Khaleefa ‘Apollo the Child’ Hamdan is a spoken word poet, hip hop artist, radio host, youth worker and is the former co director of the Urban Legends Poetry Collective. Apollo created the free after school youth writing program Youth Speak with the Ottawa Public Library and he hosts the Home … Continued

Ruthless is one of our All Star Slam poets for 2021.  They’ve been electrifying audiences in the Metro Vancouver area for the last year and a half and we’re excited to have them strut their stuff on Friday April 23rd as part of the vaunted All Star Slam These events … Continued

These events will be taking place on the unceded, ancestral territories of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh peoples.   Johnny will be the host of our annual word circus that is the All Star Slam.  3 different All Star Poets (Nisha Patel, Apollo The Child and Ruthless) go head to … Continued

There is a new policy statement here.

Here’s the announcement. Here’s the job description. Go to the “full article” for clickable links.

The best time of year is fast approaching! Hullabaloo 2019 takes place from Thursday, April 25th, to Saturday, April 27th, at Vancouver Public Library’s Central Branch and East Van’s Rio Theatre. As always, we’ll kick things off on Thursday night with our Spoken Word Jamboree, this year featuring Halifax’s 5th … Continued

The first sell out of Verses Festival of Words 2018 is confirmed! The 12:30 PM Hullabaloo All Star Slam on April 20th sold out more than six weeks in advance. So we’re offering a 9:30 AM showing as well!!!  But you have to move fast: we announced the AM show … Continued

That’s right!  We’re having TWO All Star Slams at Hullabaloo 2017! Our 12:30 PM show sold out yesterday, and due to continuing interest, we’ve decided to have an early All Star Slam at 9:30 AM. Hosted by Regina’s Johnny Trinh, the 2017 edition of the All Star Slam sees Charlie C Petch from Toronto, Dana … Continued

Teams Registration, All Star Slam tickets, Available Now Are your students ready to slam?  Do you know some young poets looking for a space to spit some verse?  Hullabaloo is the place for them. Once again, Hullabaloo returns to the Vancouver Public Library’s Central Branch, from Thursday, April 20th to … Continued

This event will be taking place in the unceded, ancestral territories of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Wautuh peoples. That’s right!  Tickets are available for the Hullabaloo All Star Slam! For 2020 We have a brand new location and day for the annual All Star Slam.  This year we’ll be at … Continued

Team registration for Hullabaloo 2016 is now open. It is on a first-come, first-served basis, along with consideration for regional representation around BC. We are planning to admit only 16 teams to this year’s tournament, so it’s a good idea to register sooner than later. We offer pre-registration to teams … Continued

Team registration for Hullabaloo 2015 is now open. It is on a first-come, first-served basis, along with consideration for regional representation around BC. We are planning to admit only 16 teams to this year’s tournament, so it’s a good idea to register sooner than later. We offer pre-registration to teams … Continued

Vancouver Poetry House has struck a new partnership for Hullabaloo 2015 with the Vancouver Public Library. All events will be held at the central branch in the gorgeous Alice McKay and Peter Kaye rooms – and all shows will be free! We are excited to have such a fantastic downtown location … Continued

Astorino’s and The Prophouse Café were bouncing with excitement. After the first day of the team competition, the standings look like this: All the school teams have given themselves funky nicknames, as you can tell. The teams are ranked by their placing in each bout. The first level tiebreaker is … Continued

Registration for the 4th annual Hullabaloo is now open. The festival will run April 24–26 at Astorino’s, a venue run by our new sponsor, the Brittania Community Centre. It will be filled with amazing feature poets, workshops, All-Star Slams, 16 teams of youth poets, and plenty of community spirit! Teams … Continued

Want more info on WordPlay Poetry-in-Schools? Check out the new WordPlay Brochure .pdf for info on events, poets, rates, and all the amazing workshops and assembly performances that you can bring to your school. To book WordPlay poets, email Johnny MacRae at wordplaypoets@gmail.com

Hullabaloo returns for its 4th annual youth spoken word festival on April 24–26 at Vancouver’s Brittania Community Centre. This centre is at the heart of Vancouver’s spoken word community on Commercial Drive. All teams that registered for Hullabaloo 2013 will be given a chance to pre-register for Hullabaloo 2014 from … Continued

After Amy Everhart received a standing ovation for her feature set, we finished up the festival with the Team Finals bout. The scores were very tight and the poetry was on point. In the end, this is how it shook out: First place: Words Worth Wording (aka Port Moody Secondary) … Continued

The bouts keep getting more intense as we approach the end of prelims. Here are the final team rankings. The four teams in bold advance to Team Finals Night. The first number is the team’s finish in their first bout, the second number is their finish in the second bout. … Continued

Wow. It has been a heckuva Hullabaloo. Here are the standings after day one. The first number represents the ranking in the school’s bout. The second number is the point differential the team was from winning their bout, which is only important in a tie-breaking situation. Pearson College – 1 (0.0) … Continued

In each of the past four years (2009–12), Vancouver Poetry House has spent between $15,000–$25,000 to send local poets to national and international slam tournaments and to bring the best poets in the world to Vancouver for events like Hullabaloo. We’re proud of this. We’ve put poets on a lot … Continued

Registration for Hullabaloo closes on January 31st. We’ve had a tremendous response with many schools already signed up; however, there are a couple spots still available. You need a minimum of three student poets (or BC teens if you’re associated with a youth organization) to form a team (you can … Continued

Head’s up! Team registration for Hullabaloo 2013 opens today. It is on a first-come, first-served basis, along with consideration for regional representation around BC. We are planning to admit only 16 teams to this year’s tournament, so it’s a good idea to register sooner than later. The festival will take … Continued

We’ve had a bunch of eager youth poets sending messages asking: How can my school register for Hullabaloo 2013? I don’t want to miss it. Well, don’t worry, you’ve haven’t missed any deadlines yet. Hullabaloo 2013 registration opens on November 1st, 2012. The registration fee will be $160 payable by … Continued

Last year, Amy Everhart came up to the Vancouver Poetry Slam and blew everyone out of their seats. Now, we’re going to have her back! She’ll be featuring at Hullabaloo 2013 Team Finals Night and conducting workshops throughout the week. Bio: Amy Everhart has been called one of “America’s most … Continued

We’ve collected feedback at Hullabaloo 2012 through one-on-one conversations, a coaches / student captain meeting, and email surveys. After going through all this feedback, we’re making a number of changes. The main feedback from teachers and students is that everyone wants Hullabaloo to be a development festival, an event that … Continued

Big news! Hullabaloo 2013 has set its dates. The next BC youth festival of spoken word will happen April 3–6, 2013. That’s the week right after Easter from Wednesday to Saturday. The event schedule is still being finalized, but the goal has been to compress the festival, shortening it by … Continued

The papers in Delta picked up coverage on Hullabaloo champs from their local school, South Delta Secondary, and the Hullabaloo Indies Champ, Floyd VB, who was part of the SDSS slam team. Check out the article on Hullabaloo in the South Delta Optimist and this cool piece on Floyd VB … Continued

(South Delta Secondary, Hullabaloo Team Champions, Zoe Wessler, Parker Woods, Sam Merritt and Floyd VB and their coach Trevor “Spillious the Ridiculous One” Spilchen) Youthink Magazine has been a fabulous media sponsor for Hullabaloo. Read their article about the results of this year’s festival as well as their interview with … Continued

Hullabaloo may be over, but the youth poetry slams keep on coming. If you missed the tournament, these events are a great way to get an idea of what poetry slam is all about. If you were at Hullabaloo and are in poetry withdrawal, here’s the perfect chance to get … Continued

Phew! after all that excitement and hard work leading up to the festival, it was over in the blink of an eye. Thank you to everyone for participating and making this year’s festival such a memorable event. RC and I were overwhelmed at the generosity of spirit demonstrated by all … Continued

Hullabaloo culminates in the Team Finals bout. Last year, Reynolds won and South Delta came in second. This year, they switched spots with South Delta taking first place and Reynolds taking first runner-up. Vancouver island was well-represented with Glenlyon Norfolk and Reynolds both from the Victoria area, and both making … Continued

The Indies Finals competition blew the roof on The Rio Theatre. 12 of the best youth poets in BC participated in a three round slam of poetic madness. The first round was a 3-minute round with regular slam rules. 12 poets performed and the top 7 advanced (highlighted in blue). … Continued

After two evenings of astounding poetry, the results are in. These numbers do little to convey the courage and beauty of all of the poems presented, but it is an essential part of this crazy thing called poetry slam. Many members of the old guard of the Vancouver slam scene … Continued

UPDATED (2:10pm, April 12, 2012): individual poets’ names added for Reynolds in Indies standings. If finals started today (and they don’t), the teams and individuals highlighted would advance. However there’s still a whole day of competition to go and anything could happen! Beside the team or individual name is the … Continued

Preliminary bouts start today. Each team will compete in two different bouts. Because we have fewer than 16 team, a few teams will have to face each other twice (it’s a necessity, do the math). Scores will be posted online after each night at: http://youthslam.ca/scores Wednesday, April 11th Bout #1, … Continued

Fantastic segment on Hullabaloo featuring youth poets from New Westminster and South Delta. Hullabaloo is the first part of this video (staring at 1:06) that was aired on Shaw TV. In his excitement, RC Weslowski tells Floyd and Jasmine that both their teams will be part of Team Finals Night. … Continued

Picked up the Hullabaloo t-shirts yesterday and we’re already receiving facebook messages from people asking me how they can buy them. We might have to do a second printing. Big ups to Dave at The Goods on Broadway for doing such a great job. If you need a quality silk-screening … Continued

Hullabaloo was picked by The Georgia Straight as one of its “Straight Choices” in this week’s paper (page 32). They also posted are article about Hullabaloo online, which includes quotes from co-organizer, RC Weslowski. Here’s an excerpt: While the event is billed as a competition, and there can only be … Continued

Yesterday, the BC Teachers Federation made its announcements about how it will react to Bill 22, which imposes heavy fines for any further strikes. Hullabaloo has dodged a bullet, in terms of its timing, as the vote on whether or not teachers will stop volunteering their time to support extracurricular … Continued

The BC Teachers Federation and BC Liberal government are locked in a battle of wills. It’s difficult to say at this point what kind of settlement will emerge or when. One thing is certain though. It’s always important to remember what teachers make…

Olivia B was featured in a recent post on the most excellent website VancouverIsAwesome.com. Here’s a snippet: Favourite Vancouver/Lower Mainland writer? I don’t know if I have a “favourite”, but right now I’m really excited about lisa b., who is a spoken word poet I discovered through the Van slam … Continued

As part of his work with the Talking Stick Festival, Zaccheus Jackson was featured in a recent article by Stuart Derdeyn in The Province. “After an argument with my girl-friend, I was walking off the tension along my neighbourhood of Commercial Drive when I saw a sign that said “Poetry … Continued

Read the original article on Youthink by Camilla Shelby – Port Moody Secondary, Port Moody BC Feb 7, 2012 Defined as a, “form of poetry that often uses alliterated prose or verse,” spoken word is a powerful form of expression. Spoken word artists and teams compete against one another in … Continued