Cantab Recap for Wednesday, August 26, 2015

Sure, it might not seem like a sold-out show and an open mic that fills by 7:30 is a slow night at the Cantab, but it’s worth remembering: the wildly popular months of September and October are approaching quickly, so you might join the regulars in being thankful for a little late-August elbow room downstairs at the show. This past Wednesday, a short-form-heavy open mic rocked the stage in time for an intimate feature from Ann Arbor’s Scott Beal. Scott read and performed from his latest book, Wait ‘Til You Have Real Problems (Dzanc Books), drawing us into the woods and back, shaking up our natural sensibilities, and making forlorn but clever octopuses of us all.

The first slam of the new series was a six-man affair, culminating in a pitched battle between Ed Wilkinson’s maybe-weirdest-ever slammed poem and Marshall Gillson’s no-holds-barred off-stage performance of his final piece. Marshall took the win, qualifying this 2015 Boston Poetry Slam Team member for the 2016 team slams nice and early.

Next week: poems on poems on poems! On Wednesday, the Cantab will hear from regular Tom Daley, launching his new book, House You Cannot Reach, and the open poetry slam 8×8 will continue with the second slam in the series. Plus, we’ll celebrate September at Moonlighting on Thursday with Jasmin Roberts, Noho powerhouse poet. Yes!