Cantab Recap for Wednesday, August 19, 2015

Welcome back, Cantabbers! And welcome back to our team, who returned home gloriously intact from the National Poetry Slam to take up their poems in the open mic and slam once again. The team placed a respectable 24th out of 72… And had the opportunity to support, in-person, NPS Finalist Melissa Newman-Evans (competing for Denver in her first post-Cantab NPS) and the Boston’s first championship team since 1993: HUGE CONGRATULATIONS to our across-the-river friends-and-rivals, The House Slam!

Our feature following the rambunctious NPS week was the similarly intense Sam Mercer: this Portland, Maine native put on all his voices to take us in (way in) to the grayest and greenest parts of depression, humor, sobriety, and breakfast. Welcome home, Sam; come hang with the Cantab’s listeners any time.

The evening closed with the only-slightly-misnamed Champion of Champions slam, hosted by outgoing champ Sean Patrick Mulroy. With Sean stepping down to move to his MFA program, the six qualified slammers found themselves fighting for any slim chance at taking over the title; the finals came down to relative newcomer and crowd favorite Christian vs. a hot-off-the-NPSes Mckendy Fils-Aimé. Mckendy took the win and the season championship title: he’ll have to wait for another season champ (who’ll be crowned on October 21) for his chance at the now-vacant Champion of Champions title.

Next week: open slams start again to qualify for that very special title bout. Oh, and of course: our feature will be the most excellent Scott Beal, published poet and teacher from Ann Arbor.