Recaps from the Boston Poetry Slam @ the Cantab Lounge's weekly show.
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Open Mic Highlights
• Phoenix’s piece discussing why they identify as Xenogender
• Julie River’s ode to Denver’s former poetry cafe, The Mercury (later known as The Pearl)
• Ed Gault’s “1-800-ANSWERS” poem dedicated to absurd prompts given by automated phone systems, and what happens when the automated system asks questions …
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Open Mic Highlights
• Former BPS graphic designer Jackie B opened up the mic with a poem about German clubbing, drugs, entropy, and the authenticity of the self vs who you are in a group
• Cantab veteran Julie River has moved back to the area, and brought us a …
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Open Mic Highlights
• In honor of our tribute to Ron Goba (the first doortender of the Boston Poetry Slam), the room was filled with many poets from BPS’ past, with some readers taking the stage again for the first time in decades!
• Tim Gager’s short poem featuring Jess …
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Open Mic Highlights
• Kyle M’s poem reflecting on the discovery that their grandfather was a queer photographer, which they only found out after they also became a queer photographer
• First timer Aanchal’s memorized bread & cheese piece. Aanchal also stayed late to judge the slam!
• TJ Jones’ …
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Open Mic Highlights
• Max, Lou, and Will S started a (meta) theme as they did open mic poems about….local open mics! The Boston area is full of great ones, like Trident, Just Beloved, The Boston Liberation Center, and BPS. “These rooms save lives” – Will S
• March wrote a …
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Open Mic Highlights
• Shout out to the large group of newcomers who signed up early on the mic this week, including 2nd-timer Shy and Sydney from West Tennessee, and Alyna from Ann Arbor, Michigan.
• Some unexpected onomatopoeia, whispering, singing, and other dynamic “Freak shit” (© Myles Taylor) from Julian
…
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Open Mic Highlights
• Bailey and Artemis led off the open mic with love poems to each other, warming everyone’s hearts and inciting the ire of our apparently anti-love host Myles Taylor (full disclosure: they met before coming to the Cantab)
• “My sister’s pain is empty eggshells” – Edie writing …
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Open Mic Highlights
• Eri’s “If I had to f*%k one of the four horseman…”
• Bailey’s fourth-wall breaking poem including lines like “Whatever happens between us we need to still be able to go to the poetry show”
• Noel’s pastorally lush and lyrical ode to a specific tree in …
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Open Mic Highlights
• It was a great night for newcomers, with the first 6 people on the mic reading for first or second time!
• “It’s a miracle to me to speak into the dawn / ponder away a broken heart” – Christina
• Sahfa’s repeated their poem “I …
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Open Mic Highlights
02/04/26
• Bobby’s C riffed on gatekeepers and Harold Bloom’s out-of-touch remark that “Poetry slam is the death of art”
• Emmanuel’s “Standing in front of a mirror trying to know what love is”
• Nick Roberts’ “My Curated Pandemonium” and “Lament Of The Finnish Bird Seller”
• …
Boston Poetry Slam Online