Hey Cantab! We had a lovely fall evening this past Wednesday, with a somewhat serene evening setting up a bombastic speed slam!! Several first timers stunned on the mic, with Victoria reading a touching and vulnerable poem, and Lily K with a fresh new and unique tone! Serendipitously, our host Katya began a tradition of saying “Welcome Home” to everyone she introduced, and when she said so to Lily, we learned that Lily had just moved to Boston! We also had a couple people hit the three-minute mark, but all of them demonstrated the correct practice of 1) noticing they’re about to get kicked off stage and 2) dropping one last fire line. One of those people was Nick Roberts, who gave us an epic poem of sorts, taking us on a literary journey. Lastly, we got a great gaming poem from our gamer/regular Kai about mortality.
The ✏️Line of the Wednesday✏️ goes to Maura, with “No longer a puppy love that needs to be taken out every once in a while“
Then, we had our speed slam! Consisting of one-minute, two-minute, and four-minute rounds, ten slammers took to the stage to not only showcase their talent, but their range. We saw powerful short pieces from Colin Killick, a one-minute classic Kelsey Kessler poem on Persephone, and Kaitie D blowing us away with so much packed into their one-minute slot it hit us like a car! We saw Logan trim their firehouse slam piece down to two minutes in a display of versatility and Cameron show all his comedic, sincere, and sardonic sides. Ultimately, 2024 slam team member Jennifer Martinez took home the $50 AND a purple typewriter (thanks Eli Kane!) with an incredible performance of her Love Island slam piece, beating Mary by 0.1 of a point. Thank you to our judges and to our wonderful host!
This week we have a feature AND a workshop! Our feature is Ayokunle Falomo. Ayokunle Falomo is Nigerian, American, and the author of Autobiomythography of (Alice James Books, 2024), AFRICANAMERICAN’T (FlowerSong Press, 2022), a recipient of fellowships from Vermont Studio Center, MacDowell, and the University of Michigan’s Helen Zell Writers’ Program.
Our First Wednesday Workshop will be about assembling a manuscript for publication, led by local poet Yena Sharma Purmasir! As always, the workshop will start at 6:30, and workshop attendees get first access to the open mic list.
Also, if that wasn’t enough, we will have the last chance open haiku slam! This is in preparation for next week’s Haiku Tournament, which has a grand prize of $170, with the top 2 finalists also qualifying for our 2025 Team Selection slam.
See you soon!
– Amy ✈️
Our upcoming features
First timer? Looking for show info? Check out our Frequently Asked Questions!
Sign up for our monthly Newsletter
Boston Poetry Slam Online