Cantab Feature for Wednesday, May 15, 2013: April Penn

April Penn, local open mic favorite.

April Penn, local open mic favorite.

April Penn grew up wanting to be Harriet the Spy and didn’t quit her life of secretive journal writing until she learned about the Boston Poetry Slam from the First Night Festival. Thereafter, she began frequenting the open mic and joined the 365 blog. Inspired by writers such as Michelle Tea and Eileen Myles, her work explores the intersection between memoir and feminism. She is a founding member of the Brighton Word Factory and has combined poetry and activism, featuring at Occupy Boston and UMass Amherst’s series on the arts of protest.

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.

Cantab Recap for Wednesday, May 8

We’ve actually been waiting years to welcome back 2011 Boston Poetry Slam Team member Rachel McKibbens. One of our favorite writers, performers, and home-team slammers, Rachel put together a remarkable set for us, absolutely packed with poetry, emotion, and that feeling of reward that comes with new ideas. As always, her feature left us tingly, weepy, and energized to write. We followed up with a solid slam where Melissa Newman-Evans pulled out all the stops to defeat a very strong Dave “Snake Eyes” McKenna in the final round, earning the ten dollars and the first qualifying spot for the 2014 slam team. What a great night!

Next week: we welcome long-time local favorite April Penn to the feature slot, and our 8×8 open slam series continues. See you there!

Tips from the Bar: Mom Says Hi

Revisiting an old prompt from last year: write a poem you are afraid your parents would write about you.

Cantab Feature for Wednesday, May 8, 2013: Rachel McKibbens

Rachel McKibbens, WOWPS champion.

Rachel McKibbens, WOWPS champion.

Poet, activist, playwright and essayist Rachel McKibbens is a New York Foundation for the Arts poetry fellow and author of the critically acclaimed volume of poetry, Pink Elephant (Cypher Books, 2009). Regarded as one of the most dynamic speakers in the country, McKibbens is a legend within the poetry slam community, noted for her accomplishments both on and off the stage: she is a nine-time National Poetry Slam team member, has appeared on eight NPS final stages, coached the New York louderARTS poetry slam team to three consecutive final stage appearances, was the 2009 Women of the World Poetry Slam champion and the 2011 National Underground Poetry Slam individual champion.

For four years Rachel taught poetry through the Healing Arts Program at Bellevue Hospital in Manhattan and continues to teach poetry and creative writing and give lectures across the country as an advocate for mental illness, gender-equality and victims of violence and domestic abuse. She has been published widely and her second book of poetry, Into the Dark and Emptying Field, is slated to be released in the fall of 2013.

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.

Moonlighting Recap for Thursday, May 2

The second-ever Moonlighting, Boston Poetry Slam’s new monthly LGBTQ reading, was a success, thanks to a high caliber open-mic and the formidable presence of nationally renowned poet Tatyana Brown. Those in attendance were wowed by never-before-seen work as well as familiar hits as Brown wielded a rare range of emotion, blending poignancy, humor, and uncommonly distilled confession to the stage. Now heading into its third month, Moonlighting is proving to be a top-notch safe space for the LGBTQ community and their allies to enjoy and relate to one another through poetry, before sitting back and experiencing some of the art’s most talented performers!

Moonlighting takes place on the first Thursday of every month 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 with a suggested $3 donation. The next Moonlighting show will take place on Thursday, June 6, featuring Casey Rocheteau.

Cantab Recap for Wednesday, May 1

Fifteen poets packed into the slam this past Wednesday in the hope of becoming the next Boston Poetry Slam representative at the Individual World Poetry Slam this October! With only eight slots available in the May 29 World Qualifier Finals, poets were pulling out all the stops… But they only had two rounds and a total of three minutes –that’s a two-minute round and a one-minute round– to do it.

We kicked off with stellar sacrifices from Nora Meiners and Tom Slavin, then we were off for another thirty (!) speedy poems! When the dust cleared, some very decisive, independent judges had made it clear who they wanted to see advance. Final rankings after two rounds were:

  • 1. Jade Sylvan* 52.7

  • 2. Sean Patrick Mulroy 52.6
  • 3. Omoizele Okoawo 52.1
  • 4. Bobby Crawford 52

  • 5. Kieran Collier* 50.6

  • 6. Michael Monroe 50.2
  • 7. Sophia Holtz 49.6
  • 8. Zanne Langlois 49.3
  • 9. Meaghan Ford 48.9
  • 10. Ed Wilkinson 48.7

  • Nathan Comstock
  • Eddy Martinez
  • Zeke Russell
  • Brenna Kleiman
  • Dave McKenna

*Jade Sylvan and Kieran Collier have dropped from Finals, bringing the ninth- and tenth-ranked poets back into the competition.

Thanks so much to everyone who competed, and also to our judges: Chris and Michelle, Andrea and Aradice, Greg, David, and Charlotte! Remember, we’ll be back with those top eight poets on May 29 for the World Qualifier Finals, where we’ll go four rounds to select just one poet to represent us in October.

But wait: what happened to the rest of May? Don’t worry, folks… There is lots of poetry happening between now and then, starting up with Rachel McKibbens this coming Wednesday. We’ll also kick off the first slam in the latest 8×8 championship series. See you there!

Tips from the Bar: Word Choice Malfunction

Consider one or more pick-up lines that might reveal too much about the speaker.

Moonlighting: A Queer Open Mic and Reading Series on Thursday, May 2, 2013

Tatyana Brown, Moonlighting feature for May 2.

Tatyana Brown, Moonlighting feature for May 2.

THE SECOND INSTALLMENT IN OUR LGBTQ MONTHLY SERIES, MOONLIGHTING! Click here for more information about Moonlighting. The night’s featured poet will be Tatyana Brown.

Tatyana Brown is the founding Captain of The Lit Slam, a San Francisco-based, live-audience curated literary show and poetry journal. She ranked fourth at the 2011 Individual World Poetry Slam and has toured North America ever since, facilitating workshops and performing at venues for storytelling and poetry. She visits universities (including the Indiana University, Duke University and Yale University) to speak on the subject of poetry slam as a contemporary American literary tradition specifically, and the vibrant nature of American oral tradition more generally. She also teaches workshops on using various communication tools (including shock-value comedy) to interrupt and dismantle systemic oppression. Her work has appeared on NPR’s storytelling show, Snap Judgment. She holds the distinct honor of winning the longest consecutive string of XXX Haiku Deathmatch Championships at Oakland’s Tourettes Without Regrets (and she did so with progressive, feminist comedy).

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.

Cantab feature for Wednesday, May 1, 2013: World Qualifier Speed Slam

It’s the end of our speed slam series, folks, and you know what that means… It’s time for the annual World Qualifier series, a two-night, six-poem series to select the Boston Poetry Slam’s sole representative to the 2013 Individual World Poetry Slam! This year’s IWPS will take place in Spokane, Washington from October 3-5, and our World Qualifier slam winner will be entered into the event.

Night one of the World Qualifier will our annual grand speed slam: a huge field of poets will compete in a lightning-fast two-round slam using only 2- and 1-minute poems. That means lots of new work performed by your favorite slam winners from the past year! Top scorers move on to Finals at the end of the month.

Want to see who’s qualified? Click here for the full list of speed slam invitees. 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.

Cantab Recap for Wednesday, April 24

National Poetry Month has just ended at the Boston Poetry Slam, folks, and we went out on a high note. First, Marty McConnell led a workshop to kick off a big night, and the venue responded in kind with a super-solid and interesting open mic. Marty replied with a feature (kicking off with a brand-new-to-everyone poem, by the way) that had folks tripping over themselves to get a copy of her newest book, wine for a shotgun. Awesome!

But wait, there was more: six folks showed up for the Champion of Champions slam, all with a new poem in their back pockets designed to challenge the reigning champ, Zanne Langlois. To honor the close of our spring speed slam series, we started the slam with a one-minute round that saw the end of the night for previous winners Nathan Comstock and Dave McKenna. Zeke Russell and Keiran Collier were respectively eliminated in the two-minute round, leaving the final battle between CUPSI wunderkind Bobby Crawford and Cantab old-schooler Tom Slavin! Tom took the round, the win, and the challenge to compete against Zanne in the one-off new poem round… And swept the night in a major victory. Congrats to Tom on his new title, and a round of applause for Zanne who held it for almost a full year.

Next week: you like slam? We hope you like slam. We’ve got slam in our name, so we’ve just gotta: on Wednesday, May 1, join us as we begin to narrow the field to determine who will represent us at the Individual World Poetry Slam this October. It’s the massive 20-poet World Qualifier Speed Slam, with all 2- and 1-minute poems, top poets invited to return at the end of the month, and a $5 cover to help raise money to send the eventual winner to the big competition. Sweet!