But before eyes glaze over, the artist assures this medium is far from anything remotely snooty and instead something everyone can enjoy.

“It’s not snobby, not hype. If go to a play you have to watch whole play, but with spoken word you get little blurbs of poetry and energy—if you don’t like it, you know they’re going to off the stage in five minutes,” says Wilson, director of the spoken word program at the Banff Centre, the first of its kind in North America. “It’s poetry but entertaining and lyrical. People in the general public have really taken a liking to it,” she says, adding, “Many people are interested in hearing stories and sharing stories.”

Hardly novel, the Spoken Word Society started six years ago to keep the lyrical tradition alive in Calgary, one that hearkens back “to the oral tradition coming from the beatniks who were inspired by the surrealists ... and before that traditional women’s stories which were rampant before getting lost with the patriarchal invention of the printing press,” according to Wilson. “The beatniks really tapped in to the idea of speaking not in a heightened language, but in a language people can understand.”

Spoken word topics cover the gamut from social politics and personal and family stories, to historical or cultural tales—all with rhythm and music and a lot of humour. Its modern-day evolution, Wilson says, dates back some 25 years, when a New Mexico hippie named Peter Rabbit held poetry competitions and now includes everything from hip hop to jazz and storytelling.

The society hosts the National SLAM from November 5 to November 9—and though it’s a competition, the event boasts an atmosphere promising to be anything but cutthroat. “There are no cliques, everybody has a voice,” Wilson says. As to how she found hers, she first dabbled in poetry as a child and later honed spoken word skills, the gregarious woman says. “I was extremely shy. I know it’s hard to believe now, but the idea of speaking in public just horrified me.”

In her late teens, while spending her days surfing in Hawaii, it was a comment from a friend which put her on the path to spoken word. “I think I was the original slacker and he said ‘You have got to do something with your life, why don’t you study acting then you can say your poems?’ ” she recalls.

Between plays she began performing her own work, a nice departure from gigs as an actress, speaking someone else’s words, often in roles stereotyping women. The rest is history. “I found I was finally saying things I wanted to say,“ she says. “Finally, I got to be the woman I am.”

Calling money, “elusive and weird,” Wilson doesn’t say how spoken word fares paying the bills, just that she has no complaints.

She adds that spoken word has been a hit in Calgary. “I find audiences totally receptive and excited, there’s way more optimism than in most of the cities where I go,” says Wilson, who performs all over the world. “Culturally backward? Not at all.”

The author of Panty Portal, who once performed in the Vagina Monologues, says her work has moved from erotica on to jazz, humour and womens’ voices.

“Right now, I’m in to straight-forward, slapstick humour and the absurdity of life because we are in very troubled times and instead of getting mad or sad, I just want people to laugh and see the possibilities of light and spiritual life,” she says.

“Living in poetry head, everything is alive around you, it’s just magical … tripping in the world of the imagination. Spoken word artists are used to people talking back,” Wilson says.

“Everyone is very supportive ... It’s a positive approach to living as much as writing. That’s where SLAM has really thrived.”

Sarah Murphy, reigning Golden Beret winner, kicks off celebrations for the 2008 National SLAM, which sees 12 teams of four from across Canada compete with three-minute poem with judges looking at poetry, performance and audience reaction. Yes, reaction.

Murphy will also launch her spoken CD on opening night (when bill danced the war) at the Auburn Saloon. Caffé Beano and the John Dutton Theatre in the Central Library are other venues hosting the five-day SLAM-tastic festivities, which will see spoken word heavyweights Clifton Joseph, Sean McGarragle, Dwayne Morgane, Andrea Thompson, R.C. Weslowski, and Wilson as headliners.  CL