Cantab Recap For Wednesday, September 13th, 2023

Cantab… upstairs? You heard that right! Because of repairs taking place in the basement over the next couple weeks, we held our open mic in the upstairs of the Cantab last week. Despite the slight change of scenery, we still had poets in the audience, poets at the bar, and poets at the mic! Kaitie Dilán read about their encounters with water recently, including a flood at not one but two poetry open mics they frequent. Cameron performed an original piece that apparently left a crowd at the Green Mill in Chicago completely silent. And “David with the New Shoes” not only debuted his new shoes, but an incredible poem as well.

This week’s ✏️Line of the Wednesday ✏️ comes from Oliver: “Black down the drain like the way your brain / Imagines even the good things you have not yet seen”

SaraEve Fermin was our feature, and it was truly such a lovely, beautiful one. There is something about her poetry that makes you feel at ease, and she accomplished that and more with her heartfelt poems about family, several insightful poems about Bojack Horseman, and more. Please check out her work! 

Despite the unusual circumstances, there wasn’t a large amount of shenanigans this week, but I’ll mention another highlight: Newcomer from New York City Jennifer Martinez absolutely brought the house down with her poem on objectification, growing up in New York, and being a woman. Come back soon!

Coming up, this week we will be doing our open mic at Starlight Square (84 Bishop Allen Drive)! Please note that this show is ALL AGES and FREE! Doors 6:30, open mic at 7, feature at 8:30. 

Register at the eventbrite link right HERE.

And did someone say feature? Our feature is the incredible Matthew E. Henry! Matthew E. Henry (MEH) is the author of full-length collections the Colored page (Sundress Publications, 2022) and The Third Renunciation (NYQ Books, 2023), as well as the chapbooks Teaching While Black (Main Street Rag, 2020), Dust & Ashes (Californios Press, 2020), and have you heard the one about…? (Ghost City Press, 2023). He also has a collection forthcoming from Harbor Editions. He is editor-in-chief of The Weight Journal and an associate poetry editor at Pidgeonholes. MEH’s poetry appears or is forthcoming in Cola, The Florida Review, Massachusetts Review, Ninth Letter, Pangyrus, Ploughshares, Shenandoah,and The Worcester Review among others. MEH’s an educator who received his MFA yet continued to spend money he didn’t have completing an MA in theology and a PhD in education. You can find him at www.MEHPoeting.com writing about education, race, religion, and burning oppressive systems to the ground.

See you!

– Amy ✈️

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Cantab Recap For Wednesday, August 30th, 2023

A set, a slam, and a see-you-later. I wish there was a word to describe this past poetry night, but for now I’ll just mash some together and say it was … fantamazbulous. The mic was filled with excellent work as usual, including a vulnerable and moving piece by Sara H and an on-brand straight-from-the-bar poem from Arielle Gray.

This week’s ✏️Line of the Wednesday✏️ goes to Hyder, with “centuries of flotsam drifting in the aether / and my entire life tethered to an ember / blotted out by a raincloud”

Then, we of course had the spotlight feature of Jimmy Pavlick, who read from several of their chapbooks, and part of their set included an uninterrupted 10-minute reading of selections from their chapbook, The Opposite of Nothing. It was an incredible experience; we all felt immense pride for this wonderful member of our community, and we were immersed in their beautiful storytelling interspersed with killer one-liners. Thank you and good luck, Jimmy!

To end an already fantastic night, we had a SPEED SLAM!! 8 slammers competed for the top spot with poems under one minute long. We laughed, we cried, we put numbers on whiteboards. Logan performed another beautiful baseball piece, and Greg did a striking fishing-related piece (that captivated us hook, line, and sinker! *slaps knee*). The two finalists, Amy (yours truly) and Kaitie competed head-to-head in the final round, but Kaitie’s quickly spoken bars were too fire to beat, and they emerged victorious! Thank you to our host Aparna, all slammers, and our wonderful judges for a great end to a greater night. 

There were some shenanigans that Wednesday, but unfortunately, they took place in the Cantab’s water main, which soon after Jimmy’s feature broke and flooded the basement. This does mean that Poetry Night might look a little different coming up over the next few weeks, but we will keep you posted!

Coming up this week (logistics will be after the feature information):

Come one come all for your September 13th feature, SaraEve Fermin! SaraEve is a performance poet and epilepsy advocate from northeast New Jersey. A 2015 Best of the Net nominee, she has performed for both local and national events, including the 2013 Women of the World Poetry Slam, the Epilepsy Foundation of Greater Los Angeles 2015 Care and Cure Benefit to End Epilepsy in Children, and as a reader for Great Weather for MEDIA at the 2016 NYC Poetry Festival on Governors Island. Her work can be found or is forthcoming in GERM Magazine, Drunk in a Midnight Choir, and the Great Weather for MEDIA anthology The Careless Embrace of the Boneshaker, among others. She is the author of You Must Be This Tall to Ride (Swimming With Elephants Publishing, summer 2016), View From the Top of the Ferris Wheel (Clare Songbirds Publishing House fall 2017) and Trauma Carnival (Swimming With Elephants Publishing, 2019). She loves Instagram: @SaraEve41 and TikTok : @SaraEveSpacePants

LOGISTICS:

The show will be THE MAIN FLOOR (upstairs) of the Cantab Lounge. Doors at 7, show STARTS at 7:30 (not 8) and the feature will begin by 9:30. Follow our Instagram @bostonpoetryslam for the latest updates.

See you then!

– Amy ✈️

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No Show On September 6th, 2023

SEPTEMBER 6TH SHOW CANCELLED

Due to a flood in the basement, the Boston Poetry Slam will be cancelling the show on September 6th. Our feature for the night, Phillip Hasouris, will be rebooked for later in the year. Our show may look a little different for the next few weeks while the Cantab fixes the basement back up, including potentially earlier start times/end times, shows upstairs, or potentially even a show not on a Wednesday (whoa!), but we promise that we will keep the poetry coming after this short hiatus. Please let us know if you have questions and we hope to see you all soon!

Cantab Recap For Wednesday, August 23rd, 2023

Hello Hello! A wonderful Wednesday was witnessed last week. On the open mic, March Penn blew everyone’s minds again, Rina performed an absolutely beautiful piece on loss, and our wonderful graphic designer Jackie read an amazing poem based on a series of unsent text messages. Just business as usual at a sold-out poetry night at the Cantab Lounge. 

It was also one of those lucky nights where we had a haiku slam hosted by our own Michael F. Gill! Poets went head-to-head and showed their wittiest, prettiest haiku, resulting in a couple near-ties. It came down to Christine, whose last haiku was an improvised combo of her first two, and Eddy Martinez, veteran haiku slammer. It was incredibly close, but Eddy emerged victorious to win the $17 prize! Stay tuned for out haiku slam semifinal competition coming later in September!

After the open mic and haiku slam, we had our feature, Courtney LeBlanc, who read touching, relatable, and cathartic poems. Everyone in the audience was guaranteed to find a connection to one of her pieces, and we loved the storytelling in between. Good luck on the rest of your tour, Courtney!

This show would not be complete without some 😊Shenanigans🪄. This week, Will Flores got called up from the wait list, but when he went up to the mic he spontaneously handed off his slot to a fedora-wearing Mike who read an absolutely ~magical~ piece that took us all on a journey.

This week’s ✏️Line of the Wednesday✏️ goes to our very own social media manager Kat Anderson, with “Everyone loves the ocean but nobody loves her depth”

Coming up this Wednesday! We have TWO things going on at the Cantab, and it is going to be one of the most packed shows of the YEAR, so get in line early, folks! After our lovely spotlight feature, we are going to have a 🏎️💨SPEED SLAM🏎️💨! Buckle up poets, and come ready with your ONE MINUTE OR LESS poems to compete in a head-to-head style slam, with the winner gaining early qualification for our next slam team as well as a $50 prize. 

But before that, we will have our feature. And not just any feature, no, this is a spotlight feature of our wonderful staff member, website-maintainer, host-extraordinaire, and overall amazing person and poet Jimmy Pavlick! Jimmy is sadly leaving us to go on other adventures, so it will be a bittersweet night indeed. See Jimmy’s bio below:

Jimmy Pavlick (any pronouns) is an alloy of bad wordplay and worse ideas sitting near Inman Square in Somerville. They practice martial arts, think a lot about comics, play multiple mobile phone games at the same time, and sometimes write and draw. They love Spinoza and being surprised by media. Their work has been published in the Vassar Student Review, and one online venue that, much to their chagrin, vanished from the internet. Their website is forthcoming.

Jimmy (also known as Jimmy!) first came to the Cantab in autumn 2019, was told by Myles to stay for the feature, and did. They haven’t left the building since. Jimmy now co-hosts for the open mic; their specialties are frequently lying about the audience to their faces and telling prophetic tales of the woes that befall those who stand on the fire lane stairs. You can find them on Wednesdays shouting in disbelief that there’s more than one Wednesday. Or, if not in the basement, waiting in the pizzeria upstairs for their chicken finger dinner to finish cooking.

See you then!!

– Amy ✈️

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Cantab Recap For Wednesday, August 16th, 2023

Hello!

I am unofficially titling this recap “Oops – All Bangers!” because that is exactly what transpired in the basement of the Cantab Lounge last week. Everyone, and I mean all 39 poets on the open mic, waitlist, and staff section had certified fire bangers. It was incredible to witness. 

We had first timers heating it up, including birthday-girl Kim opening up the mic with a piece on heartbreak (happy birthday Kim!) and Isaiah closing out the open with an incredible Pokémon poem. 

We also had a lovely piece by March Penn, who read their poem on gender expression/gender void from the back of the room while new regular Rina took to the mic simultaneously and provided gorgeous backing vocals! And Oliver and Kai read 😉 totally normal 😉 poems about their house and their dentist, respectively. Nothing inappropriate at all!

This week’s ✏️Line of the Wednesday✏️is from Tay: “Does it matter the color of his eyes or only that you keep looking”.

Our feature was Joshua Nguyen, who was not only an amazing poet but truly such a kind soul – it did not go unnoticed that if you asked him to sign a copy of his chapbook, he made a point to get to know you and write something personalized. He provided us with a gorgeous set of poems spanning from fish sauce to getting mistaken for a male stripper, demonstrated how Vietnamese poetry translates to English, and all-around lit up the room. Thank you Joshua! 

Pssst! Did you know that we live-stream the majority of our features on our Instagram? Check out @bostonpoetryslam to see if your favorite poet has their feature posted! 

Our 🎤 shenanigans 🤩 this week was … 🥁*drumroll* 🥁 we got to EVERYONE ON THE WAITLIST!! And this is no ordinary feat, we had a sold out show, a full mic list, AND a full wait list. Talk about a packed night! Thank you everyone for keeping your work under 3 minutes!!

Coming up this Wednesday – we have Courtney LeBlanc! Courtney LeBlanc is the author of the full-length collections Her Whole Bright Life (winner of the Jack McCarthy Book Prize, Write Bloody, 2023), Exquisite Bloody, Beating Heart (Riot in Your Throat, 2021) and Beautiful & Full of Monsters (VA Press, 2020). She is a Virginia Center for Creative Arts fellow (2022) and the founder and editor-in-chief of Riot in Your Throat, an independent poetry press. She loves nail polish, tattoos, and a soy latte each morning. Find her online at www.courtneyleblanc.com. Follow her on twitter: @wordperv, and IG: @wordperv79

See you soon!

– Amy ✈️

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Cantab Recap For Wednesday, August 9th, 2023

Happy Wednesday from the basement of a dive bar! I felt a very strong sense of community this week, as I’m sure several others did. We had some amazing highlights as usual: Amaliena read a very pretty piece on changing seasons, Daniel read an astounding poem about growing up in Honduras, first-timer Kyle read passionately about espresso martinis, and previous feature Katya Zinn returned to read a wonderful poem about a dog in a graveyard. Energy was even more hyped for newcomers Mina and Morgan (the latter of whom moved to Boston five days prior) who both brought the house down. We hope to see you back!

This week’s ✏️Line of the Wednesday✏️ goes to Kaitie Dilán with “when I go, I want to become a tree” 

Our feature, touring poet and New Jersey native Damian Rucci, brought some absolutely killer energy to the stage, telling nostalgic tales, performing anti-capitalist musings, and sharing with all of us the reason why he probably will never step foot in Missouri again. Thank you for bringing some of the most boisterous, positive energy we’ve seen in a while!! 

The week would not be complete without some 🚪shenanigans 🤺! We have been having some trouble with one of our bathroom doors recently, and during the smoking section, it appeared we had finally lost the battle with it: the door would not open despite multiple attempts and keys/coins stuck in the lock. But no fear! Eddy Martinez showed the door no mercy, kicked it down, and now both bathrooms are useable… at least, until the next battle. 

Coming up at the Cantab we have Joshua Nguyen! Joshua Nguyen is the author of Come Clean (University of Wisconsin Press, 2021), winner of the Felix Pollak Prize in Poetry, the Writers’ League of Texas Discovery Award, and the Mississippi Institute of Arts & Letters Poetry Award. He is also the author of the chapbooks, American Lục Bát for My Mother (Bull City Press, 2021) and Hidden Labor & The Naked Body (Sundress Publications, 2023). He is a Vietnamese-American writer, a collegiate national poetry slam champion (CUPSI), and a native Houstonian. He has received fellowships from Kundiman, Tin House, Sundress Academy For The Arts, and the Vermont Studio Center. He has been published in Wildness, The Texas Review, Auburn Avenue, and elsewhere. He is a humor editor for The Offing Mag, the Kundiman South co-chair, a bubble tea connoisseur, and loves a good pun. He received his MFA/PhD from The University of Mississippi. He currently teaches at Tufts University.

See! You! There!

– Amy ✈️

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Cantab Recap For Wednesday, August 2nd, 2023

Hi everyone!

A wonderful Wednesday was had, once again. Highlights of our very full open mic list included Hallie performing a cover of “What I Mean When I Say Truck Driver” by Geffrey Davis, a heartfelt piece from Kai, Amaliena returning with a short but very sweet poem, and Jade performing a work that takes a very new perspective on the monster Grendel.

This week’s ✏️ Line of the Wednesday✏️ belongs to Alex Kist, with “But that even if my body is my house / I don’t have to be home all the time.”

This week’s 🎶Shenanigans🎸were in the larger than normal amount of music themed performances. Eddy Martinez gave us a powerful, emotional cover of Saint James Infirmary Blues, Logan went into detail on Hot Chelle Rae’s impact on his life, and M-Zilla informed us all of the infamous, fictional life of music artist Weasel Montgomery Jones. 

The feature this week was Billy Tuggle, longtime slam veteran currently on tour for his next book, “A Tree Falls in the Hood” coming this winter. Billy graciously told us some stories from his times slamming and his memories from the Cantab. His poems were passionate pieces on hip-hop, street art, and growing up on the south side of Chicago. A transportive performer and poet, I could feel the impact of his work in the room after every piece. Really puts the “awe” in “audience” ;) Thank you Billy!

Coming up, all the way from New Jersey, we have Damian Rucci! Damian is a touring poet and the author of nine books of poetry. He is the founder of the NJ Poetry Renaissance and focus of the PBS documentary Voices in The Garden. A twice resident of the Osage Arts Community in Missouri, Damian has spent the last ten years bouncing around the country performing in universities, bookstores, dive bars, basements, and tattoo parlors. He is the host of ten poetry series including Puff Puff Poems and Poems & Punchlines. 

See you Wednesday!

– Amy ✈️

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Cantab Recap For Wednesday, July 26th, 2023

Happy Wednesday! This week not only had an amazing turnout, but showcased some amazing and unique work! The energy in the  room was also incredibly supportive – so shoutout to our audience, whether you read or just listened! Nilya talked about quiet quitting, Logan showed us the importance of Club Penguin, and Sue Savoy helped close out the mic with a fabulous Haircut ghazal. 

The open mic was followed by an astounding Haiku Slam, hosted as usual by the great Michael F. Gill. After some beautiful, some rated R, some clever, and some fast food-centric haiku, M-Zilla and Nilya battled it out for first place, with Nilya winning the $17 prize! Congrats!

Our feature was the one and only Ryan Phung! A beloved, incredible regular, Ryan performed a well-thought-out set, showcasing his imaginative, transportive, and heart-wrenching work. As this was his last time at the Cantab for a while before his departure to grad school, he gave a tribute that left many poets teary-eyed: a found poem with lines about love he has heard from several of our regulars. Ryan, don’t be a stranger, thank you for the feature, and good luck!! 

This week’s 😇 Shenanigans😈 took place as the feature himself joined regular reader Hallie during the open mic to perform a group piece entitled “In which the Angel and the Devil on Your Shoulder Make their Case to God.” A fabulous group piece indeed!

This week’s ✏Line of the Wednesday✏ is a tie. I can’t decide. One is from Sam Bucci, with “I still haven’t made it to the door, but I’m standing” and one from Arielle, with “And the world is on fire, or at least she is trying to light it”

Coming up!  The feature this week is long-time favorite Billy Tuggle!! Billy Tuggle is a Chicagoan; a performance poet; slam champion; teaching artist; HipHop culturalist; and an Afrofuturist with his 3rd collection of poems, “A Tree Falls In The Hood” coming this winter from Swimming With Elephants Publications. Billy can be found on Instagram, Facebook, and Youtube under @backpackfiles.

A 💰 reminder 💰 that we are now taking the $4 cover charge downstairs instead of upstairs. We prefer you to bring cash (to minimize fees) but we also accept Venmo, and contactless payments like chip credit cards and Apple pay. Also, if you haven’t already, sign up for our MONTHLY NEWSLETTER, and check our poetry-themed MISSED CONNECTIONS FORM. Check out the first edition of the newsletter here.

See you soon!

– Amy ✈️

Our upcoming features
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First timer? Looking for show info? Check out our Frequently Asked Questions

All shows take place at the Cantab Lounge, 738 Massachusetts Ave. in Cambridge, with one flight of stairs to access the basement room (click for directions and accessibility information). The show is $4 / 21+ (ID/Proof of Vaccination required) and doors for the show open at 7:15. The open mic begins at 8:00 PM and the feature begins at approximately 10:00 PM.

Cantab Recap For Wednesday, July 19th, 2023

Hey Cantabbers! It was a very fun night this past Wednesday, with an open mic highlighted by jellyfish poems, Mortal Kombat poems, Generational Trauma/Karate poems, and two very different poems about Firefly.

We had a lot of Slam Free or Die regulars in the audience (shoutout to Greg Smith and Mica Rich) and a very welcome return by one of our favorite voices from the pre-pandemic, Mckendy Fils-Aimé. There was also plenty of 🧄 shenanigans 🧄, such as The Briana Hosting Experience that involved a $30 salad and a very funny Miley Cyrus serenade, Lynette’s set of neon “panic attack” themed stickers, and the continuing evolution of audience callbacks that have gone from “new shit” to “fresh vegetables” to this week’s “gorgeous garlic”. If you know, you know.

This week’s ✏Lines of the Wednesday✏ both come from a Kat:
“I am in love and it’s an eyesore” – Kat Anderson
“What is it like to see the cusp of a century and have it escape you?” – Kat Gunther

Our feature Zee Stewart gave us one of our most high energy (HI NRG?) sets of the year! There was no way anyone in the audience could not pay rapt attention to Zee’s full-throated lovingly crafted poems, which included an AWESOME extended group piece with Dan Ames. I can tell you it was about a roving fox and a maniacal Dr. Seuss-like character raving and rhyming about cadences and patterns, but that does not do it visceral justice. Did I mention that Zee also baked cookies for everyone in the audience? What a night!

This Wednesday: you definitely want to be here, as open mic standout Ryan Phung will be featuring for us! Check out 2 very different bios for him below.

Offical Bio: ryan phung is a very smelly los angeles native, quite possibly the smelliest i know. he is so smelly that the birds stop chirping when he approaches, and im pretty sure when he showers (if he showers at all) he uses 9 in 1 shampoo. he doesnt know how to do a cartwheel and he keeps pronouncing hyperbole as hipperbowl. despite all this, he is a friend, but the kind of friend u hang out with for like 20 min before saying o no sry man family emergency just came up, trevor taped his penis to the doorknob again, gotta go.

Myles’ edit: Ryan is a poet from California who will be getting his MFA from Notre Dame in Fiction for some reason. He has rapidly become an open mic favorite at the Boston Poetry Slam with moving work about grief, hope, family, immigration, and having a body. This is his send-off show before he moves and begins his studies in Not Poetry.

A 💰 reminder 💰 that we are now taking the $4 cover charge downstairs instead of upstairs. We prefer you to bring cash (to minimize fees) but we also accept Venmo, and contactless payments like chip credit cards and Apple pay. Also, Amy would want me to remind you to sign up for our MONTHLY NEWSLETTER, and to check our Poetry-themed MISSED CONNECTIONS FORM.

That’s all for now!

– MFG 🚪

Our upcoming features
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First timer? Looking for show info? Check out our Frequently Asked Questions

All shows take place at the Cantab Lounge, 738 Massachusetts Ave. in Cambridge, with one flight of stairs to access the basement room (click for directions and accessibility information). The show is $4 / 21+ (ID/Proof of Vaccination required) and doors for the show open at 7:15. The open mic begins at 8:00 PM and the feature begins at approximately 10:00 PM.

Cantab Recap For Wednesday, July 12th, 2023

Happy Wednesday! We say this often, but last week was truly full of some crazy talent on the open mic. Across all the first-timers and veterans, people really brought their A-game, and it was great to see. Highlights: SaiDee was, according to them, very much “on their bullshit,” Sramana is grateful she didn’t love California, and Hallie elaborated on what she has learned from watching 113 romantic comedies.

Our feature was the Letta Neely. Her performance was so enthralling, eye-opening, and overall mind-blowingly good that she received a standing ovation. Letta read pieces on the significance of gay bars, specifically in places like Indiana, her and her family’s relationship with grief, tales of Mona… and Lisa, and several others that made us laugh, cry, and cheer. Thank you for coming, Letta! Wow.

This week’s 🪑Shenanigans🎶 is courtesy of an acapella performance at the mic, as Guy sang out “Empty Chairs at Empty Tables” from the musical Les Misérables to a room full of full chairs and zero tables. 

This week’s ✏Line of the Wednesday✏ comes from Sramana, with “The Teslas are sunning themselves like albino lizards

Also, 📰 NEWSFLASH 📰: We will be switching to taking the $4 cover charge downstairs this coming Wednesday. We prefer you to bring cash (to minimize fees) but we also now will accept Venmo, and contactless payments like chip credit cards and Apple pay.

This Wednesday: all the way from Providence, Rhode Island, we have the great Zee Stewart (aka the Michael F. Gill of Slam Free or Die). Zee is an overly hopeful Libra who resides in the Northeastern corner of the US. At any given point, you’ll likely find Zee belting Nate Ruess (pronounced ROO-SS) songs, baking for her loved ones, or projecting their writing dreams into Google Docs. They have been featured at various venues around northern New England and has been one of the organizers at her home venue of Slam Free or Die since the summer of 2021. Zee’s work primarily dives into the subject of love in all its forms, including but not limited to grief, the complexity of interpersonal relationships, and the ways in which love weaves itself in and out of life like a precarious yet resilient thread. She hopes that her work helps you find the light, because they want to stroll into it with you.

Two quick reminders:

1) Sign up for the MONTHLY NEWSLETTER!

2) Check out our Poetry-themed MISSED CONNECTIONS FORM!  

– Amy ✈️

Our upcoming features
Our community survey
First timer? Looking for show info? Check out our Frequently Asked Questions

All shows take place at the Cantab Lounge, 738 Massachusetts Ave. in Cambridge, with one flight of stairs to access the basement room (click for directions and accessibility information). The show is $4 / 21+ (ID/Proof of Vaccination required) and doors for the show open at 7:15. The open mic begins at 8:00 PM and the feature begins at approximately 10:00 PM.