Review by Averie MacDonald. Pictures by Joel Eastwood

To call it “girl power” wouldn’t really do it justice.

But there was definitely something powerful hanging in the atmosphere last Saturday night at Ottawa’s first Women’s Slam Championship.

To be sure, it was a night about women. The line-up featured a handpicked selection of Ottawa’s finest female poets. The poetry was full of empowering messages passed from sister to sister. Even the music fit the theme — DJ Prufrock spun an all-girl soundtrack featuring legends like Lauryn Hill.

But the slam went beyond a campy, Spice Girl-esque notion of female solidarity.

It was more about the poetic community women have helped shape here in Ottawa: a vibrant and diverse scene that puts our city on the map in Canadian spoken word.

The theatre at Arts Court was packed as the slam began. Eager audience members spilled onto the front of the stage and squished into the staircase (a big “no-no”, we would soon find out).

Apparently, Ottawa had been waiting for a women’s slam.

“When we announced it was going to happen, there was this sort of instant reaction of ‘it’s about time’,” Kate Hunt said in an interview after the show. Hunt works for VERSeFest, the Ottawa poetry festival that staged the women’s slam as a fundraiser with help from Capital Slam Slam Master Rusty Priske.

Soon, host Ruthanne Edward took to the stage to kick things off.

After a strong showing by sacrificial poet Mia Morgan, the name of the first competitor was randomly drawn from a hat. But it seemed more like fate that Sepideh was called up.

“God is a man, but mother nature is a woman,” the young poet proclaimed, launching the slam with a powerful piece comparing the destruction of the environment to the abuse women often face in our society.

“No one ever wants to go first,” Sepideh said in an interview after the show, “but I think for a women’s slam it was a fun way to open.”

But just as the crowd began to feed off Sepideh’s momentum, there came an annoying interruption. In an awkward moment, Edward broke the news that the show had been oversold.

The brave young souls occupying the floor and staircase would have to find a seat (there were none empty) or leave the theatre.

Luckily, the poets came to their rescue. The performers sprang to their feet, vacating the front row they were occupying and heading backstage.

After much seat shuffling and some gentle herding by Edward and the VERSeFest volunteers, the show was back in action.

Each poet was different. They were white, black, and brown, gay, straight, and gender fluid, tall and short, young and old. Veterans of the Ottawa poetry scene, like Capital Slam co-founder Elissa Molino, appeared alongside newer talent, like 14-year-old spitfire Scotch.

After all 12 poets had performed once, a theme emerged: there’s strength in diversity.

Though the word has become somewhat cliché in the female context, the only appropriate way to describe the second half of the show is “fierce.”

Jenna Tenn-Yuk laid it all on the line with a fiery performance about being caught between two identities that many see as irreconcilable — gay and Christian. Her intense honesty was followed up by a hilarious but equally moving piece from Festrell, about the difficulty of navigating what “female” is.

Some women roared. Others, like the impossibly smooth Elle P, made us lean in closer, straining to pick up her subtle, rhythmic rhymes.

When it came time for Rage’s second performance, she struggled to remember her poem about the discrimination she’s faced in her own Ottawa neighborhood in post-9/11 North America. She painted such a heartbreaking picture, and I choked up as she finished and apologized for “messing up” her poem.

For those who’d never seen her before, perhaps the biggest surprise of the night was the young but mighty Scotch. At no more than 14 years old, Scotch blew the audience away with her wisdom.

Anyone who’d been paying attention to the scores (assigned by randomly-selected audience judges) knew that this slam would be a nail-biter. Every poem scored between 26 and 29.

Finally, Edward announced the inevitable.

“I want to announce the fourth place winner, but I can’t,” she grinned.

The event ended up not with four ranked winners, but two sets of ties for the first and second-highest scores. Sepideh and D’ Lightfull were in first, with Festrell and Elle P as close seconds.

“I think it’s fantastic … that really all we have are first and second ‘co-winners’,” Kate Hunt said after the show.

She sees big things ahead for female poets — and not just in Ottawa.

“I’d love it if we had a sitting women’s champion,” she said, her eyes alight with excitement, “I wouldn’t mind seeing other cities start it up and maybe we could get a women’s nationals happening!”

Whatever it was in the air Saturday night, here’s hoping it sweeps across the nation, soon.

Photo courtesy sickmouthy on Flickr

Wish you could sit back and just listen to what Apartment613 has to say? You can. This week, Ryan Saxby and Karen Diepeveen host Apartment613 Live. Ryan interviews Malorie Bertrand from Ef Magazine and Karen chats with fellow Apartment 613 editor Katrina Marsh about beer and sex. If you noticed Apartment613′s recent blackout, Ryan explains the web’s response to SOPA and why Apartment613 joined in the black out.

Photo courtesy of Edward Ocampo-Gooding from Flickr

If you thought that an open data hackfest was not the place for you, think again, Ottawa! Open Data Ottawa is hosting an event this weekend at city hall where they hope to bring together a group of people interested in open data sets and people interesting in finding unique ways to use them. This coming Saturday at Ottawa City Hall from 1-4pm, bring your ideas, skills, issues and love for data to a forum where you can turn them into action.

The open data movement in Ottawa took off this past year, with the Apps 4 Ottawa contest, where developers took city data sets and created apps that can do everything from find the closest dog park (and, according to Open Data Ottawa co-founder MaryBeth Barker,  also rate the level of poopiness), to report on the safety and comfort of bike paths.

Open Data Ottawa hopes to take things to the next level this weekend, by opening the event up to new skill sets and new perspectives. They have invited user experience designers, video game developers and the usual hackers to the December 3rd event, hoping that some new voices will start to move the project in interesting new ways.

This is all less about technology than you might think. “You could do all of this with pens and pencils and paper,” says Open Data Ottawa co-founder Edward Ocampo-Gooding. The Open Data Ottawa team is committed to making sure that everyone can contribute to the event regardless of their technical skill. They want to take things like restaurant inspection reports or recreation information and turn them into things that can bring people together. Imagine a Facebook application that can bring foodies together at the latest restaurant based on when they file their first inspection report or digital libraries that can bring citizens with common interests together to share skills and connect.

The goal is to create “new relationships between city government and the citizens of those cities,” says Alex Lougheed, another of the project co- founders. They are interested in nurturing the relationship between the city who produces the data and the people who use it. The government of BC recently started a portal that they point to as a possible model for this, where data sets are hosted, but a community is also nurtured.

The real goal here is to improve the city and the tean behind Open Data Ottawa thinks that data can help do that. They need your help and your ideas, so register online at the hackfest eventbrite page. They also now have a Facebook page, so you can give them a “like” and get updates on what the group is up to.

You can also listen to a section of my conversation with MaryBeth, Edward and Alex below.
  Apartment613 Interview with Open Data Ottawa by saxby

We haven’t been so great about posting our podcast here on the blog, but we have been putting out a great show over the FM waves each week. In case you have been otherwise occupied for the past few Thursdays from 2-3pm, here is some audio for you to catch up on.

You’ll find some great interviews, including the girls behind Unshaven Mavens (you can still donate online!), Auntie Loo on her two-year anniversary, one of the organizers of the One World Film Festival and the fine folks from the Ottawa Jazz Festival.

Special thanks to Nick from Open File Ottawa for giving us his take on the Ontario election and to Ken Walker, who reminded us that when biking we should “be visible, be predictable and take a lane.”

Apartment613 Live for October 6:

Apartment613 Live for October 13:

Photo courtesy sickmouthy on Flickr

Hey there, audiophiles! Welcome to another edition of Apartment613 Live, one inspired largely by the now-concluded Ottawa Folk Festival. It’s mainly a music show this time around, although we do chat with James Farr of The Hidden Words about the band’s Bahá’í-inspired music and raising money for east Africa. (Farr clearly felt bad that I was the only one in the studio, because he stuck around to co-host the final half of the show! Which was a total pleasure.)

We’ve been airing on CHUO 89.1 FM live on Thursday afternoons, from 2-3 pm, all summer. Click through for the lengthy playlist.

Apartment613 Live playlist for the week of Aug. 25, 2011

• The Weather Station, “Came So Easy”
• Handsome Furs, “Bury Me Standing”
• The Donna Litas, “Rest Assured”
• Deep Dark Woods, “Banks of the Leopold Canal”
• Basia Bulat, “Where Have All the Rude Boys Gone?”
• In Medias Res, “The Final Flight of the Bees”
• Yukon Blonde, “Fire”
• The Hidden Words, “Dis”
• Rural Alberta Advantage, “North Star”
• Socalled, “Beautiful”
• Snailhouse, “Sentimental Gentleman”
• Those Gulls, “Swim With Sharks”
• The Hidden Words, “Temple”

Photo courtesy tcp909

We’re back with another podcast live from the Ottawa Folk Festival! Last time we chatted with you, it was just me and Ryan Saxby Hill, waxing eloquently about our plans for the four-day music fest at Mooney’s Bay. But if there’s one thing that I’ve learned from mid-1980s gum commercials, it’s that you should always strive to double your pleasure and/or your fun. So this time we invited fellow editor Karen Diepeveen and summer intern Evey Hornbeck to also share their highlights from day three.

Oh, and today’s podcast quite literally could not have been possible without the scavenging skills of Folk Festival volunteers Karin, Rosa, and Alex, who helpfully tracked down a pair of AA batteries after our audio recorder died mid-podcast. Kudos!

Photo courtesy Brennan Schnell on Flickr

It’s that time of year again: the Ottawa Folk Festival is back, this time a bit more centrally located at Hog’s Back Park. It’s a short bike ride down either by the canal or the river. The line-up looks great and, if this first evening is any indication, there seems to be a great crowd.

The festival, after a tough year in 2010, has now been taken under the wings of the Ottawa Bluesfest. Extra resources have kept the festival afloat, and we’re hearing that the integration has worked well so far.

Thursday evening’s line-up featured Hawksley Workman, Bruce Hornsby, and Justin Townes Earle, among others. We grabbed a few minutes with festival board member Bob LeDrew, who gave us his take on how things are going and shared some tips on what to expect this weekend.

Fellow editor Trevor Pritchard and I also chatted with Ottawa musician Megan Jerome, who gave us some insights into what goes on behind the scenes of the capital’s festival circuit. It’s her area of expertise, after all: in addition to kicking off the folk festival, she’s also played Bluesfest, the Ottawa Jazz Festival, and a couple others in 2011.

Finally, Trevor and I discuss our reactions to the first day of the festival and what we’re looking forward to taking in over the next three days. Hint: it includes The Wooden Sky, Rural Alberta Advantage, Basia Bulat, Serena Ryder and the banjo workshops!

Also – A special thanks to the folks at Rogers who have kindly donated a new LTE Rocket Mobile stick, allowing us to post live here from the festival site.

Photo courtesy David Masters on Flickr

Breaking news, audiophiles: today’s edition of the Apartment613 live podcast is all about media. In our first interview, we chat with two of the city’s biggest proponents of micro-focused local reporting: OpenFile Ottawa editor Nick Taylor-Vaisey and Spacing Ottawa editor Evan Thornton. A bit later, we invite into the studio a couple of CHUO 89.1 FM’s own – station manager Erin Flynn and sales director Karen McHarg – for a chat about how community radio can shape the public discourse. We wrap up with Ryan Saxby Hill’s one-on-one interview with Spacing Toronto publisher Matthew Blackett, live from the Ottawa stop on their cross-country roadshow.

On the social media front lines, we engage our Twitter followers in a conversation about the best public spaces in Ottawa – a discussion spurred by the launch of Spacing’s first national issue, which includes a list of Canada’s top 100 public hangouts. (Take a guess which local hotspot made the nation’s top 10.) We also spin some artists coming to town, including one tune inspired (at least metaphorically!) by poor urban design. Click through for the playlist, and catch us live on CHUO Thursday afternoons between 2-3pm. Special thanks to Etienne Dubuc today for helping us sort out the file.

Apartment613 Live playlist for the week of July 21, 2011:

• Pat Jordache, “Phantom Limb”
• Luke Doucet, “Emily, Please”
• Young and Sexy, “The City You Live In is Ugly”
• Slow Down Molasses, “Late Night Radio”

Photo courtesy of Blurais from the Apartment613 Flickr Group

We headed out to Confederation Park last night to see the lovely Jill Barber perform and while we were there got some audio commentary on how the Jazz Festival is going so far. Extra points if you can name what is playing in the background.

First we have Petr Cancura the Programming Director for the Ottawa Jazz Festival:

Second, we have a very excited Alan Neal host of All in a Day on CBC Radio One:

Photo Courtesy of coffeego from the Apartment613 Flickr Group

This week, Apartment613 Live is all about festivals. We interview Petr Cancura, the programming director for the Ottawa Jazz Festival. (For more on the festival’s shows, you can check out Petr’s blog here.) Trevor Pritchard sits down at the Fringe Festival beer tent with the PepTides, who played Jazzfest’s opening night. And we preview Folk Festival 2011 with board member and house concert promoter Bob LeDrew.

Feel free to blame any technical trouble on this being my first time running the studio solo. (Actually, no, blame Trevor! He usually does the production but couldn’t make it in.) Or, if you don’t feel like judging us, just sit back and enjoy my learning curve. You can catch Apartment613 Live every Thursday, all summer long, from 2-3pm on CHUO 89.1 FM. Thanks as always to the folks at CHUO for helping us out, and click through for this week’s playlist.

Apartment613 Live playlist for the week of June 23, 2011:

• The Wooden Sky, “Oh My God”
• Jill Barber, “Oh Heart” and “In Perfect Time”
• Serena Ryder, “Weak in the Knees”
• The PepTides, “For Those Who Hate Each Other”
• Basia Bulat, “Run”