Throwing muses

Chris Masson brings folk together with spoken
word slams as part of the Throw Collective

CHEEKY: Masson

by VINCENT TINGUELY

During last spring’s raucous first season of the Throw Collective’s poetry slam at le Cagibi, Throw member Chris Masson consistently wowed the crowds with his cheeky, hilarious and subtly thought-provoking spoken word pieces. Since the departure of Throw organizer (and ’08 Noisemaker) Michelle Dabrowski for a stint of overseas adventure, Masson has stepped up to the plate as chief instigator of the Throw Collective’s activities.

He was first bitten by the spoken word bug at a show set up at his CEGEP by teacher and Véhicule poet Endre Farkas—the line-up included local luminary Ian Ferrier, among others. At first, performing spoken word was a fun sideline to Masson’s thespian pursuits, as he put in a couple of years as an associate producer with Gravy Bath Productions, and a school season barnstorming Quebec classrooms with children’s theatre company Geordie Productions.

“To start with, I guess I did spoken word for the laughs. Then I started doing more open mics, getting a lot of response and finding a lot of satisfaction doing those,” Masson says. “When Michelle started doing slams with the Throw Collective, it just made a lot of sense to me. That’s just one of her talents, bringing people together. And that’s one of the things we aim to do with the collective, to bring like-minded people together.”

After the slam series, the Throw Collective won a Canada Council grant to cut a live CD. The successful recording session that went down last November featured 16 poets, including Moe Clark and Kaie Kellough. “We packed Casa del Popolo, it was a free event,” says Masson. “The recording sounds really good. We also did some group material, we did some writing together for the album.” The CD will be launched Jan. 18 at Words and Music at the Casa, the monthly series hosted by Ferrier.

Masson was a member of the Montreal slam team at the 2008 International Spoken Word Festival in Calgary.

“It was fantastic to be put on the same level with these other poets who’ve been doing this longer, and to have face-to-face one-on-ones with poets like Shayne Koyczan,” says Masson. “Just to hang out with him and to talk about poets and their work and the different scenes that are more established than ours.”

The collective met New York slam star Regie Cabico, who’s slated to guest at their next slam series, and have pitched Montreal as the venue for the 2010 edition of the festival.