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NOTE FOR TONIGHT’S 08/13 SHOW: Doors will be open by 7 pm, but our open mic will start at 8 pm like usual! There is a sold-out ticketed show upstairs at the Cantab, so folks will wait downstairs for our show to start instead of upstairs.
Open Mic Highlights
• It was an incredible night of first timers, who made up nearly HALF the open mic! It was amazing how many newcomers seemed to fit in to our community right away, so hopefully you will all come back!
• Sam F’s ode to diners and “patriotic indigestion”
• The return of open mic veteran Dave Mingolla, who gave us two memorized poems, both with intriguing first lines (“If I could stop talking…” and “When I decided to join the other non-zombie neighbors”)
• Greg M’s “To the Person I Love, During A Bank Crisis”
• Lily K’s farewell poem / love letter to Massachusetts: “I’m going back to California where sadness makes sense”, after Danez Smith
• The debut of Jarvis hosting the open mic!
• The JV SMOOVE EXPERIENCE (which consists of a bombastic intro where he gets the audience to yell “I Heard That”, followed by shy, tender poem read slowly)
• Jennifer Martinez thunderous poem for an “expired crush” that focused itself around weightlifting
• Aparna’s reverse abecedarian about her Mom’s name (which begins with Z) and her name (which begins with A)
Feature
Our feature was the two-decade slam veteran Tim Stafford, finally gracing our feature stage for the first time! Poems from Tim’s new book “Broke Stay Broke” (Write Bloody Books, 2025) were the centerpiece of the night, and with a lot of local Chicago flavor as the backdrop, he regaled us with poetic adventures in being broke. Highlights included pieces on how to show up to a party hosted by “Old Money”, the yearning for a lazy, well-paid office job, being stuck in a loop of working too much even when you are able to pay the bills, and the phenomenon of “Wilco Dads” in Chicago (Don’t say anything bad about the band Wilco in the windy city!) Tim also graciously gave us entertaining and informative stories behind his work between poems, including the tale of a surprise meeting of Cantab veteran Ryk McIntyre in the Lizzy Borden House. Thanks Tim!
Coming Up This Wednesday
It’s the return of the Tag Team Slam! Teams of two will face off against each other, with each team member doing one individual poem, and then coming together to do a group piece for their third poem. Winning team gets a spot in the 2026 BPS team selection slam, plus $50! There are still slots available at the moment, so send us a DM/email/see a staff member tonight if you have a team of two interested!
See you soon,
– MFG 🚪
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