Word! at the Vancouver International Writers & Readers Festival

This morning as I waited in line to get into The Forest and the Trees, I chatted with a woman who said the Wednesday Word! event was the best out of three festival events she had seen so far. The spoken word event is so popular that it is offered twice and still sells out early; the advance ticket sales are the main reason that I'm a member of the festival. Anyway, we had tix for the Thursday time slot and I felt totally energized after the event.

Brendan McLeod hosted Tanya Davis, Zaccheus Jackson and Sheri-D Wilson. Brendan asked each poet which they would rather have, a talking teddy bear or the ability to shoot staples from their fingers. That should give you an idea of the general wackiness and fun.

Sheri-D had pushed the envelope too far for some people at the event on Wednesday, so she was forbidden to do her panty poem today. She advised us to watch it on YouTube. Instead, Sheri-D performed a powerful piece about the murder of Reena Virk. Zaccheus told heartwrenching stories about homelessness and substance abuse. Tanya's autobiographical stories were disarmingly funny. Check out her How to Be Alone video online.