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 ✈️
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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 $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.
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