Canada’s largest spoken word festival returns April 27 to May 2 at Chill X Studio (2270 Manitoba St.) with the theme “Intimate Dialogues,” reflecting on forms of communication that challenge mass disinformation while encouraging community building and learning.

“Over the years, I realized I’ve been blessed with the ability to tell stories that make people feel seen and heard,” SPIN says. “It’s different to read something on a page, in a book; it’s another to bring it to life with your voice.”

The headliner – who sees himself as “not a literary guy” but someone who writes from the heart – encourages all poets to recognize the power of their voice to instigate societal change.

New materials

The poems that need to be heard are often the ones difficult to present, says SPIN. As an example, SPIN wrote a poem addressing how he wasn’t the “best son” to his mother. It also provides gratitude for their present-day relationship.

“A lot of times, as artists, when it starts to get too heavy and too emotional, we just put it down and walk away, [but] that’s where the magic is,” says the poet.

At Verses, SPIN will share a new poem inspired by the Nigerian writer Ehime Ora’s saying of how one’s body isn’t “a coffin” for pain. The poem deep dives into SPIN’s experience with illness – including cancer – while drawing correlations with toxic masculinity.

“I actually just presented it at the Avon Park Correctional Facility in Florida,” he says the work involves both self-reflection and sharing these messages with other men. “The reception I got from them was so moving.”

SPIN will also present a poem called “Life of Comfort,” challenging the trope of the starving artist. His goal is to encourage artists to become financially stable.

“That poem just evolved, and it’s a really important one that I feel passionate about sharing with our artist community,” he shares. “It’s a lot of ups and downs and uncertainties, but there is a way whether its grant funding, contracts, arts education, [or] performing.”

SPIN has been recognized with the 2021 Arts for Human Rights award in the established artist category at the JAYU Film Festival, a reflection of the poet’s commitment to showcasing change and progression.

“One thing that worries me in this scene, is that there’s a lot of trauma poetry,” says the headliner who believes in the healing power of slam poetry. “I have a responsibility to the audience to leave them on a high.”

Building immigrant-Indigenous relations

SPIN came to spoken word poetry through rapping. He had wanted to be a rapper but couldn’t “hit the beats” at the time. While working at Canada World Youth, he wrote an autobiographical poem called “Guatemalan Refugee.”

“I left it on the desk of my supervisors, who were all women,” he shares the poem discusses being raised by a single mother. “They actually ended up getting it translated in Spanish and French and publishing it in the Canada World Youth newsletter.”

The poem was his first to be shared internationally. While SPIN no longer performs “Guatemalan Refugee,” it still holds a special place in his repertoire – one that embodies his longstanding commitment to write about his lived experience.

“Everything I write, I lived,” SPIN shares. “It really just started as an outlet for a lot of pain and anger.”

At the age of eleven, SPIN had to flee Guatemala with his mother who was creating a cooperative in a village where the men had been massacred. His mother’s friend and partner in this project was also disappeared.

“[My mother and her supporters] were trying to provide support and resources in the midst of a genocide, and I took it upon myself to just connect as much as I could and build relationships with Indigenous people once I settled in Canada,” he adds.

SPIN references what is commonly known as the Maya Genocide or Silent Holocaust.

Over the years, SPIN has facilitated residences for Cree Territory in Quebec and other Indigenous communities.

“I’ve been really grateful for the welcoming I’ve received, whether it’s from the Indigenous or Black communities,” he says. The latter references how Toronto’s hip-hop community has impacted the poet.

He sees challenging toxic masculinity as another form of “intimate dialogues” – calling on all men to reflect on how they take accountability of their emotions. In March, SPIN brought these reflections to a poetry slam at Avon Park Correctional Facility in Florida.

He recalls the poetry there – the metaphors, cadence and other literary devices – being “on a different level.”

“They call it the ‘street food poetry slam’ because they tear up whoever comes in from the street, like we’re the food,” shares SPIN. “We held our own – I am completely fearless to anything after that.”

This year’s Canadian Individual Poetry Slam Preliminaries will take place on April 29 and 30 with the poetry slam finals on May 2.

For more information on SPIN El Poeta, see www.onemic-educators.ca/spin-el-poeta

For the full programming of this year’s Verses Festival of Words, see www.vancouverpoetryhouse.com/about-verses