YouthCanSlam gears up August 12-16 for its second annual Youth Poetry Festival! Artists from across Canada will meet in the nation’s capital to celebrate the art of the spoken word. This week long event not only gives young budding artists the opportunity to connect with their audience in the spirit of camaraderie, but also allows them to develop their craft with the mentorship of established Canadian poets. The festival boasts tons of activities and events, including group sessions, a Youth Arts Fair, an Artistic Performance Showcase, a National Youth Picnic, and an end of festival performance.
I had a chance to speak with Ikenna Onyegbula, director of this year’s festival, and find out more about what’s new for the festival’s second edition, including their two young and promising Poets of Honour.
Apartment613: How do you think this year’s festival will differ from last year’s?
Ikenna: This year, the YouthCanSlam Festival is bigger in terms of programming content. In addition to our free workshops, the All Star/Legends poetry showcase and the National Youth Poetry Slam Competition, we added a Youth Showcase, where we will be showcasing the work of six of the country’s most enterprising youth artists. We also added an indigenous Walking Tour of the city, led by Indigenous Arts Activator Jaime Koebel, where the festival’s participating youth poets will learn about the City of Ottawa through lens of Indigenous experiences. This year, the festival will also have more youth participating in it than in our inaugural year. We have added two more cities to the National Youth Poetry Slam competition (Winnipeg and Montreal) and overall, we will have around sixty core youth poets taking part in all events. In other words, the festival is growing every year and getting bigger and bigger.
This Festival gives aspiring artists the chance to really hone in their craft. How important is this kind of initiative for youth today?
Giving aspiring youth artists the chance to really hone in their crafts has tremendous benefits. It allows youth to understand that, in the grand scheme of things, they matter, and that their voices are an integral part of our social dialogue. The youth we equip with the strength of belief in their own passions and forms of expressions will in turn equip other youth and so on, thereby creating lasting value.
I notice the Festival highlights youth for their artistic achievements throughout the year. Can you talk about this year’s Poets of Honour?
This year, we have two Poets of Honour, noted for their accomplishments and contributions to the Canadian youth spoken word poetry scene. The first is 21 year old Morgan Purvis, who is also Victoria, BC’s Youth Poet Laureate for 2014. Morgan has already been a member of the adult Victoria Poetry Slam Team and has competed at nationals. She has also served as slam master of the Victoria Poetry Slam scene and has helped organize major arts events, like the annual Victoria Spoken Word Festival. She facilitates spoken word workshops in secondary and middle schools and works both as an artist and as a producer.
Our second youth Poet of Honour is 17 year old Mustafa Ahmed, who has been writing and performing since the age of 12. Mustafa utilizes the power of the arts to speak and demonstrate his understanding of the intricacies of communities such as his (Regent Park in Toronto), touching upon topics such as youth empowerment, mental health, Islam, immigration, youth on youth violence, politics, bullying, philanthropy, the search for peace and unleashing the creativity of youth. He has had numerous high profile performances, sharing the stage with artists like Jhene Aiko, Pharaohe Monch, Margaret Atwood and Samantha Nuitt, including further working with artists like Nelly Furtado, Broken Social Scene and renowned poet George Elliott Clark.
What do you hope to see at this year’s festival?
At this year’s festival, we hope to not only continue to cement the festival’s place in the overall Canadian Spoken Word context, but also work to achieve our 6 main festival goals:
- To provide a program of mentorship and professional development for Canada’s youth poets through workshop engagement and information sharing with adult poet mentors across the country.
- To provide venues where the Ottawa community can witness and support performances given by a culturally diverse base of youth poets, thereby promoting Ottawa’s youth arts profile.
- To increase local awareness of Ottawa’s youth poetry scene and its promising youth poets.
- To promote and maintain a collaborative, tangible and nationally supportive network between the festival’s participating youth poets.
- To create opportunities for youth poets across Canada to further enhance their skills and experience levels through performances and workshops after the festival is done.
- To connect youth poets, both locally and nationally, with poetry series and scenes where they may continue to develop their voices.
YouthCanSlam is happening all week on the University of Ottawa Campus, and should not be missed! Come and check out Canada’s youth develop their poetry skills and connect with their audience! You can find more details on their website and Facebook page.
