House of PainT - UrbanArtFest

12/03/2024

We are very sad to hear of the passing of one of Ottawa’s most iconic graff writers, Mimek

Our condolences go out to his wife, four kids and other loved ones. You will be missed Mimek.

09/19/2024

Dancers: Meet your HoP x craniumfestival AllStyles Battle judges!
* * * Mystic Rootz & VLove & Slynks * * *
Some longtime HoP faves and a lot of funk in this mix!

Mystic Rootz joins us from Montreal, where he is a member of Symbiotic Monsters and specializes in Popping
🔥
VLove is homegrown Ottawa talent specializes in Hip Hop
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Slynks is an Ottawa bboy, representing Breadcrumbs crew and owner and operator of the Flava Factory dance studio.

You ready?!

09/19/2024

Day 3 line up is 🔥🔥🔥 Are you coming for Cranium x HoP 1v1 All Styles Battle and staying for the music?!? Or the other way round?!? No wrong answers here. See you this Saturday!

09/14/2024

An event you don't want to miss 🎤🔥👀

Coming to CityFolk this fall, the CityFolk Slam is a go!

09/11/2024

So you're looking for that street dance fix?! We got you!! HoP and craniumfestival are bringing you that battle flavor you've been craving at The Main Stage Cranium Festival. Sept. 21.

Get on the Floor with a 1v1 All Style Battle from 2-4 then stay to dance with music from Sadboi, Keysha Freshh, Melo Grifith, Kinash Mtl), Leila Dey, LeFlo Franco, Ashton Forever, Miss McLeod and Fae, and DJ Karyen keeping the vibe flowing into the night.

Dancers - register in advance! Full event details in the comments below.

See you there!

09/09/2024

Happening this weekend! Get your tickets! Watch poets compete for 1000$ prize!

09/06/2024

What a night! 😍🎤✨🔥

Last week, was crowned the WINNER 👑 of this year's OG500 - his energy and passion making him an audience favourite!

11 talented poets set the .cna stage on fire with thought-provoking and emotive spoken word performances. And the audience was blessed with 's energetic and charismatic hosting abilities, along with the poetic and musical stylings of 😱. Definitely a night to remember.

Let's show these poets some love!!!

NOW: SPIN and top performers will go on to compete at City Slam at , against poets from . Don't miss the event on September 15! Tickets through the CityFolk website.

📸 :

08/27/2024

The OG500 is THURSDAY! Meet the amazing poets participating in this year's competition (3/3):

👉🏽 is a student and creative based in Ottawa but, born in the city of Edmonton, Alberta. Known for her story-telling, she uses spoken-word poetry and photography to translate her experiences growing up as a second-generation Nigerian woman in spaces that did not represent her history and that of the people who preceded her. Her work focuses on themes of identity, transformation, and social change as it observes the minuscule details of life we unknowingly miss in a world filled with disinformation and distraction.

👉🏽 is a poet with a rich portfolio in Ottawa's spoken word and performance art scene. Known for her compelling performances in the OG500 competition, she has graced the stage twice, first time at 17 years old, showcasing her skills and stage presence. Her talent has garnered attention beyond the stage, as evidenced by her interview on Alan Neal's "All in a Day" and features in articles highlighting her artistic contributions. Shay has also left her mark in projects like "Pieces Of Us". Adding to her performances, Shay has achieved runner-up status twice at Urban Legends, cementing her reputation as a formidable talent in the poetry community.

👉🏽 writes poems about life, loss, and experiences correlating to such.

👉🏽 is an award winning Guatemalan spoken word artist and slam poetry champ on national, provincial and municipal levels. He is a longtime youth advocate, arts educator, former refugee, proprietor of the One Mic Educators arts enterprise and cofounder of the One Mic Educators open mic collective. He has also paid out thousands of dollars to racialized artists across Turtle Island through the LA3 Raza Open Mic series. SPIN was most recently honoured with the 2021 Arts for Human Rights award in the Established Artist category by the JAYU Film Festival.

*****
Get your tickets ASAP, event details below:
📍 WHERE: National Arts Centre .cna
📅 WHEN: August 29 at 7pm
💲 HOW MUCH: $25 tickets at the link in bio

08/27/2024

The OG500 is THURSDAY! Meet the amazing poets participating in this year's competition (2/3):

👉🏽 was born and raised in Nova Scotia. He is a multidisciplinary artist whose journey began with music. Over time, Xavior discovered the power of the pen and the paintbrush, allowing him to express himself in new and profound ways. His passion for writing ignited at the age of 13 when he found that, while people no longer listened, the pen spoke, and the paper always listened. He first slammed at ULPC and was hooked from then on, further fueling his creative drive.

👉🏽 Keshana is a long-time poet with comically neat handwriting. Since entering the spoken word scene in 2014, she has graced stages in Toronto and Ottawa with organizations like Black Like Me, Tell 'Em Girl, Spoken Weird, and BAM Youth Slam. In 2020, her poetry was featured in the The Canadian Research Institute for the Advancement of Women (CRIAW)'s Feminist Word Magazine. Keshana mentored young poets at the Ottawa Public Library's YouthSpeak Program for 3 years.

👉🏽 is an Ottawa born English Lit graduate, storyteller, author and poet. She utilizes creativity to reclaim difficult experiences of girlhood, grief, identity, abuse, biracialism, and belonging that promote hope and healing. She placed second at the 2024 Canadian Individual Slam, and represented Ottawa on the Women of the World Poetry Slam stage held in Baltimore. Her self-published collection of work chronicling the loss of her younger brother is set to be re-released in the fall.

👉🏽 is a full time public servant with a longtime passion for poetry. Luna began writing as soon as she discovered perfect rhymes in primary school, only to later in life discover the magic that is spoken word. Her work is inspired by her personal experiences and observed global injustices, which inextricable, form an important part of her identity.

*****
Tickets are going fast so get yours ASAP!
📍 WHERE: National Arts Centre .cna
📅 WHEN: August 29 at 7pm
💲 HOW MUCH: $25 Tickets at the link in bio!

08/10/2024

🙌🏽 We're excited to announce the headliner for this year's OG500, Sergio Guerra aka ! 🚨

Sergio is a Salvadorian-born, Ottawa raised Hip-Hop recording artist, producer and writer poetically engaging with the issues around migration, identity formation, memory, and decolonization. The haunting nature of living in exile from a homeland is what imbues Cheko's art with militancy and urgency. His poetic style reflects the time we are living in, times of revolutionary change, for better or for worse.

WIth a long and storied career as a spoken word artist and rapper, having been director of the Urban Legends Poetry Slam, twice as a finalist at the Canadian Festival of Spoken Word, and has opened for marquee acts like Nas, Illa J, Blackalicious, and hundreds of small to large stages across the country. He was also the winner of the very first OG500 🔥!

He has released several independent albums with groups like Missing LinX and Tapas ( ), and solo projects such as Codebreaker Mixtape (2022), 4 A Time Being EP (2023) and a string of singles in 2024. His Masters Thesis reads a master in "Hauntology, Hip Hop and Diasporic Memory". With the help of a grant from the Council for the Arts, he is currently completing an album entitled, "I Never Left The Mountains", using all live instruments, continuing his artistic exploration of the diasporic memory.
Check out more of his work at: www.countermagik.com

🎫 💸 Remember to get your tickets - this is an event you're not going to want to miss! (Link in bio)

⌛ Applications to the OG500 are closing this Sunday August 11! We'll be reaching out to performers early next week ✨