Regina Word Up CVAF Poetry Slam (with cash prizes) featuring The Noble Savage 

Wednesday, May 24, 2023 

7:00 p.m. (SK time), doors open at 6:30 pm 

Holy Rosary Park Outdoor Tent, Regina, SK 

Free (CVAF donations encouraged) 

* Sign up at the door 

* First come, first served. 

*All-ages! 

We’re back with cash prizes for top placing poets at our annual Cathedral Village Arts Festival Poetry Slam! This year featuring a performance by local spoken word artist, The Noble Savage. 

No slam experience necessary – bring your best poem under 3 min 10 seconds to compete in our one-round poetry slam. Sign up at the door beginning at 6:30pm. Max 12 slammers. All ages. 

1st place: $75 

2nd place: $50 

3rd place: $25  

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Feature performer: 

Austin “The Noble Savage” Ahenakew has a unique style that weaves rhythm into storytelling and announces an urgent truth from the perspective of an Indigenous youth. Bringing an unapologetic approach to Indigenous struggles, abuse, PTSD and how skin colour is viewed.  He brings sweet words to stage without sugar coating any part of the truth.  

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NEED TO KNOW: 

–> A poetry slam is a dialogue between audience and performer. It is a competitive event wherein spoken word artists share their work in a high-spirited, fast-paced environment to an often-uproarious crowd. 

–> This will be a one-round slam with each competitor competing once. The round will have a maximum time limit of 3 minutes and 10 seconds. Poets will lose .5 points for every ten seconds over time. 

–> Slammers should come prepared with one original (that is, your own) piece that meets this time limit. 

–> Note: You DO NOT need to create new work if you have a poem that is already this length. You are allowed to perform work you’ve already performed in Regina in the past. 

–> This is an English-speaking competition. However, there are no language restrictions. 

–> No props, no nudity, no hate speech. 

–>You can sign up at the door, with a maximum of 12 competing poets — first come, first served! 

–> Judges will be pulled at random from the audience, and will each provide a score between 1-10 for each piece of writing. The judges will judge the poem and performance but not the poet or appearance. 

–> No slam experience necessary. 

–> We recommend competitors are at least 14 years old to compete. 

–> We encourage audience members to engage during the performances – snap, make cheesecake noises (mm’s and yes’s), laugh, stomp, or otherwise make your appreciation known! 

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GUIDELINES, COMMUNITY AGREEMENTS AND CONSENT STATEMENTS 

At the Creative City Centre we always strive for inclusivity and respect in the community both inside and out of our facility, which is why we have compiled the following guidelines to remember both for our events and also in everyday life.
• We encourage respecting the way folks self-identify, without assuming gender, sexuality, orientation, religion, or ability.
• We understand that at times folks may need to leave or engage in other methods of self-care, and that’s okay.
• We encourage language that promotes inclusivity, education, and awareness and dislike all forms of explicit ignorance including, but not limited to, hate speech, racism, homophobia, transphobia, and classism.
• We encourage the culture of consent meaning we respect people’s physical, verbal, and emotional boundaries. This means respecting that some people might not want to be hugged and if you want to engage physically in any way with a person it is important to ask permission before doing so. 

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Regina Word Up is a program of the Creative City Centre. We gratefully acknowledge the support of the Department of Canadian Heritage, SK Arts, City of Regina, Creative Saskatchewan, and the Canada Council for the Arts that make programs like this one possible. We are grateful to our partners for this event, the Cathedral Village Arts Festival.  

For more information, please email spokenword@creativecitycentre.ca