YAYYY!! An old friend made good!!

Olympus OM-D E-M5 Mark III

07/04/2011 09:52:30 AM · #1

Hey all

OK so this isn't about photography...sorry! But the other night I was watching TV and on comes a Maxwell House coffee commercial. And it's a poet by the name of Shane Koyczan performing a piece called "We are more". I was both shocked and delighted to recognize him, apart from the profuse facial hair he looks pretty much the same as he did in the late 90s in Vancouver.

I remember his first performance at a poetry slam. In a nutshell, slam poetry is basically competitive poetry, read in front of a live audience and judged by a panel of random strangers...(sound familiar?;-) and he blew all of us away with his obvious talent. So pretty much any time Shane appeared you knew who was going home with the $50 awarded each night to the winner. As I described him to a fellow dpc'er, Shane was the slam poetry version of

gyaban.

Soon he went on to bigger slams and continued to win, including some of the really big ones in the States. He's clearly gone on to much better things, and I am so glad to be able to say that I knew him back in the day when he really was living in poverty.

FourPointX

Canon EOS-60D

Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II

07/04/2011 10:07:45 AM · #2

what a great feeling that must be susan. congrats to your friend.

Yo_Spiff

Olympus 12-100mm f/4.0 M.Zuiko ED IS PRO

07/04/2011 10:15:26 AM · #3

Cool. Never heard of slam poetry before. Sounds interesting and fun.

Bear_Music

Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra

Sony 24-70mm F4 Vario-Tessar T* FE OSS

07/04/2011 10:28:51 AM · #4

Here's Shane reading that particular poem. It was actually commissioned by the Canadian Tourism Commission...

We Are More

Sony 24-70mm F4 Vario-Tessar T* FE OSS

07/04/2011 11:47:56 AM · #5

Oh, I know that commercial is a commissioned piece. But Shane could still win a slam with it, though of course he may have had to agree to not perform it as it is a commission. But way back in the early days, he was definitely not performing anything commissioned!

NiallOTuama

Google Pixel 2

07/04/2011 12:13:58 PM · #6

Originally posted by Bear_Music:

Here's Shane reading that particular poem. It was actually commissioned by the Canadian Tourism Commission...

We Are More

Great delivery!

Bear_Music

Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra

07/04/2011 12:18:02 PM · #7

Originally posted by snaffles:

I wasn't implying anything negative, hon â�� I was underscoring that he'd "made it" far enough that he was being commissioned to do poetry. That's a VERY rare thing, trust me.

R.

Canon EF 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6 DO IS USM

07/04/2011 05:16:35 PM · #8

No fear, Bear, no offense taken :-) And Niall, he delivered exactly that same way from the very get-go. So glad he made it to where he is now!

cpanaioti

Canon EOS-40D

07/04/2011 09:25:19 PM · #9

He performed his poem at the Vancouver 2010 Olympics opening ceremony. Wonderful delivery no matter the venue.

07/04/2011 09:42:01 PM · #10

Originally posted by cpanaioti:

He performed his poem at the Vancouver 2010 Olympics opening ceremony. Wonderful delivery no matter the venue.

He did?! Aw dang, missed that part!

Enlightened