West Coast Fest Helps Emerging Spoken Word Artists Innovate

Email: notyourgrandmaspoetry@gmail.com iamthemissing@gmail.com

Phone number: 250-213-1634

Your Location: Victoria, BC

Company or Affiliation: Not Your Grandma's Poetry Productions

Website: http://www.missiepeters.com http://notyourgrandmaspoetry.com/

Other contact info: Find me on Facebook - Missie Peters or Twitter missie_p

Your Awesome Shit:

After producing the most well-attended National Slam Championship (The Canadian Festival of Spoken Word) in the organization's 6 year history, I saw a real gap in Canada's spoken word scene: professional development for emerging spoken word artists. So I'm producing a festival here in Victoria "The Victoria Spoken Word Festival" February 23-26 at Intrepid Theatre. This festival will bring 10-14 poets from across Canada to learn about everything BUT spoken word: freestyle rap, stand-up comedy, improv and more. Why? Because if you want people to innovate you have to give them new tools.

Victoria is the perfect location for this festival - not only because of our great urban vibe and support for festivals, but also because the spoken word scene is building a new and expanding audience: over 500 people attended the National Slam Finals, over 90 people attended the Victoria Slam Finals, and spoken word shows at this year's fringe were sold out. The festival will feature nightly performances by the participants, and is sure to draw crowds hungry for the hippest edge of spoken word.

Spoken Word is the shit right now. And if you support this festival, it will make Victoria awesome-r.

Your Bio:

Missie Peters is a spoken word artist, improviser and producer in Victoria BC. She is a member of Tongues of Fire (now starting its 6th season), one-half of the improvised poetry duo SpeakEasy and all of Not Your Grandma's Poetry Productions. She is a regular performer at Philip's Comedy night, The Showdown and Theatresports and has hosted Pecha Kucha. Past produced shows include Poetry in the Raw (annual event), Iconocraft, The Videogame Poetry Show and Keep in Txt. Her recent show at the Victoria Fringe, "Public Confessions of a Public Servant" was a near-sell out.

Anything else you think we should know:

I run a poetry production company instead of a not-for-profit for two reasons: I produce events that make money, and I don't want to have to deal with a board. I believe entertainment can be a successful business and run my company as such.