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Happy Wednesday – we had yet another wonderful open slam last week, and a thrilling all-bangers open mic! Jay did a great, expressive poem on their relationship to gender, Hunter (debut alert) knocked our socks off with a stunning metaphor about cars/driving, and René did a lovely poem about flowers and masculinity. We also had several cover poems on the mic, including a Hannah Emerson cover by March, and, in lieu of her passing, several Nikki Giovanni covers. It added a bittersweetness to the week, reminding us how grateful we are for Nikki Giovanni’s contributions to the art form; we highly recommend you read some of her work this week.
The ✏️Line of the Wednesday ✏️ is actually just a thought I had during one of host Brynna’s anecdotes, sharing lines from her fifth-grade students’ work. The thought was “What the fuck is an orby blaster?”
Then we had our slam!!! 8 slammers competed for two qualifying slots, and it was banger after banger. Keaton’s dog poem broke hearts, Kelly stunned in their slam debut, metaphoring beautifully about a relationship, Guille’s first poem on language and connection (we’re really in a language-poem era over here at the Cantab) got an early 10, Jarvis did some incredible new shit about the health insurance CEO killing (and by new shit I mean written at the bar right before going on stage), Sam Bucci mused about the moral dichotomies of working at Whole Foods right after the recent election, Alia performed almost entirely in Greek, inspired by a comment they received last week, Daniel did his polished Chopin poem, and Kelsey did a completely choreographed and memorized poem about her mom’s heritage, assimilation, and language that blew people away!
Many more poems were heard, scores were written on whiteboards, and even more socks were knocked off (the shoes stayed on despite the socks being knocked off, linear time existed, roofs were blown off places, etc.), but there could only be one winner…..DANIEL LETONA! The slammer took the win and the $50, and qualified for the team alongside the incredible runner-up, beloved regular Keaton. All slammers did amazingly, and it only got us more stoked for the two remaining qualifying slams (on 1/8 and 1/22).
TONIGHT! We have a real treat, because a Cantab veteran is returning to feature! Melissa Newman-Evans was a two-time National Poetry Slam semi-finalist with the 2012 and 2014 Boston Poetry Slam Teams, and was a National Poetry Slam Finalist with the Denver-Mercury team in 2015. She has been published in at least 25 literary magazines, was nominated for a Pushcart Prize, and went modestly viral on Button Poetry with her poem “9 Things I Would Like To Tell To Every Teenage Girl.” These days, she helps run the Denver Historical Fencing Academy and teaches people to smack each other with swords. She still thinks if you wanted a tonic and gin, you should have ordered it that way.
REMINDER: Though we try to avoid it, we will not have a show next Wednesday, 12/25, as it is Christmas. But we will be having a special SATURDAY show downstairs at the Cantab on 12/28 at 6 pm. It will be our third annual POETRY THEATRE night, featuring group pieces and poetical plays from our regulars. Also, stay tuned for details on our unique New Year’s Day show coming up at The Trident Bookstore!
See you then!
– Amy ✈️
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