Versefest

Last Friday, I had a chance to check out Ottawa's annual Versefest (http://versefest.ca/). I had actually heard about it from other co-ops at work when we went to Jacques Cartier Park during lunch when it was closed. At the time it seemed really lame, but I came upon a blog entry on Apt613 (http://apt613.ca/) and thought it might be a cool thing to check out. Luckily my roommate Jonathan has been to a Poetry Slam before and he enlightened me of its awesomeness.

Shawarma Poutine at Shawarma Byte on Osgoode Street in Sandy Hill

After work on Friday Jonathan and I went to Rideau Centre then went to Ottawa Arts Court to pick up the tickets for the show. We then decided to get poutine from a different place from the one we usually go to. For me personally, it lacked the wholesomeness of poutine as it just tasted like fries, chicken, lukewarm gravy and unmelted cheese curds.

We went home, got changed, and I grabbed my 50mm lens for the event. Just before I entered the theatre, I realized that I somehow managed to lose my ticket even though it was in my coat pocket on the bus ride to the venue. But I managed to get in because people working at the theatre seemed very trusting. The guy in the picture above gave the event a kick start it deserved (The theatre was so full that some people were already sitting on the floor!). He was not one of the contestants though.

I don't remember much from the night because I was too busy taking pictures. Sometimes it's so easy to get taken up by shutterbug inside of me. Out of 12 contestants, these 4 men were most memorable of them all. They were clever, funny, insightful, and eloquent. Because I am not very good with words in any way, I was just blown away by how articulate they were in delivering their thoughts in words in front of a large crowd. Sure, they must have had practice before coming on stage, but to convey their thoughts in such convincing and poetic way must have been difficult. It seemed like everyone on stage was performing truly from their hearts.