It’s official, Cantabbers! After three rounds of poems, at least two heart-stopping comebacks, more twists and turns than you can count plus a whopping 0.001 millimeters of snow, the Boston Poetry Slam at the Cantab Lounge has a 2018 slam team. Cumulative scores on the night gave us the top five poets (in bold) who will represent us at the 2018 National Poetry Slam in Chicago, Ill. Final standings:
1. Neiel Israel 85.6
2. John Pinkham 85.1
3. Meaghan Ford 84.8
4. Allison Truj 84.7
5. Sara Mae 84.2
6. Myles Taylor
7. George Abraham
8. RebeccaLynn
9. Brandon Melendez
Extra thanks go to the ONLY five people in the room willing to judge: Duffy, Lawrence, Patrick, Rupak, and Chelsea, plus bonus third-round substitute Suzanne O’Toole! (You all have a Get Out of Cantab Judging Free card good until 2019.) This awesome night was also made awesomer by scorekeeping handled by Cassandra de Alba, plus sacrifice poems from Evan Cutts and Kieran Collier.
Just a few highlights you missed if you weren’t one of the four-score hardy souls in the room: Myles’ crowdwalk to kick off the first round; George shaking out yet another planned story arc over the course of the slam; Brandon coming in just under four minutes with a wicked tiara of sonnets; the blistering one-two second round punch of Meaghan’s shoulders/Sara Mae’s “this is my song;” John’s slow burn set starting with the low score in the first round to a near-perfect 29.7 at the halfway point in the last; RebeccaLynn’s wind-from-your-sales Winn-Dixie grapple with absence; Neiel “Snake Eyes” Israel drawing two 1s and making the #1 spot in the rankings; Truj’s not-actually-that-surprising-but-pretty-damn-shocking last round, last spot comeback to make the team.
Next week: we’ll have a regular-sized open mic (phew!) and an open speed slam, plus we get to welcome Bobby Crawford back to the stage. But wait! There’s more next Thursday, 3/29: if you’re looking for a slam you Don’t Have to Judge (seriously, we picked amazeballs all-star judges for you already), check out The Grudge Match at OBERON, our annual NPS fundraiser with the House Slam.
Boston Poetry Slam Online