Happy National Poetry Month, Cantabbers! While the CUPSI poets are away, the non-collegiate shall… Rack our brains over 30/30? Yes, most likely: tons of new work hit the open last night to celebrate the nation’s most traditional month to attempt writing thirty poems in thirty days. If you haven’t started your 30/30 project yet, no worries: there’s plenty of April yet left for you to get writing.
In the spirit of packing as much poetry into April as possible, last night we enjoyed double headliners from Chicago’s Thoughtcrime press: Ben Clark and Emily Rose Kahn-Sheahan. The two poets rocked the house with two radically different styles, taking on rural loneliness, urban sensuality, and just about everything in between. They’ll hit Manchester, New Hampshire tonight on their continued whirlwind New England tour.
After our feature, we slam: and by “we,” we of course mean “eight poets with wildly different ideas who all want ten dollars.” A grand group of performers in the speed slam was eventually narrowed to Adam Stone and Colin Killick in the final one-minute round: despite a surprise and intense crowd-walk by Colin, Adam eked out the win and netted himself a spot in this season’s Champion of Champions slam coming up on April 20.
Next week: we’ll be back with a feature from local Cassandra de Alba, celebrating the release of her book, habitats (Horse Less Press), and finishing up the 8×8 speed slam series with the last of the year’s eight open speed slams. We’ll also be ramping up big time for the return of The Grudge Match, our annual head-to-head grand slam event with Boston’s House Slam! This year’s iteration will take place at ONCE in Somerville and sold right the heck out last year; we STRONGLY recommend checking out the awesome line-up and getting your $10 ticket in advance.
Boston Poetry Slam Online