Justy is Awesome Ottawa’s first-ever two-time award winner — exactly one year ago she received an Awesome Ottawa award to yarnbomb a bus. The O-Town Bombers came together through the momentum of that project, with the objective to “improve the urban landscape by creating non-destructive, whimsical, fibre graffitti.”

“We’re going to discofunk George Street and the Clarendon Courtyard,” says Justy, “and are anxious to start crocheting like a machine again!”

RightBike currently has a fleet of 65 purple bikes that were donated by the community, refurbished, and painted, and are available for public use for short trips in the neighbourhood. As an employment-based social enterprise managed by Causeway Work Centre, RightBike also provides training and creates jobs as bike mechanics and community ambassadors for people facing barriers to employment.

“RightBike provides an innovative and sustainable public good,” says Schuyler. “We provide affordable access to bikes so that more people who live in, work in, and visit our neighbourhood can get around by bike – healthy, fun, and good for the planet! These hand-crank bikes,” she goes on, “will also further our mission to support people to overcome disabilities and to minimize stigma, by making ‘different’ bikes familiar to everyone in the community.”

To learn more about RightBike, visit http://www.rightbike.org.

“The plan,” explains Kent, “is to set up in public spaces and along commuting routes, and encourage passers by to play a song — a cover or original — in order to be entered into a raffle for a really, really nice guitar, and everything needed to take care of it.” Kent will record the results, and post the highlights online.

“I honestly don’t know why I lovethis idea so much,” says Kent. “It just feels great.” He’s hoping for small audiences of musicians to develop and meet each other, for some really unlikely folks to haul songs out of their back pockets, for some hidden gems of songs to be captured for later viewing, for at least a few people leaving with a renewed passion for playing songs, and to have a blast playing in a park with his friends while waiting for performers.

Kent is a native of Prince Edward Island who moved to Ottawa, as he puts it, “to be part of our democracy.” By day he is a bureaucrat and economist, and by night he is a student and hobbyist musician.

To learn more, and to find out when and where you can perform your own song for a chance at the guitar, visit http://musicalunderground.wordpress.com, or follow @MUOttawa on Twitter.

“The YouthCanSlam Festival,” he explains, “is an attempt to seize upon the growing hunger for a Canada-wide youth poetry competition and foster a national community of youth poets. Here, youth may further explore the art form, benefit from a wider exposure of their work, and grow through the opportunity to workshop with more experienced and established poet mentors. A thriving national youth program,” he says, “is paramount to the sustenance of Canadian spoken word and has proven successful in other countries, like the United States, where marquee youth competitions like Brave New Voices have helped further develop the country’s spoken word scene.”

The festival will be held August 20-25, and feature a daytime schedule dominated by workshops, showcases, and open mic sessions. Slam competitions, including an 8-12 team tournament, will be the focus of the evening schedule. The award from Awesome Ottawa will specifically support having established spoken word adult mentors from across the country create and facilitate youth workshops and put on showcases during the week’s events.

Ikenna, in his late 20s, is a Nigerian-born spoken word performance poet who came to Canada in his teens. He has been performing professionally for the past four years throughout Canada, the United States, and Europe, and has won several poetry slam competitions, including two Canadian National Poetry Team Titles with team Ottawa and the 2011 Canadian Individual Poetry Slam Title.

To learn more, or to volunteer, visit http://ycs2013.com. Ikenna is also raising funds at http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/the-inaugural-youthcanslam-spoken-word-festival.

Ashley and Ka explain that speed-gaming is “like speed dating, but less awkward and way more fun.” The premise is straightforward:  “Show up, sign in, grab a drink and snack, and mingle while you wait for peeps to show. Once everyone’s arrived, you’ll randomly be assigned to a table. One of our ‘Game Genies’ will teach you a game that’s short and sweet, and you’ll have about 30 minutes to play it with your new friends. Once the hourglass runs out, you get a few minutes to grab another drink and snack, and the cycle continues — you move to a new table with a new game and new people!”

“Board gaming is so hot right now,” say Ashley and Ka. “We know — we’ve been to ALL the board gaming nights in town. They’re fun, but something is missing: facilitated interaction. We’re also throwing in some crazy delicious snacks, and a little liquid courage to help everyone play nice. We both love food, so we hate it when people offer food at an event, and it’s mediocre, or offer drinks that consist of watered down bar rail. How great would it be to go to a cool event, eat amazing food, get a good beer, AND not have it cost you two arms and a leg? Pretty darn great.”

About themselves, Ashley and Ka told us: “We like board games. We like other things (food! kittens!), but like Ottawa’s awesomeness the most. Together we’ve been enjoying the heck out of this city. We’ve eaten our way through Cobra, Dueling Chefs, and all of Pascale’s treats; volunteered at all the fests; and even won Timeraiser art together! When we’re apart, Ashley writes for Apt613, and Ka pole dances. Ashley = fiesty. Ka = silly. You’ll like us. We’re awesome. Now we’re ready to put our awesome to good use for the OTT.”

To join in on the speed-gaming, visit http://www.themeeplesrepublic.com.