April is National Poetry Month. This year Spruce is helping Poetry In Voice/Les voix de la poésie promote its National Competition. On April 24, nine finalists in three categories—English, French and Bilingual—will give their best recitation of a poem from Poetry In Voice’s library. Sitting front row, some of Canada’s most respected poets will decide who best articulates the intent of the poem and its poet. The judges include Marie-Célie Agnant, Michael Crummey, Armand Garnet Ruffo, Natasha Kanapé Fontaine, Susan Musgrave and Chloé Savoie-Bernard.
“Hearing these young voices articulate the words of some of our finest poets, I always leave the National Finals inspired and transformed,” says executive director David Smith. “It’s no accident that teachers return to our recitation competitions year after year, or that students describe the experience as one of the most significant of their lives.”
Hosted at the National Arts Centre, the event also highlights 16 Future Verse participants. These students were selected based on poems they submitted to Poetry In Voice’s journal. Among them is Kyo Lee, a young poet from Waterloo, Ontario. Lee recently performed at Ottawa’s Riverbed Reading Series as part of Negotiating Borders, put on by SAW Gallery and the Korean Cultural Centre of Canada.
These 25 students will spend four days in Ottawa working with well-known authors, publishers and activists to develop their unique poetry voices. They will also get acquainted with the poets, geography and history of the Ottawa-Gatineau region through the Chasse-Galerie on the river—a poetry scavenger hunt—organized by poet and Spruce team member nina jane drystek. The Chasse-Galerie includes impromptu poetry recitation and poetry-related sidewalk chalk around downtown on April 23, so keep an eye out!
Want to hear more and celebrate poetry? There are a few tickets remaining for the National Competition.
Interested in getting your classroom or kids more involved with poetry? Learn more about Poetry In Voice.
