Cantab Feature for Wednesday, December 10, 2014: Mike McGee

Mike McGee, champion of pretty much everything.

Mike McGee, champion of pretty much everything.

Mike McGee is the first poet to win both the National Poetry Slam Individual Championship (2003) and the Individual World Poetry Slam Championship (2006). He has toured over 600,000 miles and once lived in Worcester, Mass. for a year, where he initiated the now-nationwide movement known as Kitchen Sessions. Born in Fort Campbell, Kentucky with a mild form of Spina Bifida, Mike considers this neural tube defect to be one of the foundations and origins of his love of humor, art and language. He is the eldest of eight children.

In 2003, McGee co-founded the Vancouver, B.C.-based “talk-rock” trio Tons of Fun University with Shane Koyczan and C. R. Avery. Their debut was before a crowd of 15,000 at the Vancouver Folk Music Festival, July 2004. The trio has since toured extensively throughout Canada, performing primarily in music festivals. In 2005, McGee performed a revised version of his popular poem “Like” on a fifth season episode of Russell Simmons Presents Def Poetry on HBO. He currently lives in San Diego.


Peter Storey, drifter and poet.

Peter Storey, drifter and poet.

Tonight’s show will also feature a spotlight from Peter Storey. Peter is a drifter. He fights wildfire to pay for time to write. This winter he lives in Chicago. By the summer he’ll be gone.

This show in our weekly Wednesday series takes place at the Cantab Lounge, 738 Massachusetts Ave. in Cambridge. Doors for the show open at 7:15. The open mic begins at 8:00 and the feature performs at approximately 10:00. An open poetry slam in the 8×8 series will follow. The show is 18+ (ID required) and the cover charge is $3.