Cantab Recap for Wednesday, June 4, 2014

Good stuff at the Cantab last night, folks: a late-spring packed house, a way-full open mic and slam, and a really solid feature by William Evans made for a pretty super night. Will took the stage a bit behind schedule and then apparently stopped time with a series of poems drawn straight from his contracted-but-not-yet-published manuscript forthcoming from Penmanship Books; his distinct voice and carefully crafted work led us down and back rows of Midwestern cornfields and generations of American history, ending with a sweet and very funny account of the poet’s own progeny. Excellent show!

Our slam was packed from the beginning of the night with some old favorites and some new-to-the-show competitors; also of note was our top-rank sacrificial poet, Omar Holmon, in town visiting from his home slam of Urbana in New York. Ethan Smith achieved the final round in his first Cantab slam despite bringing page to the stage every round; Ethan was eliminated at last, however, by Marshall Gillson, rising in intensity with new performances of the poems that earned him a spot on this year’s Providence slam team.

Marshall will be back with his team, as well as teams from louderARTS and Rhythmic Cypher, to take on the hometown heroes in a 4×4 slam a couple of weeks from now. Between now and then, however, you’ll get to enjoy a very rare feature from 2011 BPS team member and one-time Emerson captain Maya Phillips, visiting from NYC especially for us. See you there!