her work.”
On Sept. 14, Shasparay is going to be performing her full-length multidisciplinary poem word show, Body Politics, which is about her experiences living in a fat-phobic world.
“It’s sort of a process of self-love and how it’s nuanced and not always in a linear, upward trajectory,” says Nell. “So that’s something that Shasparay conveys really beautifully through their storytelling in that show.”
To close things out, on Sept. 15—and in partnership with the CityFolk Festival as well as House of PainT—there will be an invitational poetry slam, where top poets will compete for a grand prize of $1,000 on the CityFolk Festival stage.
Nell says that spoken word in Ottawa has had a rich history since ULPC began in 2009. They have seen the community grow and change over time, and that it has been very exciting to see the collective grow from performing in empty classrooms to partnering with bigger arts venues and organizations.
Image from a ULPC performance. Photo provided.
“I really think it’s a testament to how spoken word reaches people of so many different communities,” says Nell. “At the end of the day, we’re gathering to listen to people’s intimate experiences, their personal experiences, the things they carry with them that resonate and people from all walks of life can connect to that.”
While sometimes spoken word can seem a little intimidating when first getting into the scene, Nell says that if you don’t have any experience, ULPC is a great place to learn and start something new.
“We welcome folks of all experience levels,” they say. “Every time we have a slam, we always have new people trying it out for the first time. It’s hard to step on stage and share words you wrote to a sea of strangers, but ultimately everyone is there to support and hold the words in the space.”
Nell hopes that audiences come away from the event inspired to write or create their own art, and perhaps a new or evolved understanding of what spoken word can be. However, it is a heightened sense of community that Nell says is the overarching theme of the entire weekend.
“Spoken word can be so much more than this slam or open mic format,” they say. “I hope this will expand people’s understanding and aspirations for spoken word, and on a simple level, I hope that people come away from next weekend with a sense of community—it’s really what’s at the core of Urban Legends and our project.”
Urban Legends Poetry Collective’s 15th year anniversary celebration will be taking place from Sept. 13-15. The opening night slam will be from 7:30pm-10pm at LabO, Shasperay’s performance on Sept. 14 will also be at LabO from 7pm-9pm and the competition slam on Sept. 15 will be at the Fasken Stage in Lansdowne Park from 5:30pm-7:30pm. All tickets are pay-what-you-decide and can be accessed online. A day pass or a festival pass is needed to access the competition slam at CityFolk Festival. You can access passes here. For more information about the Urban Legends Poetry Collective, visit their website. You can also follow them on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube or X.
