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Open Mic Highlights
• Back-to-back FIRST POEMS EVER by Yoyo and Kamran, who read about “The pizza I can’t eat” and the voice of a river travelling through Iceland
• Former open mic regulars returning back-to-Boston: Dani’s “The God I don’t believe in has office hours from 2 to 4 am” and Kaitie’s riff on Gilmore Girls’ Season 5, Episode 22 (insert yacht emoji here)
• In honor of our beloved staff member Kai’s birthday, we had our 2nd KAIPHER, where many poets on the open mic covered poems by Kai! Special mention to TJ Jones, who lovingly matched Kai’s pacing, intonation, and mannerisms perfectly!
• First-timer Ruby made sure we didn’t go too long without a wrestling-themed poem on the open, where watching said theme provided a kind of therapeutic resolve that seems elusive in real life
• Long time favorite Donovan Beck bid farewell to us this week, as he moves to NYC. Donovan will be firmly missed, and after participating in the Kaipher, he read a poem that references many of our regular readers on the open mic!
• Shenanigans prevailed as yours truly unexpectedly opened the open mic (as part of a new experiment where we have 1 member of the staff start the show) with a poem referencing itself often as the first poem of the open mic!
Feature
For our monthly community night, Brynna-Boyd-in-a-dinosaur-costume hosted the very chill and fun TRICK OR TREAT SLAM, where a dozen poets signed up to compete in costume for fabulous mystery prize bags! Highlights include Jen’s rabbit poem vs the contrapuntal machine that is Kaitie D, a newcomers-only battle between Cece and Dyre, and Shawn dressing up as Kai for their poem! Cake and cookies were served in the back while the slam was going on, so everyone left the night both figuratively and literally fed. Thanks to all who slammed for such a fun night!
Coming Up This Wednesday
Tonight, alongside our normal extended open mic, we will have both an early bird workshop by Myles Taylor, and an open poetry slam! For the slam, you will need 3 original poems, with the top 2 poets qualifying for the 2026 BPS team selection slam. The slam winner also gets $75! The workshop will start at 6:30, 8 pm open mic, 10 pm open slam.
Workshop info: “Against Writing to Completion: Writing Endings for Slam & Page “
What is your goal when writing an ending? What makes an ending powerful? When are we done with the poem? This workshop by Myles Taylor will discuss strategies for ending a poem on the right note, with sample texts from Sam Sax, Marvin Hodges, Simone Beaubien, and others.
See you later!
– MFG 🚪
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