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Open Mic Highlights
• It was another great night for first-timers! We heard great subtly rhyming work from Isaac and Kay brought us the words of other poets who are consistently speak to her
• Helena’s striking poem about trying to learn how to draw and sketching their partner the way they see them during unseen moments
• TJ Jones’ first memorized poem, which was “experimental…because Myles is not here tonight!”
• Jan’s poem about the “pain and sleep aisle” you find in stores/pharmacies
• Edie’s “I Wrote My Pain a Letter Again” and Will S revisiting the experience that is the combination Pizza Hut/Taco Bell
• Keaton’s poem titled “A Vampire named ‘Daddy Issues'”
Feature
We had a full open poetry slam this week! It was a throwdown of many established poets, with scores very tight throughout. Shawn opened up with his meta “This is the first poem of the poetry slam” piece, and we also heard good work from first-time slammer Ember on queerness and familial acceptance. The dreaded time-penalty reared its head for Isaiah and Otto, preventing them from moving on, as second round ties pushed us into a three-person final round. Kaitie D and Kelsey brought highly polished, explosive work, which was in contrast to Roxy Luis Martinez-Dobbs, who did 3 ramshackle manifestos all under 2 minutes that were fuming on attitude, style, and the complications of gender identity and relation/situationships. In the end Kaitie took the win, with Roxy coming in second! Both will qualify for the 2026 Boston Poetry Slam Team Selection slam next year!
Coming Up This Wednesday
This week we have a surprise treat: a feature from regular open mic and slam favorite Otto Vock!
Bio: Otto Vock is a Jewish, non-binary poet and educator from Jersey City, NJ, now based in Somerville, MA, whose work explores the role of play and rebellion in all the nooks of life. Their work has appeared in The Offing, Pigeon Pages NYC, and the Quinobequin Review and their manuscript in progress, They Did Not Comply, recently received an honorable mention from Game Over Book’s 2025 open reading period. Additionally, they are the primary author of the companion curriculum for Phil Kaye’s book of poems, Date & Time, published in partnership with Button Poetry and Project VOICE. Recently, Otto began holding it down at Mass Poetry as their Teen Spoken Word Programming Coordinator and has previously taught at Urban Word NYC, 826 Boston, Grubstreet, and across several Boston Public Library branches providing free and open to the public poetry and personal essay workshops with the BPL’s Community History Department. They are pursuing a Master’s in Educational Studies at Tufts University and engage in trickery within the world of academia whenever possible (always).
See you soon!
– MFG 🚪
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