Cantab Recap for Wednesday, January 14, 2015

The new year doesn’t let up, poetry slam fans! Our second Wednesday of 2015 was a grand celebration, featuring the dynamic and very entertaining Pages Matam; Pages rocked the house, tugged at some heartstrings, and even gave away a custom bow-tie after a 90-second audience physical challenge. We wish him the best of luck and fun as his tour continues west!

Following Pages, of course, was the highly anticipated Champion of Champions poetry slam, featuring a field of seven previous winners, all fighting for a chance to take on the reigning champ, Sean Patrick Mulroy. It was a wicked good field, perhaps best illustrated by the final season championship matchup between Ed Wilkinson and Meaghan Ford; after a hot final round, the two longtime competitors actually TIED, forcing a tie-breaker match! Ed took the tiebreaker and went on to not-very-reluctantly challenge Sean for the crown… However, Sean’s surprise new work performed in the final round got the edge over Ed’s fifth (!) performance of the night, earning Ed an opportunity to shake his fist at Sean’s continued dominion over the venue.

Next week: we’re back with the Last Chance Slam, the very final chance to get on the qualifying roster for the Boston Poetry Team Selection Slams. Oh, wait, you were wondering who the headliner is? It’ll be none other than Jason Carney, a four-time National Poetry Slam Finalist so classy he uses a pic of himself upstairs at the Cantab as the iconic image on his website. Come welcome this Texas sensation to our basement stage for the first time.