What joy! What joy is this! No, seriously: after a sweet and sassy spotlight from Chris Leja on our already-joyful open mic, eight slammers took the stage in the name of making lemons into sunshine. Egged on by an audience hungry for good news, poets and judges alike buoyed up the possibility of one or more moments of unadulterated rightness in the world. The final pairing came down to a pleasingly-themed punk-rock head-to-head pairing: Zeke Russell edged out Lip Manegio for the victory, and the whole room got a big win with a special sorbet finale by crowd favorite Febo.
Huge thanks to all our fabulous slammers (some of whom will have extra joy poems to spend on the open in coming months, nice), including Myles Taylor, Sarah Gilbert, Max Evans, Emily O’Neill, and Shannee Prudeaux, and some extra-special hat-tips to Joy Gatekeeper James Merenda and sacrifice/slam visionary Sophia Holtz.
This week: oh, is it February already? Are we celebrating it? Are there poems to be heard? Yes, hell yes, and unstoppably yes: this week’s feature will be Wayne Henry, touring poet and top slam champ from Dallas, who’ll be braving New England’s wild weather and notoriously terrible tacos (WE KNOW, AMERICA, WE KNOW) to give us a taste of the Texas sound and craft.
Boston Poetry Slam Online