Poetry Lab is a creative hub for spoken word artists and art professionals, we are focused on cultivating accessible, virtual stages through which Canada’s most innovative and powerful voices can share multidimensional interpretations of their work, process, and community. Poetry Lab is working on a wide variety of exciting projects including our work with the inaugural cohort of the Poetry Lab Incubator, our streaming channel POETV.

The Poetry Lab Incubator 2022 cohort includes World Poetry Slam champion Ian Keteku, beloved performance artist Janice Jo Lee, former Edmonton Poet Laureate Nisha Patel, multi-award-winning artist Zoey Roy, and acclaimed poet and author Brandon Wint. Alongside these individuals’ unique program releases, Poetry Lab will also release interviews and live performances from other slam poetry artists throughout October. From interviews on creative process to experimental audio-visual collages and spoken word short films and cinepoems, Poetry Lab’s 2022 cohort digs deep and inspires, opening up a world of spoken word which will appeal to poetry readers, performance art fans, and anyone connected to creative processes. Spoken word is an art form that often exists in obscurity—in pockets of community that often must be discovered for one’s self. Poetry Lab seeks to provide global, enriching stages for spoken word to be celebrated, while inviting more communities to experience artists and their art for the first time.

Poetry lab is accessible for all in a post-pandemic world: it is 100% virtual and free on our streaming channel POETV. We are grateful for the support of  Vancouver Poetry House and the Canada Council for the Arts in bringing this project to life.

Vancouver Poetry House

Administrative Support

Vancouver Poetry House is the largest spoken word organization in Canada. VPH is dedicated to bringing poetry from diverse oral and literary traditions to Vancouver and British Columbia. VPH oversees three programs: Vancouver Poetry Slam, a weekly community stage with a headlining performer; WordPlay Poets, an outreach program that offers workshops and performances in schools and communities around BC; and Verses Festival of Words, Canada’s largest, annual spoken word festival.

Brad Morden

Creative Director

Brad Morden is a ukulele playing, poetry speaking, folk artist and arts organizer from Norfolk, Ontario. He has performed his work on five continents from dive bars to classrooms, folk festivals to grand theater stages. His music has been included in podcasts and animations including a short which appeared on an episode of Sesame Street. He is the founder of Write Bloody North and Patchwork Poetry House and the creative director of Poetry Lab. Brad is committed to increasing the social impact of spoken word poetry in Canada through the use of digital media, experimentation with innovative technology and creating greater sustainability for practitioners of the artform.