When a poet asks you to change your usual behavior in order to accommodate the plans for his feature –for instance, by asking you not to clap in a slam venue so he can pack more poems into his set– you might at first be taken aback, or tempted to engage in some good-natured ribbing at the poet’s expense. However, if the poet can really put his money where his mouth is (and if anyone can, Sean Patrick Mulroy can), you just might find yourself spellbound, glued to your seat, and perfectly willing to go along with whatever the night’s plan might be. Sean blazed through two marathon sets, performing and reading from his new chapbooks by turns, and only coming up for air once during a remarkable extended feature set. We may never have sent a poet this prolifically prepared to the Individual World Poetry Slam: Sean heads to Phoenix to compete next week, but you can hit him up for a chapbook to catch up on at least half of last night’s set before he goes.
TONIGHT: don’t forget that it’s the first Thursday of the month, folks! That means it’s time for Moonlighting, our LGBTQ-everyone-friendly monthly reading. Tonight’s feature is the superbly awesome Janae Johnson.
Next week, of course, we’re back at the Cantab on a Wednesday. We’ll welcome Pushcart Prize-winner Ocean Vuong to the stage, and fire up the scorecards for another open poetry slam.
Boston Poetry Slam Online