An equal art form

Ritallin wants spoken word to get the credit it deserves
 

By Shauntay Grant
The Daily News

Spoken-word poet Ritallin (a.k.a. Greg Frankson) is keeping very busy these days.

Apart from performing across the country, Ritallin heads up Ottawa's celebrated Capital Slam poetry series. He also spearheads a host of other spoken-word events in the nation's capital, namely The National Capital Throwdown (open-mike event), Talented Tongues (bi-annual erotic poetry showcase), and a new slam series that will have poets and musicians going head to head in competition.

HFX: How'd you get into poetry?

Ritallin: I got into poetry 'cause I got out of hip hop. All through high school and university, I was doing predominantly hip hop.

I didn't want to be associated with the misogyny and the foulness that was going on in hip hop at the time. This was like the mid- to late '90s.

And I just felt like I needed to remove myself from that situation, so I just stopped doing it completely. I actually stopped writing completely for about two years.

HFX: So how did poetry become an alternative?

Ritallin: Well, a couple years later I went to check out a (poetry) show. And I was just kinda like, "I can do that." So I thought, "I need to start writing again." And that's what I did. That was the beginning. I started attending shows and stuff to figure out how it worked, and then I started writing my poems.

HFX: With all of your endeavours around spoken word, do you get a lot of support from the literary community?

Ritallin: Well, you know the false dichotomy between "page" and "stage" poets has existed for a long, long time. And we're lucky in Ottawa because the two so-called separate communities are actually pretty down with each other.

And we support each other, go to each other's events, and participate in what each other is doing.

But that isn't a general kind of thing (in Canada). I think it's really unfortunate that there's a lot of page poets who don't appreciate spoken word - they think it's not a real art form.

You can't just summarily dismiss somebody who does that kind of work and is doing it for the love of the art and in order to uplift other people.

That work is important and it needs to be fully valued, and I think that a lot of the time our page-poet compatriots need to understand that, and not look at (spoken word) as a lesser art form.

HFX: Thoughts on the state of spoken word in Canada?

Ritallin: I think spoken word is on the cusp of going one of two ways. We're sort of at the fork in the road.

We can either decide that we want to remain a relatively small movement with disparate parts all over the place, or we can decide that we want to take it to a new level - organize ourselves nationally, and really make the push for people to start to understand and appreciate what the work is of a spoken word artist.

So now's the decision of "do we formalize" or "do we just remain loose?"

HFX: Where do you think it's gonna go?

Ritallin: I think we need to formalize. I think we need to have (spoken-word artists) properly recognized. And for us to finally take our proper position in the world of the arts.

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