Winnipeg Poetry Slam Team

Members of the spoken word community, slam poets mash up styles, traditions, and approaches to language in exhilarating three-minute performances. After the slam finals held in Winnipeg In June, five performers—Dylan Mowatt, Larysa Musick, Derrick Nachtigall, Tiana Northage, and Abdul Smith—came out on top.

 

A poetry slam veteran with three appearances on the Winnipeg team, Dylan Mowatt forthrightly addresses inequalities, racism, and Canadian apathy regarding Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women.

 

Larysa Musick is a songwriter and poet. With her poetry, she intends to uplift her audience and bring hope for positive change. This will be her second year competing with the Winnipeg Poetry Slam Team at CFSW.

 

Derrick Nachtigall is Winnipeg’s Poetry Slam Team champion. His work confronts identity, gender, social justice issues, and finding your place in this world.

 

Tiana Northage is a 20-year-old university student who has been expressing herself through spoken word over the last four years. Through slam poetry she shares her personal experiences overcoming mental illness.

 

Abdul Smith, also known as Wordsmith, was born in Sierra Leone, and now makes Winnipeg his home. His work filters thought, emotion, experience, and imagination through the ultimate evaluator: conscience.

 

This October, the team will represent the city in Canadian Festival of Spoken Word on their home turf in Winnipeg.