BPS Recap For Wednesday, December 3rd, 2025

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Open Mic Highlights

• “I grew up / the world begged for more observation” – Alex Kist reflecting on watching television and coming of age

•Newcomer Erica’s startling poem where they wrote a letter to their former self, after having lost a good amount of their personal memories after an accident

• Liza’s poem on ripped jeans and how they are “just like me”

• “Writing about anger is making me angry” – Sue Savoy

• March’s “body horror” poem inspired by all the graffiti and text written in the Cantab bathroom

• David and Ryan returning to the mic for the first time in years, and Tim’s homage to the person who helped them come out

Feature

Our feature was the very intriguing Sarah Kersey who read both new work and from their book Residence Time. “Residence Time” is a term for how long an object stays suspended in water (for example sugar can last as little as 2 seconds in water, where salt can last up to 55 million years in the ocean), which led to a striking opening poem “The People From The Middle Passage Are Still Suspended In The Water.” Another big theme was Sarah’s journey as a self-described “recovering cult member”, and what it’s like to leave a religion behind and find your own life and sexuality (she facetiously called these poems “The Tinder Chronicles.”) Her wry description of the mindset of depression (“Shit is just reliably terrible”) resonated with a lot of members in the audience, but she did end with a hopeful poem about the man who helped her when she was stranded on the side of the road with no gas in her motorcycle. Thank you Sarah!

Coming Up This Wednesday

This week we have a feature from the new Editor-in-Chief of Ploughshares at Emerson College – Jenny Molberg!

Jenny Molberg is the author of three collections of poetry, most recently The Court of No Record (LSU Press, 2023), a Los Angeles Times Book Prize finalist. Her fourth book, The Medium, is forthcoming from LSU Press in 2027. Her poems and essays have recently appeared in The Adroit Journal, The American Poetry Review, The Kenyon Review, The Missouri Review, Oprah Quarterly, and elsewhere. Her work has received support from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, the Sewanee Writers’ Conference, the Vermont Studio Center, and others. She is Professor of Writing, Literature, and Publishing and Editor-in-Chief of Ploughshares at Emerson College.

See you soon!

– MFG 🚪

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BPS Recap For Wednesday, November 19th & 26th, 2025

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Michael: We are jamming two recaps into one during this Thanksgiving holiday season!

Open Mic Highlights 11/19

• Kamran surprised his wife (who was in the audience) by covering “Wedding Song” by Bob Dylan. (“Straight men take notes!” – Myles, who was hosting after Kamran left the stage)

• “The Large Hadron Collider has no date tonight…neither does God” – Tyrone

• “The bouncer at the bar tells me I am smaller each time he sees me” – from Jennifer Martinez’s showstopping new body image/perception poem

• “Masculinity peaks in the sword you never draw” – Frank M

• “Writing is lying and editing is making it true” – Bobby Crawford

• Will S’s wild vision of riding the 4:30 bus to Saugus and meeting Jesus, and then accompanying Jesus as he trashes a Trump supporters’ house

• “My love language is…language” – Jenna B on how difficult it is to put things in words sometimes

• Amy’s “What if I died with a Diva cup in”

Open Mic Recap 11/26

Myles: T’was the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, and all through the basement poetry rang and food abounded! Our community donated two bags of non-perishable food to the Harvard Square Community Fridge and gathered for a very sweet extended open mic. We got to hear the full, uncut version of Bailey Magpie’s therapist poem, regular TJ and host Myles danced on thin ice with some prose, and new regular Tyrone Walden coined the phrase “getting Waldenized” after another rhythmic stand-up-inspired off-the-dome piece. The most interesting part of the night, though, was how many new faces we saw on what is usually a slow night of predominantly regulars. We hope this wasn’t just a holiday season tryst and that these new readers come back soon!

Feature 11/19

Michael: Local Boston poetry legend Cole Rodriguez was our feature on 11/19! Cole performed a powerful set of almost all-memorized poems, with incredible flow and charisma that you may have not noticed the subtle and clever rhymes in nearly every line (until they performed a piece entitled “This poem will not rhyme”!) In honor of Patricia Smith, Cole performed an incredible cover of Patricia’s “Medusa”, and ended the night with a great sexy/naughty piece, despite being a little bit embarrassed that some of their students were in the audience! A great time was had by all!

Coming Up This Wednesday

We will have a feature from Sarah Kersey and an early bird 6:30 workshop by Shelby Coe!

Workshop Description: Looking to design or adapt workshops for youth spaces? In this reflective workshop, we will reflect on our past & present learning experiences and discuss creating community and safe space for young poets. Participants will leave with strategies to create inclusive, engaging programming for poets of all ages!

Feature Bio: Sarah Kersey is a poet and x-ray technologist. Originally from New Jersey, she has called Boston home since 2023. Her debut collection Residence Time was published last October with Newfound. Fellow poet Taneum Bambrick said of their collection: “Residence Time, begins in origin and sinks into realities that operate like dreams. This speaker remarks on the sonic beauty of the word ‘diaspora,’ asking ‘how many iambs did it take to cross the sea?’ Kersey’s forms snap apart, square, and seep—each poem scrambles excitedly, expansive like a midnight conversation between beloveds hidden under a sheet. I will turn to this poet, always, for how they trace the tangles between past and present, for how they obsess over the question of what permanence means.”In 2025, it was named a finalist for the Eric Hoffer Book Award–Medal Provocateur. Their work has appeared in The Rumpus, SWWIM, Hobart, The Account Magazine, Columbia Journal, and elsewhere. Sarah is a Tin House Workshop alum.

Workshopper Bio: Shelby Coe is a spoken word artist, educator and proud alum of the Disney College Program. She is a two-time recipient of the Transcendent Coaches Award at MassPoetry’s Write Here, Write Now, Speak Loud Youth Poetry Festival out of Boston. When she is not writing or performing, you can usually find her working with her award winning youth slam team out of Lowell, Massachusetts or learning Taylor Swift songs on the ukelele. Follow her on @shelbycoepoet on Instagram for updates!

See you soon!

– MFG 🚪

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BPS Recap For Wednesday, November 12th, 2025

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Note: Tonight’s show (11/19) will start a little later than usual (8:15-8:30), due to the secret music show happening upstairs at the Cantab! While we wait to start, we plan on having a little writing workshop based on lines of poetry gathered by our staff!

Open Mic Highlights

• Bailey’s list/will poem based on the line “To my ____, I leave these things” which also included a rare paradiddle reference (shout out to drummers!)

• Mary’s “What do Oedipus and Taylor Swift Have In Common?” that revolved around Choice vs Fate vs Luck

• Ash covering former Cantabber torin a. greathouse and Kamran covering Persian poet Hafiz

• John’s ridiculously wry “I wish people would stop thinking I am flirting because I am not except when I am”

• “My name is built by braking, K-a-i-t-i-e should keep it’s I’s so it can always see itself” – Kaitie D

• Natalie’s poem analyzing and bemoaning how much time they’ve spend thinking and writing about their breakup, including the actual measured time and statistics

• Amy’s epic and cathartic “I wrote a short poem” that had a lot of empty spaces that were slowly and then urgently filled up as the poem went on, and has us all looking forward to next week’s “I wrote a long poem” (which should be the length of a haiku)

Feature

On short notice we had a surprise fill-in feature from Cantab slam team / slam coach veteran ZEKE RUSSELL! Although Zeke has deep pockets of poems, he performed mostly new work from his upcoming manuscript, and touched upon themes that have run through his work: recovery, sobriety, elegies for the departed, self portraits, and a love of baseball and wrestling. We heard odes to late Cantab poets Jeff Taylor and Omoizele “Oz” Okoawo, as well Red Sox pitcher Tim Wakefield, plus a very “Masshole” flavored take on the people in Lowell who helped Zeke get clean. He ended up on a lighter note, reading poems about his chosen wedding song and the joys of filling-in to distribute lunch to those in need. Thanks for the last minute feature Zeke!

Coming Up This Wednesday

As mentioned above, tonight’s show will start a little later than usual, but we will have local legend Cole Rodriguez featuring for us!

Cole Rodriguez is an internationally recognized spoken word artist, originating from Boston, MA. As a six-year participant in the National Poetry Slam, Cole has competed against the top-ranked poets in the United States. As a mother, teacher, artist and friend, Cole has used her poetic work to create community, inspire activism and speak truth to power.

Passionate about youth development, Cole works with universities, high schools and in therapeutic settings to facilitate spaces wherein poetry can be de-constructed, celebrated and created. Bridging the gap between theory and practice, she has worked with institutions including Harvard University, Berklee College of Music, Boston College, Salem State University, Brandeis University and Bermuda College, as well as a host of alternative and public schools, to incorporate activism and poetic voice into the classroom.

As a performance poet, she has captured audience’s attention as an acclaimed slam winner at Cambridge’s Lizard Lounge, Roxbury’s House Slam and Manhattan’s Nuyorican Café. This lover of rhyme continues to perform throughout the US and abroad. Cole is an avid music appreciator, a Celtics fan, and a beast in the kitchen.

See you soon!

– MFG 🚪

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BPS Recap For Wednesday, November 5th, 2025

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Open Mic Highlights

• In our new “staff sacrifice” that now begins our open mic, Amy spontaneously wrote a golden shovel about a comment in Myles opening spiel regarding “America’s next great top talent”

• River’s “Poem In Which I Remove Myself”

• Jake’s wild piece about how chewing is a form of late-stage capitalism, and how you should eat strawberries without chewing them for the good of mankind

• Kamran read “3 minutes of prose” about the different collective nouns around birds that absolutely delighted the crowd and was, in fact, a poem!

• Fred-Yaah returns the mic after a nearly 20 year absence, with a poem about how he can sense black people walking with him when he’s confronted by racism

•John Lee’s very wry haiku, Edie’s riff on Bailey reoccurring “Queer” poem, and great imagery from first timer Adia

Feature

This week we had another open qualifier poetry slam! Props to open mic-ers Auden, Will, and Jamie who all slammed for the first time! While we had solid work from Kyle and Logan, Kelsey and Brynna stormed their way to the final round, with Brynna taking the win!

Coming Up This Wednesday

Our scheduled feature Aparna Paul has fallen ill, so their feature will be rescheduled. Filling in will be local legend/slam coach/Cantab veteran ZEKE RUSSELL.

Zeke Russell is a poet and housing advocate. He grew up in Central Maine surrounded by artists, lumberjacks and outlaws. He is clean and sober and lives in Boston with his spouse Milo. His debut poetry collection, Wintered Over, is available from Game Over Books. His work has appeared in Wyvern Lit, Drunk In A Midnight Choir, Freezeray Poetry, Maps For Teeth and on Button Poetry online.

– MFG 🚪

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BPS Recap For Wednesday, October 29th, 2025

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Open Mic Highlights

• Back-to-back FIRST POEMS EVER by Yoyo and Kamran, who read about “The pizza I can’t eat” and the voice of a river travelling through Iceland

• Former open mic regulars returning back-to-Boston: Dani’s “The God I don’t believe in has office hours from 2 to 4 am” and Kaitie’s riff on Gilmore Girls’ Season 5, Episode 22 (insert yacht emoji here)

• In honor of our beloved staff member Kai’s birthday, we had our 2nd KAIPHER, where many poets on the open mic covered poems by Kai! Special mention to TJ Jones, who lovingly matched Kai’s pacing, intonation, and mannerisms perfectly!

• First-timer Ruby made sure we didn’t go too long without a wrestling-themed poem on the open, where watching said theme provided a kind of therapeutic resolve that seems elusive in real life

• Long time favorite Donovan Beck bid farewell to us this week, as he moves to NYC. Donovan will be firmly missed, and after participating in the Kaipher, he read a poem that references many of our regular readers on the open mic!

• Shenanigans prevailed as yours truly unexpectedly opened the open mic (as part of a new experiment where we have 1 member of the staff start the show) with a poem referencing itself often as the first poem of the open mic!

Feature

For our monthly community night, Brynna-Boyd-in-a-dinosaur-costume hosted the very chill and fun TRICK OR TREAT SLAM, where a dozen poets signed up to compete in costume for fabulous mystery prize bags! Highlights include Jen’s rabbit poem vs the contrapuntal machine that is Kaitie D, a newcomers-only battle between Cece and Dyre, and Shawn dressing up as Kai for their poem! Cake and cookies were served in the back while the slam was going on, so everyone left the night both figuratively and literally fed. Thanks to all who slammed for such a fun night!

Coming Up This Wednesday

Tonight, alongside our normal extended open mic, we will have both an early bird workshop by Myles Taylor, and an open poetry slam! For the slam, you will need 3 original poems, with the top 2 poets qualifying for the 2026 BPS team selection slam. The slam winner also gets $75! The workshop will start at 6:30, 8 pm open mic, 10 pm open slam.

Workshop info: “Against Writing to Completion: Writing Endings for Slam & Page “

What is your goal when writing an ending? What makes an ending powerful? When are we done with the poem? This workshop by Myles Taylor will discuss strategies for ending a poem on the right note, with sample texts from Sam Sax, Marvin Hodges, Simone Beaubien, and others.

See you later!

– MFG 🚪

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BPS Recap For Wednesday, October 22nd, 2025

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Open Mic Highlights

• The return of old slam team member Bobby Crawford, who found parallels to the traditional bouquet toss at weddings at a funeral when an uncle fell into an open grave

• Great first-timer poems from Megash, Dyre, Auden, and Madison

• Sue Savoy writing candidly about her sister and their last connections to family

• Just a taste of a long, a multi-part poem/essay from Kaitie D (anti-Thoreau!) and Nick Roberts (púca madness!)

• Cole’s “Storrow without the T” was another ode to/history of the man behind Storrow drive that seems to pop up on the open mic every few months

• Everyone on the open mic greatly respected the time limit, so there no one was left on the waitlist by the end of the night!

Feature

Tonight’s feature was an open poetry slam that filled up quickly! First, big shout out to first timers Courtney and Heather who skipped the open mic and went straight to competing with some heavy hitters! Second, seasoned open mic regulars/veterans Kyle Mendelsohn and Erica Garcia both made incredible Cantab slam debuts, with Kyle going impressively off book and advancing to the final round via a tie. But the night belonged to Mugs Myers and Isaiah Newman, who both outdid themselves with their best performances to date to go along with their highly polished poems. Mugs Myers goes shocking places with their poems, and while they honestly feel almost *too personal* to describe publicly on our website, they did perform their contrapuntal with Judith Butler on one side, and Michel Foucault on the other. Isaiah won the slam by one-tenth of a point, with work on art, bees, the therapist/client dynamic, religion, and the nuance of published language, and will qualify for next year’s team selection slam!

Coming Up This Wednesday

Come get spooky at our TRICK OR TREAT SLAM, where every round starts with a trick and ends with a treat! Each head-to-head round will have THREE WAYS to win extra points toward a sweet prize: wear a costume, do a poem that relates to your costume, AND complete the round’s “trick” (a challenge to incorporate into your poem)! You only need to bring one poem to compete! Email/DM us or line up early if you would like to sign up! NOTE: this slam does NOT qualify poets for team selection, it is for a silly goofy time!

See you later!

– MFG 🚪

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BPS Recap For Wednesday, October 15th, 2025

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We had a great time at the Middlesex Lounge this week hosting our open mic and video feature! This Wednesday we are back in the Cantab Lounge basement.

Open Mic Highlights

• Ty covering Harry Baker’s extremely alliterative poem “Paper People”

• Edie’s response poem to yours truly telling them that their poems make me wants to climb a stack of chairs and yell, which also included the line “An open mic might be my eulogy”

• Donovan’s friendship poem that namedropped several open mic and slam regulars

• Scott reprising their worms poem that they did the last time we had an open mic not at the Cantab

• Jen’s “When the Body Forms” (“Am I worth resurrecting?”) and Kaitie D writing a poem after the horror film “The Lodge” (“I watched it so you don’t have to”)

• AC reflecting on their Native American heritage, and Nick Roberts writing about the Irish myth of the shapeshifting Púca

• Staff Member and Slam team member Aparna Paul read from her new book, Home Free, as they depart for their book tour (which will end with a Cantab feature next month!)

Feature

We took advantage of the video setup at the Middlesex Lounge to officially launch our YouTube page. We currently have 5 videos up, but also have created many playlists featuring poets from our 30+ year history! With popcorn provided to the audience, we got to watch classics performances from Patricia Smith, Simone Beaubien, Brian S. Ellis, Manivr Singh, Bobby Crawford, Meg Ford, Neiel Israel, Zeke Russell, and many more. A great ending to a cozy night.

Coming Up This Wednesday

It’s slamming season again! Tonight we are back at the Cantab lounge for our normal open mic, and an open poetry slam! You will need 3 original poems, with the top 2 qualifying for the 2026 BPS team selection slam. The slam winner also gets $75 (“That’s 1 and half errand” – Myles) so be sure to join us for another great night!

See you soon!

– MFG 🚪

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Cantab Recap For Wednesday, October 8th, 2025

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Please note: WE ARE NOT AT THE CANTAB LOUNGE THIS WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 15TH! This week Boston Poetry Slam is partnering with Middlesex Lounge (315 Mass Ave in Central Square Cambridge) to launch our YOUTUBE CHANNEL and celebrate archived Boston Poetry Slam footage!

Open Mic Highlights

• Mariana opened the mic with some blackout poetry read on their phone (!) which included some pauses as they scrolled down through all the blank spaces

• Newcomer Tyrone wrote a poem waxing heavy nostalgia for the 1990s, with a lot of references you don’t hear much about these days (Zima, anyone?)

• Dedicated listener Dan Malloy returned to the mic for the first time in 2 years to give us a couple of haiku and stories to go with them. Let’s hope we don’t have to wait 2 more years for 2 more of this former haiku slam winner’s work!

• Ember wrote about the extensive editing of Wikipedia page on The Ship of Theseus, and used it as a metaphor for their self over time

• David F told us why he prefers to write in miniatures (but not why he rhymes) before taking a hard left into how he remembers his Dad through writing

• Everyone on the mic was incredibly respectful of the time that the open mic ended a half hour earlier than expected, leading yours truly to wonder if he should read a half hour of haiku to make up for it (I didn’t.)

Feature

Our third annual HAIKU TOURNAMENT was a resounding success, and always one of the most fun nights of the year. This year, we added a new wrench to the format: a Wild Card/Second Chance Roud, in which poets who would have normally been eliminated get to battle against each other for the chance to move on to the next round. In the end, all 11 poets got read at least two times, and 8 got to read at least four times!

Some of the many highlights of the night:

  • Briana did a haiku in Japanese while unscrewing the microphone stand in two and then drew one of the two pieces of the mic stand out like a sword
  • Shawn did his haiku where he keeps reading the intro for as long as possible and the crowd acted very antagonistic (in a funny way.) He didn’t stop until yours truly walked on stage and made him stop.
  • Anna Geiger, who has only read on our mic a couple times, held her own against everyone else, showing a wide range of experimental, sexy, and thoughtful haiku
  • Keaton (who was reading the haiku of Logan Lopez, who had fallen ill) read a long series of crush haiku, which ended with giving audience members tiny cans of Crush soda that said “you’re my crush” on it
  • Aparna performed a group haiku where a different audience member said each syllable of the haiku in sequence
  • Gel did *more than one* series of haiku about JD Vance f***ing a couch. One was set to the tune of “Baby Shark!” 🦈
  • Kaitie D read a series of haiku in morse code intensely, as well as a series of poems examining Stephen King’s trashy horror novels
  • Oliver performed work that was simultaneously pastoral and deeply weird, and Sarah King used comedic timing, silences, and some intentional microphone fumbling to great effect.
  • March riled up the crowd with a lot of awkward-yet-brazen haiku about sex, gender identity, and queer politics
  • Jarvis’ haiku celebrated their queer identity, with tender and raucous haiku about gay clubbing, living with their partner(s), tales of their cat, and a set of “choose your own adventure” haiku that the audience helped decide the progression of the plot

In the end, our final round was between Briana, Aparna, and Jarvis, with Jarvis taking the BIG WIN, and Briana coming in 2nd place. They both will qualify for the 2026 Boston Poetry Slam team selection! Thank you to everyone who performed.

Coming Up This Wednesday

WE ARE NOT AT THE CANTAB LOUNGE THIS WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 15TH! This week Boston Poetry Slam is partnering with Middlesex Lounge (315 Mass Ave in Central Square Cambridge) to launch our YOUTUBE CHANNEL and celebrate archived Boston Poetry Slam footage! Come read on the open mic, then stay to eat popcorn and watch a set of videos on Middlesex Lounge’s projector screen from past and present Boston Poetry Slam team members. Then make sure to SUBSCRIBE, because our channel will start posting regular footage from our programming! (But never fear, our weekly Wednesday show will stay camera-free.) See you there!

See you soon!

– MFG 🚪

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Cantab Recap For Wednesday, October 1st, 2025

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Open Mic Highlights

• Ren’s poem examining the Chinese greeting of “Have you eaten yet?”

• “Unrequited Love is Like Organized Religion” – Mica Rich on the unreachable and promises people make to us

• “Don’t talk to me, I need time for my sublunar calculations” – Charlie R

• “I come from a land of a thousand splendid suns” – Arneaz

• “You love me through my womb shedding” – Hanan

• Keaton’s poem opening up with someone saying, “Have you been writing lately?” and so many audience members groaning in response

• Greg M WHOLESOME POEM ALERT (“the official Dad of the Cantab–the Dadtab” – Amy)

• “In America violence is an escape from violence” – Kaitie D fleetingly on video games and injuries

• Sue Savoy’s “I can’t write a poem about a vibrator” that was too embarrassing and personal to finish, but did later inspire host Briana to read her own somewhat-embarrassing vibrator poem later on the mic

• Will S writing about tarot and a lyric from Sabrina Carpenter’s “Lie To Girls”

• Amy texting me to include Rasheen’s whole poem in the recap, and while I can’t, I will say it was the best poem I have ever heard to reference an ancient GUSHERS commercial

• The LAST CHANCE HAIKU SLAM which featured long-time listener Matt M’s first time on the mic, plus several contestants swaying audiences (ironically or not) to vote for their competitors. Kaitie D won in the final round over Edie C!

Feature

Quentin Collins gave us a very craft-driven yet accessible feature that felt like an old friend sharing with you everything that is going on with their life right now. Reading from three distinct manuscripts, we got to hear detailed descriptions/deconstruction of the Chicago suburbs where he grew up, his family’s strong competitive history with bowling, detours into Afrofuturism, tales of riding on the el and causing ruckus, and an enthralling new poem entitled “Every Day I Wake Up and Get Dressed Like A Funeral,” that detailed how to be prepare for the unexpected bout of unconsciousness. All this is only scratching the surface of his great feature, so be sure to check both of Quentin’s books, or watch the replay of the livestream on our Instagram!

Coming Up This Wednesday

The feature this Wednesday is the third annual HAIKU TOURNAMENT! Myles is away and Michael F. Gill has taken the reins, bringing us a high-energy multi-tiered double elimination tournament with all of our previous haiku slam winners. At LEAST $170 is available to the winner who can navigate though a haiku suite round, a themed round involving dirty and experimental haiku, and a head-to-head-to-head final round! You won’t want to miss it!

See you soon!

– MFG 🚪

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Cantab Recap For Wednesday, September 24th, 2025

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Open Mic Highlights

• Mary’s poem about writing a commissioned song for a 7-year-old kid named Paulie that turned out to be a scam, and how the idea of Paulie lived on

• Ember’s poem re: the FBI’s claim to categorize trans people as “violent extremists”

• Kelsey’s new piece “My mother unburies her trauma” which featured the cutting line: “I am my mother’s mother before her daughter”

• Will S’s moving reflection on his Jewish root and his prayer for both peace and a free Palestine

• Jen’s striking “When Black Bodies Fall / Does Anyone Even Hear Them” and Brynna’s rebuttal to her professor: “Not all of us descended from Royalty”

• Myles just casually mentioning the documentary “Listers: A Glimpse Into Extreme Birdwatching” on the mic (where is the poem, Myles?!)

Feature

For this month’s community night, Zeke Russell hosted a series of poems and poets discussing work about and inspired by their favorite music albums. Zeke himself bookended the set with homesick poems about the Grateful Dead, Tom Petty, and Nirvana’s Nevermind, featuring the brief and excellent “Self Portrait As The Major Key Remix of Smells Like Teen Spirit”. Amy reflected on her Dad’s classic rock favorites that she grew up, and through a series of ongoing revelations ended up with the line “The day I learned to call it love / I learned to call if grief.” Keaton wrote about growing up with the band Bastille (of which they were once in the top 0.1% of spotify listeners) and also about the lyrics of Matt Mason. Kai told us how they were a tumblr teen and were inspired by Marina & The Diamonds. Navah The Buddaphliii deeped into their deep well of paisley reflections, fever dreams, and Prince poems to speak about 1999. And Myles Taylor read a series of mini poems inspired by the band The National, centered around the theme of a post-college depression. The whole show was such a unique and striking look in to how our local poets interact with music, so we may have to do it again in the future!

Coming Up This Wednesday

This week’s feature is Quintin Collins! We also will have a last chance Haiku slam to qualify for next week’s tournament, and an early bird tarot-themed workshop by New England poet/former Cantab feature Mica Rich! Workshop at 6:30, Show starts at 8, feature begins at 10!

Workshop info: Learn how reading the tarot and writing poetry intersect at the art of storytelling. In this workshop, participants will read examples of poems inspired by the tarot, learn about archetypes within the tarot, and practice doing tarot readings for inspiration. Poets will have time to write their own tarot-inspired poems and to share with the workshop group.

Feature bio: Quintin Collins (he/him) is a writer, associate director of the Solstice Low-Residency Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing Program, and a poetry editor for Salamander. His work appears in many print and online publications, such as Sidereal Magazine, Superstition Review, Glass: A Journal of Poetry, Solstice Literary Magazine, and others. Winner of a Pushcart Prize and the 2019 Atlantis Award from the Poet’s Billow, Quintin’s publishing accolades include multiple Best of the Net Nominations, and he was a finalist for the 2020 Redivider Beacon Street Prize.

Quintin’s first full-length collection of poems, The Dandelion Speaks of Survival, which was a finalist for the 2020 Alice James Award and the 2021 Sheila Margaret Motton Book Prize, is available from Cherry Castle Publishing. His second collection of poems, Claim Tickets for Stolen People, selected by Marcus Jackson as winner of The Journal’s 2020 Charles B. Wheeler Poetry Prize and Honor Book for the Black Caucus of the American Library Association’s 2023 Best Poetry Literary Award, is available from Ohio State University Press/Mad Creek Books.

See you soon!

– MFG 🚪

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