Spoken Word Canada, also referred to as SpoCan, is an organization of
spoken word performers and organizers. Formed from a committee of city representatives at the 2004 Canadian Spoken Wordlympics in
Ottawa
Ottawa (, ; Canadian French: ) is the capital city of Canada. It is located at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River in the southern portion of the province of Ontario. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the core ...
,
Ontario, SpoCan's mission is to "nurture, develop and advance spoken word artists, the professional spoken word community and the art of spoken word in Canada." SpoCan is also responsible for producing the
Canadian Festival of Spoken Word
The Canadian Festival of Spoken Word is an annual festival produced by Spoken Word Canada and planned by a local Festival Organizing Committee in each host city.
The inaugural festival took place in Ottawa, Ontario in 2004 and was then known as th ...
each fall.
The organization is governed by a board of directors composed of the national director, the past national director, members of the executive committee, three members-at-large, and two local representatives from each of the sixteen communities represented on the board:
Victoria,
Vancouver,
Calgary
Calgary ( ) is the largest city in the western Canadian province of Alberta and the largest metro area of the three Prairie Provinces. As of 2021, the city proper had a population of 1,306,784 and a metropolitan population of 1,481,806, makin ...
,
Edmonton,
Saskatoon,
Winnipeg,
London,
Guelph,
Kitchener-Waterloo
The Regional Municipality of Waterloo (Waterloo Region or Region of Waterloo) is a metropolitan area of Southern Ontario, Canada. It contains the cities of Cambridge, Kitchener and Waterloo (KWC or Tri-Cities), and the townships of North Dumf ...
,
Burlington
Burlington may refer to:
Places Canada Geography
* Burlington, Newfoundland and Labrador
* Burlington, Nova Scotia
* Burlington, Ontario, the most populous city with the name "Burlington"
* Burlington, Prince Edward Island
* Burlington Bay, no ...
,
Toronto,
Peterborough,
Lanark County, Ottawa,
Montreal, and
Halifax. According to SpoCan's bylaws, new cities can be added to the SpoCan Board when "at least one arts organization and/or performance series from that city formally agrees to participate in SpoCan. The addition of representation from a new city must be ratified by a majority vote of the Board."
Spoken Word Canada Bylaws, section 3.3, November 2009
Individuals can also become members of SpoCan by registering with the national director.
SpoCan has operated its national festival in each of the past seven years—in 2004 as the Canadian Spoken Wordlympics (in Ottawa), and from 2005 to 2019 as the Canadian Festival of Spoken Word
The Canadian Festival of Spoken Word is an annual festival produced by Spoken Word Canada and planned by a local Festival Organizing Committee in each host city.
The inaugural festival took place in Ottawa, Ontario in 2004 and was then known as th ...
(2005 in Vancouver, 2006 in Toronto, 2007 in Halifax, 2008 in Calgary, 2009 in Victoria and 2010 in Ottawa).
See also
* Poetry slam
*Canadian poetry
Canadian poetry is poetry of or typical of Canada. The term encompasses poetry written in Canada or by Canadian people in the official languages of English and French, and an increasingly prominent body of work in both other European and Indigenou ...
References
{{reflist
External links
Spoken Word Canada (SpoCan) homepage
Spoken word contests
Canadian poetry
Canadian writers' organizations
Poetry organizations