Get ready Toronto – Poetry fans will soon have a chance to see top American and Ontario poets battle it out in an international poetry slam. From May 28th-31st, the 10th annual Rustbelt(Mid-West) Regional Poetry Slam is crossing the border and heading to downtown Toronto. Started by Dayton Ohio poet Bill Abbott, the Rustbelt Slam is a spoken word competition that will pit top American slam poets against top Ontario poets. A poetry slam is a form of spoken word competition at which poets read or perform original work. These performances are then judged on a scale of 0-10 by five 'judges' - previously selected members of the audience. Poets are scored on both performance and content, and top scoring poets advance. Content can range from comedy to tragedy, personal triumph to the silly and satirical. Audiences generally are encouraged to be interactive and vocal and the common response to slams (from first-timers) is that they didn’t know poetry could be so “alive”.The 10th anniversary of the Rustbelt Regional Poetry Slam is produced by a collective of poets consisting of the Toronto Slam Fam, Up From The Roots, and the Toronto Poetry Project. All are thrilled that Toronto will be the first Canadian host city of this Midwestern U.S. poetry slam tradition. The Rustbelt will see teams from the following confirmed cities: Toronto, Minneapolis, Detroit, Columbus, and Cleveland. Some of the competitors listed on these teams have featured in Toronto as individuals and already have existing fans in Canada. Venue and schedule details are below:Festivities begin on the 28th of May with a “Wildcard” slam at the Dominion on Queen (500 Queen Street East). Poets will have the opportunity to compete for one of two remaining spots on a team featuring poets from Up FromThe Roots and the Toronto Poetry Slam. Competition officially begins on Friday May 29th at 8:00pm at the Poor Alex Theatre (772A Dundas St W). Two preliminary bouts will feature all competing teams.On Saturday afternoon, May 30th at 12:00pm, the action moves to the Trane Studio (964 Bathurst St) for the final preliminary matches.The competitive segment of the weekend culminates that evening at 7:00pm with both the team and individual final sat the historic Bloor Cinema (506 Bloor St West). This will be the first time any spoken word competition has beenstaged at the Bloor. Both the individual and team competition champions will be crowned that evening.On Sunday May 31st at 12:00pm, the Toronto Rustbelt Organising Committee, in association with Kensington MarketPedestrian Sundays, and thanks to generous funding from the Toronto Arts Council, presents a special freeperformance featuring our Midwestern guest hosts as part of the spring launch of Pedestrian Sundays, in the heart of Kensington Market.The 2009 Rustbelt Regional Poetry Slam will feature local hosts David Silverberg, Dan D’Onorio (SoulFistikato),Mike Smith (White Noise) , Yehuda “PAN” Fisher, as well as invited guest hosts from the mid-west, including EdMabrey and Steve and Deb MarshAdmission to all events is subject to venue capacity. “Last Chance” Slam tickets are $5, available at the door. Ticketsfor each preliminary bout are $8, also available at the door. Tickets for the finals at the Bloor Cinema are $15 inadvance, and can be purchased via T.O. Tix (
www.totix.ca). Festival passes for both preliminary bouts and the finalsare available for $25 at
www.rustbelttoronto.com.For more information, please visit
www.rustbelttoronto.com or e-mail
info@rustbelttoronto.com
