6pm  — Doors
6pm-7pm  — Mixer
7pm — Show time

The OG500 is Ottawa's largest annual spoken word event, bringing poetry lovers and urban storytellers across the nation's capital to explore the spoken word and exchange in a live show of wit, verbal acrobatics and theatre.

As House of Paint's signature opening event for the past 6 years, the show has brought in headlining acts such as Maestro Fresh Wes, D'bi Young, The Recipe, Moe Clarke, Sarah MK and the legendary grandfather of Hiphop, Jalal Nuriddin of The Last Poets.

The show consistently has reached capacity, mostly due to it's competitive structure; 12 poets coming from all across Ontario and parts of Quebec compete in a three round poetry slam where the winner receives $500 cash.

To make the engagement more exciting, all guests are invited to participate in the voting process, breaking the common practice of traditional poetry slams where only 5 judges select the winner of each round. House of Paint is proud to include spoken word programming in its line up, and this year is honoured to have spoken word priestess Tanya Evanson deliver her masterful work "Zenship" as the feature performance.