I've never been to a live spoken word event before. Sure, I've seen videos online and that guy at the Olympics, but nothing live. I don't know how that happened. Every third blog post from Jessica Ruano or Nadine is about some spoken word thing or another, probably one they are participating in, and I always go see performances my friends are in. And they talk about it with such passion that it sends shivers down my spine. I know that kind of passion.
It should be right up my alley.
I used to write. From my teenage years to early university, I wrote almost every day. I filled notebooks with scribbles and poems, thoughts and ideas, heartache and heartbreak until every page was covered. I always had pen and paper with me. I preferred pencils but they always broke in my bag. And then I would take what I thought was good and meticulously edit and copy the "finished product" into my "clean" book; a pretty blue thing with golden sun, moon and stars on the cover. It had a matching bookmark.
I have over half a dozen notebooks, which I recently rediscovered as I was moving out of my Ottawa home. But then I just stopped writing poetry. Why? I don't know. Probably because I fell in love and was content. Little passion comes out of contentment.
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Did you know Ottawa is home to the Canadian Festival of Spoken Word champions: Capital Slam & Urban Legends. The festival is happening in Ottawa this year. I was actually asked to cover some of it for Ottawa Tonite but work was running late last night and I wasn't able to make it on time. I regret that, but you shouldn't. Click on the CFSW website and find out what's still going on and where. This logistically impressive festival (seriously, who organized this thing with all these venues? I'm very impressed if this is working out) runs until Saturday night. Then click on the Ottawa Tonite link & read up on some of the awe-inspiring coverage of the festival.
I'm not sure I'm going to get to see anything at this point, but I really hope that one day, soon, I will learn to stop resisting and embrace the Slam.