Next week: doom metal! Powerlifting! Super-sensitive poetry guy! Ross Hickerson, who doesn’t tour, has come to us from Omaha, Nebraska just because we asked so nicely. We’ll finish the night with the next slam in our 8×8 series.

Eliel Lucero, New York City poet and bartender.

Eliel Lucero is a native New Yorker, bartender, poet and DJ. His work appears in the International Poetry Review (The University of North Carolina at Greensboro), in Barber Shop Chronicles (penmanship press) and in Gape Seed (Uphook Press). He is the resident DJ for the LouderARTS Project. He was baptized in the funk at age fourteen and hasn’t taken a proper shower since.

This show in our weekly Wednesday series takes place at the Cantab Lounge, 738 Massachusetts Ave. in Cambridge. Doors for the show open at 7:15. The open mic begins at 8:00 and the feature performs at approximately 10:00. An open slam in the 8×8 series will follow. The show is 18+ (ID required) and the cover charge is $3.

Just a few weeks ago, in fact, we put aside four rounds of slam to select our Individual World Poetry Slam representative for 2013. We’ll be sending just one poet to IWPS in Spokane, Washington this October! After narrowing the field to just eight poets in the semi-final round, we asked the audience to hold fast to their seats for a roller coaster ride of hilarity, tragedy, and ties, ties, ties until we got down to just two poets in the final round! In a startling upset, 2013 team member Omoizele Okoawo fell in the head-to-head round to BPS regular-yet-rookie (and member of the 2013 Mill City Slam team) Bobby Crawford! Huge congratulations to Bobby, who will travel across the country to try his hand at the 72-poet competition this fall.

The next week (that’s just last Wednesday for those of you keeping track) we welcomed Vancouver poet and organizer Lisa Slater to our stage. This thoughtful queer artist dredged up some heavy feelings, interspersed with some lovely light moments. Our slam that night was won by Mill City Slam Team (there’s that name again!) captain Nathan Comstock.

Tonight, tonight, tonight: we’ll be back, of course, with the famed poet-DJ-bartender Eliel Lucero from NYC. We’ll also finish up the night with another open slam. See you there!

New England-gone-NYC poet Casey Rocheteau.

This month’s Moonlighting feature will be Casey Rocheteau, who began performing poetry at Hampshire College in 2003. She was a member of the first Five College teams at CUPSI. She performs throughout the country, at venues such as the Green Mill, The Cantab Lounge, and Portland Poetry Slam. She has lead a variety of writing and performance workshops for adults and students from middle school to college. She’s released two albums on the Whitehaus Family Record: Pump Your Concrete in 2008 and Chiaroscuro in 2011. She has self published four books: Roguish Young Things (2006), Keelhaul (2007), and List of American Rituals (2008), 11:11 (2009). Her most recent book, Knocked Up On Yes, was released on Sargent Press in 2012. Recently her work has appeared in Amethyst Arsenic and Side B Magazine. Casey was a member of the 2012 Providence Slam Team.

Lisa Slater, touring Vancouver poet.

The show will also feature a mini-spotlight reading from Lisa Slater, a spoken word artist living in Vancouver, BC. Feminist, survivor, and community builder, her poems explore what it means to reclaim our bodies and identities from what broke us open and how we relearn love, sex, friendship and family in the process. Lisa was recently a finalist at the 2012 Individual World Poetry Slam and the 2013 Canadian Individual Poetry Slam. She is the 2012 Vancouver Poetry Slam Indie Champ, Erotica Slam Champ and Queer Slam Champ, as well as a five-year board member for Vancouver Poetry House and its current President.

This show in our monthly Thursday LGBTQ series takes place at Fazenda Coffee Roasters, 3710 Washington St. in the Jamaica Plain area of Boston. An open mic begins at approximately 7:00 p.m. and the headliner follows the open mic. The show is all-ages and a $3 donation is requested.

Lisa Slater, Vancouver Poetry House President.

Lisa Slater is a spoken word artist living in Vancouver, BC. Feminist, survivor, and community builder, her poems explore what it means to reclaim our bodies and identities from what broke us open and how we relearn love, sex, friendship and family in the process. Lisa was recently a finalist at the 2012 Individual World Poetry Slam and the 2013 Canadian Individual Poetry Slam. She is the 2012 Vancouver Poetry Slam Indie Champ, Erotica Slam Champ and Queer Slam Champ, as well as a five-year board member for Vancouver Poetry House and its current President. Lisa’s work has been published in The Moose & Pussy and Poetry is Dead, as well as Flicker and Spark: A Contemporary Queer Anthology of Spoken Word and Poetry.

This show in our weekly Wednesday series takes place at the Cantab Lounge, 738 Massachusetts Ave. in Cambridge. Doors for the show open at 7:15. The open mic begins at 8:00 and the feature performs at approximately 10:00. An open slam in the 8×8 series will follow. The show is 18+ (ID required) and the cover charge is $3.

This week, Boston Poetry Slam presents a special edition of Moonlighting! The show will be a benefit for local queer working class poet Emily O’Neill and feature some of the top LGBTQ spoken word artists in the area. Following a short open mic, there will be performances from Sean Patrick Mulroy, Sophia Holtz, Sam Teitel, Cassandra de Alba, and Emily herself. All Hampshire College alumnae (and members of the legendary Slam Collective), these poets have performed all over the world and are sure to create a dynamic, engaging night of queer-focused work.

This fabulous fivesome has put together a group chapbook especially for this event, which will be available for purchase. There will be a $4 suggested donation at the door (up from our usual $3), and all proceeds will go towards Emily, who has been admitted to the prestigious Tin House Fiction Workshop in Portland, Oregon, and needs help with the hefty registration fees. Group excursion to Midway’s “Queereoke” to follow!

This show in our monthly Thursday LGBTQ series takes place at Fazenda Coffee Roasters, 3710 Washington St. in the Jamaica Plain area of Boston. An open mic begins at approximately 7:00 p.m. and the headliner follows the open mic. The show is all-ages and a $4 donation is requested.

The second and final night of the World Qualifier will feature the top eight poets from the May 1 World Qualifier Speed Slam. A four-round night, including one limit-breaking 4-minute round, will culminate in a head-to-head finals to determine who will represent the BPS!

The top eight poets from our May 1 speed slam have been invited to compete. Poets will be eliminated in each round, but here’s the order for the first round of eight poets:

1. Ed Wilkinson
2. Meaghan Ford
3. Zanne Langlois
4. Sophia Holtz
5. Michael Monroe
6. Bobby Crawford
7. Omoizele Okoawo
8. Sean Patrick Mulroy
sacrificial poets: Eddy Martinez, Janae Johnson

For more details, you can also check out the full rules and format for the World Qualifier Series.

This show in our weekly Wednesday series takes place at the Cantab Lounge, 738 Massachusetts Ave. in Cambridge. Doors for the show open at 7:15. An slightly shortened open mic begins at 8:00 and the slam begins at approximately 10:00. The show is 18+ (ID required) and the cover charge is $5; proceeds will go toward funding the World Qualifier winner’s trip to IWPS in Spokane, Washington this October.