Cantab Recap for Wednesday, April 23, 2014

National Poetry Month marches on, folks, and with it come brand new poets to the stage, poems from our regulars, and fabulous new books from our headliners. This past Wednesday’s feature, Hieu Minh Nguyen, brought us a short and intense lifetime of work in a book barely six weeks off the presses. Bypassing banter to pack more poetry into his set, Hieu held us spellbound for the duration of a truly memorable feature. Missed it? You can buy Hieu’s book direct from Write Bloody Publishing or connect with him at his personal website.

Hieu’s feature was followed by a similarly intense five-person Champion of Champions match! Past slam champs Zeke Russell, Ed Wilkinson, Ellyn Touchette, Nathan Comstock, and Emily Carroll were on hand to take a shot at reigning champ Sean Patrick Mulroy. The three-round speed slam saw a few upsets and a few time penalties: the final one-minute round came down to Ellyn Touchette eliminating Ed Wilkinson for the season title. Ellyn went on to challenge the champ in the brand-new-work round and, by a score of 3-2 took the win! Congratulations to Ellyn Touchette, our newly minted Champion of Champions. She’ll be invited back to defend her title in August.

Next week: we’ll have a fabulous double-header with Corrina Bain as our Wednesday feature and then again with an all-different set on Thursday at Moonlighting. Our Wednesday show will also include the Last Chance Speed Slam, the very last opportunity for poets to get in on the World Qualifier Speed Slam in May.