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As National Poetry Month draws to a close, local poets are ensuring that it goes out with a slam – a poetry slam, that is.
The Winnipeg Poetry Slam is hosting the first qualifier of its 2025 season this week, and it represents the first chance that aspiring slam poets have to share their works not only in the city, but on a national level as well.
Jules Stevenson, one of the organizers of the event, recently got a chance to see what a poetry slam looks like on the Canada-wide stage by participating in the Canadian Individual Poetry Slam earlier this month in Vancouver. Alongside Manitoba champion BWriteWord, Stevenson participated in the event as a “storm poet” - a wildcard qualifier – and participated in three days of intense competition and workshops.
“Every poem I heard changed me in some way,” Stevenson said of her experience in an interview on Morning Light. “People are going up there and they're sharing their truths and they’re sharing very deeply intense and intimate and personal stories about their lives, and it’s just so impactful to hear their stories and be like, ‘Hey, I feel that. I’ve felt that before.’”
This experience of emotional catharsis is something that Winnipeg audiences can expect locally at the first of four qualifying events of the 2025 season, where poets can win a chance to qualify as the Manitoba representative or a storm poet like Stevenson. The competition will feature two rounds of twelve poets sharing their works in front of the judges in the audience.
“It’s kind of sporty,” says Stevenson of the atmosphere at these events. “People get really riled up. They have the poet that they want to win. But then, this poet you’ve never heard comes out of nowhere, and you’re like, ‘Man, this is the best poem I’ve ever heard.’”
One of the qualities that makes the poems at the Winnipeg Poetry Slam’s events so good for Stevenson is the way that they respond to the community around them. Whether they celebrate the city’s quirks or they rail against its faults, they become something that only a local audience can fully appreciate.
“I find that poets who come from this community, when they write about Winnipeg, they never hate Winnipeg,” says Stevenson. “They might dislike the winters or some aspects of it, but there’s always a sort of love that comes out of it.”
The first qualifying event for the Winnipeg Poetry Slam’s 2025 season takes place at 7 p.m. with the doors opening at 6 p.m. at The Handsome Daughter on Sherbrooke Street. There are a limited number of walk-up spaces for aspiring slam poets looking to participate. For more information on the rules and expectations, visit Winnipeg Poetry Slam’s website or Instagram page.