April Ranger hosts at the Cantab's first-ever NorthBEAST Regional Indy Slam. Photo by Marshall Goff.
FEATURED POET: April Ranger has performed her poems on stages across the nation. A three-time member of the Boston Poetry Slam Team, she competed on the Finals Stage in Madison in 2008 and returned to New England that same year to win the NorthBeast Poetry Slam title. April represented Boston at the Individual World Poetry Slam in 2009 and 2011. Her poems have appeared in Off The Coast and Muzzle Magazine. She recently returned from a four-month sojourn in Maine to complete a full-length play, The Mouth of Jordan. For more info about April, see her hosting bio here.
Michael Mack, storytelling feature for New and Improved at Radio.
FEATURED STORYTELLER: Poet, playwright, and storyteller Michael Mack graduated from the Writing Program at MIT. His work has aired on NPR, and been published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, America, the Beloit Poetry Journal, and Best Catholic Writing. Awards include an Artist’s Grant for new theater works from the Massachusetts Cultural Council, and First Prize in the Writers Circle National Poetry Competition. Mack has performed at the US Library of Congress, Yale University, Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts, the Austin International Poetry Festival, Off-Off-Broadway at the Times Square Arts Center, and at the FBI’s 32nd Annual Hostage Negotiation Seminar. Mack has also performed at scores of venues for consumers and providers of mental health services, including McLean Psychiatric Hospital, the NAMI National Conference, and for faculty and students of the Harvard Medical School. He can be found at michaelmacklive.com.
WORKSHOP DESCRIPTION: Michael will draw on his years of experience in slam (can you say Champion of Champions, anyone?) and storytelling to produce a performance workshop. Geared toward folks looking to make the jump from slam to storytelling, or just to improve their storytelling technique, this workshop asks performers to bring a story or narrative poem that can be delivered in about 3-5 minutes.
NEW AND IMPROVED MONDAYS is a weekly poetry and arts series on Mondays at Radio, a bar and performance space at 379 Somerville Ave., Union Square, Somerville. Doors open for the show at 6:30 p.m. and the workshop begins at 7:00. Open mic begins at 8:00. The poetry feature takes the stage at 9:00 and the visiting artist goes on at 9:30. Cover charge is $5 and the show is 21+.
Boston Poetry Slam Online