Vancouver Poetry House

The artist collective that formed the nucleus of VPH had been running the Vancouver Poetry Slam since 1996. When Vancouver Poetry House was formed, the Vancouver Poetry Slam became its first official program. Much of the impetus to create VPH came from artists within the slam community who wished to join their disparate efforts together under one umbrella and to professionalize the activities growing from the Vancouver Poetry Slam. It now has four main programs: Vancouver Poetry Slam, WordPlay, Hullabaloo, and Verses Festival of Words. Since Vancouver Poetry House was established, it has hosted several spoken word festivals. VPH made successful bids to host the Canadian Festival of Spoken Word in 2005 (in partnership with Spoken Word Canada) and the Individual World Poetry Slam in 2007 (in partnership with Poetry Slam Incorporated). Both were major spoken word festivals that drew artists from around the world to Vancouver