Cantab Recap For Wednesday, March 8th, 2023

Happy International Women’s Day from The Boston Poetry Slam!! This week, the packed room brought especially eccentric energy to the open mic, with so many poets bringing their best work yet again. There were poems in German, poems in Spanish, poems about time machines and traffic lights, and poems that make you question everything. We also had the pleasure of hearing the tales of host Jimmy’s recent freelancing adventures, and a smoking section filled with haiku and shoutouts by our lovely staff.

Our feature this week, longtime Lowell poet and organizer Ricky Orng, showcased his heartfelt work and captivated everyone with his cadence and wordplay. Come back soon, Ricky! Follow him on Instagram @rickyorng to stay updated on his many projects!

This week’s ✏️ Line of the Wednesday ✏️ is actually not from a poem, just something our own Eddy Martinez said to me organically that I had to write down:
“I find that I am sometimes too accepting of mysteries.”

Coming up this week, our feature is our very own beloved regular, Jarvis Subia!! Jarvis is a latinx, queer, flower-loving poet who is born and raised in San Jose’s Seven Trees neighborhood. He is the 2019 Poetry Foundation and Crescendo Literary’s Incubator Fellow, the recipient of the 2019 Silicon Valley Creates and Content Magazine’s Emerging Artist award, and San José’s Poetry Slam’s 2018 Grand Slam Champion! He recently earned his Ed.M from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, studying the impact of spoken word poetry in K-12 schools.

Jarvis will also be hosting a writing workshop right before the open mic entitled “This Will Be The Year”, and it will center around repetition and anaphora in poetry. The workshop starts at 6:30 PM, and is $10-$15 (sliding scale). Check our instagram feed (@bostonpoetryslam) for the latest information!

– Amy ✈️

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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 21+ (ID/Proof of Vaccination required) and doors for the show open at 7:15. The open mic begins at 8:00 and the feature begins at approximately 10:00. Due to a temporary inflation tax on transactions at the Cantab, the door charge will be $3.16 credit or $4 cash until further notice.