Cantab Recap For Wednesday, October 16th, 2024

Happy Wednesday! We had a smaller-sized but potent (in terms of quality) Wednesday crowd last week at the Cantab! There was talk of band kid culture (Ben Tolkin), the crossover between gender and the TSA (River) and an explosive written-at-the bar express lane poem that drew from the one and only Beyoncé (Arabella). Cameron did an abbreviated cover of “Moshe Feldstein, Icon Of Self-Realization” (alternate link) (aka “Imagine This Scenario”) by Cantab alum Alexander Nemser, which provoked Michael F. Gill to do a response poem that referenced many other poems on the open mic! Other highlights include Maura’s tales (tails) of Jessica, her rat-shoplifting friend, Max’s Sisyphus poem, and several references to the impending Harvest Moon, to which we can all say, “Full moon in Aries, fuck me up fam.”

The Line of the Wednesday is from Iman, with “I’ve kissed strange and convenient lips / Because they presented themselves / Like candied apples, / Hiding bruises with gloss

Our feature was our splendid neighbor, Mike Linehan! Mike gave us a wonderful set that covered teaching, tolerance, and of course, his beard. The SFOD Slam Team member showed us his skill and expertise on a range of topics, from heartfelt poems about his passion as a teacher to energetic, but still heartfelt, poems about heavy metal! Mike’s poetry was narrative, beautiful, and left us feeling inspired to write about what we are passionate about.

TONIGHT! We have MASON GRANGER!! Mason Granger (he/him) is a spoken word artist with over a decade of experience on stages & in educational settings across all 50 states and nine countries. His work centers around matters of class, nature, and sustainability– both of ourselves as human beings and the world we share– all from an imaginative and forward-thinking perspective.

As the inaugural Poet in Residence of the Schwarzenegger Institute at USC and an LA-Paris 2024 Poetic Games Olympic Showcase Awardee, Mason is one of Southern California’s most engaging poetic voices. Whether inhabiting a stage himself or making space for others’ voices to shine, Mason’s approach to the craft of spoken word poetry emphasizes engagement, connection, and creativity. He has been featured on ESPN (2011) , PBS (2018), the Golden Globes (2021), multiple national magazines, and founded a spoken word YouTube channel (2014), SlamFind, with nearly 100,000 subscribers. Mason also created poetry exchange programs in Romania (2019) and The Netherlands (2024), performed at the Austrian World Summit (2024), and did a backflip once (2003).

See you then!

– Amy ✈️

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