By Rachael D’Amore
It was no-holds-barred for the first ever Poetry Slam event, a collaboration between Ryerson student groups Urban Hip-Hop Union and Poetic Exchange.
From spoken word tells-all to unwritten letters to the TTC, the event was a therapy session for amateur poets and hip-hop fans alike.
Cassandra Myers, a third-year child and youth care student at Ryerson, is definitely not new to poetry. As a regular performer at Poetic Exchange’s poetry slams, a National Poetry Slam finalist and a member of BAM! Toronto’s Youth Poetry Slam, Myers is a confident and riveting poet.
At Poetry Slam on Oct. 27, Myers recited her new poem “Never Have I Ever.”
“The poem is a year’s worth of really bad experiences just from dating,” said Myers. “I wanted to call out the sex-positive movement because I think it can be kind of exclusive in certain feminist spaces…there’s still this dominating narrative about what it should be. In turn, it starts to lose the safety measures around dating and positive sexuality.
“That poem was just me vomiting up everything that had happened to me, but that’s usually what poets do!”
WATCH: Cassandra Myers’ intense performance of “Never Have I Ever.”
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