Cantab Recap for Wednesday, May 29, 2019

What’s better than a five-Wednesday month? How about a one-time Poet Populist and intense font of potential energy taking the stage at 22 Again; this past week, Toni Bee closed out our May poetry sessions with a sweet and sexy and smart set of poems, songs, and welcoming banter. Extra thanks to Toni for her generative workshop before the show, bringing the heat to bear on some newly crafted work for our open mic. What a lucky week.

Our next show opens up the bloom of June with Jasmine Reid, winner of the 2018 Honeysuckle Press chapbook contest and MFA candidate at Cornell. Doors open at 7:15 for our wicked popular 8:00 open mic, so come early to grab a spot to perform.

Cantab Workshop for Wednesday, May 29, 2019 with Toni Bee: Bring the Heat

Arrive in advance of tonight’s event for an early-bird workshop at the Cantab Lounge before the show. The one-hour workshop has limited space and begins at 5:30, with latecomers admitted no later than 6:00. This is a generative workshop that is open to anyone who wants to write a poem and contribute to the night’s feeling of community.

Workshop leader Toni Bee is a writer, educator, and decorated local poet and leader in the artistic community. Learn more about Toni, who will also be the featured poet for the night, at this link.

WORKSHOP DESCRIPTION: Bring the Heat!
Toni Bee will guide you in how your words choice and tone can make a room quite sweaty. Show up to learn how. We will workshop a poem / and folks will generate work and share back.

Cover charge is $5-$20 sliding scale, which includes admission to the evening show. We ask financially stable poets to consider contributing the higher end of this scale (or more) in order to defer costs for others and support this teaching artist’s generous donation of time to our space.

Due to the constraints of the venue, this workshop has limited space; room can be guaranteed to poets who identify as POC or queer. The best way to secure a spot in the workshop is to send an email.

The venue is 18+ and a photo ID is required. For more information on the night’s open mic, click here.

Cantab Feature for Wednesday, May 29, 2019: Toni Bee

Dorchester poet and Cambridge Poetry Ambassador Toni Bee. Photo courtesy of the artist.

Dorchester poet and Cambridge Poetry Ambassador Toni Bee. Photo courtesy of the artist.

Toni Bee is a poet, educator, and advocate. Raised in Dorchester and educated in Roxbury, she grew her daughter up on the other side of the bridge and became the elected 2011 Poet Populist of Cambridge, the first woman to grace that position. Bee was also the 2016 Inaugural Cambridge Poetry Ambassador. Toni has worked with youth for years and extensively with the City Spotlight teens of The Wang Theatre. The Simmons College graduate led the Black Lives Matter march in Cambridge, Mass. in 2015 in hopes of bringing awareness to the masses about the continued injustice that plagues folks of African descent. Toni Bee self published her first poetry book, 22 AGAIN, in winter 2018. Bee has also been a part of The Mass Poetry Festival in Salem & The Boston National Poetry Month Festival and she has received accolades & awards from The YWCA Cambridge.

Tonight’s event will also feature an early-bird workshop led by the feature! Doors open at 5:30 for a prompt 6:00 start for Bring the Heat!, a spring-feelings poetry-writing workshop led by Toni Bee. An additional cover charge applies: click here for more details.

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. The show is 18+ (ID required) and the cover charge is $3.

Cantab Recap for Wednesday, May 22, 2019

Shay Alexi appeared in our venue last night, fresh from Atlanta and hot in the middle of a long-haul tour, reading and performing selections from Diary of a Ghost Girl and opening their heart to a gentle and enthusiastic audience. What a sweet night! And, great news: for folks hoping for more of Shay’s work on the stage, you can catch them in Manchester, New Hampshire at Slam Free or Die tonight, May 23.

Next week: it’s the much-anticipated feature from one-time Cambridge Poet Populist Toni Bee. Toni will also be running a springtime-feelings workshop called Bring the Heat! before the show; if you can arrive before 6:00 p.m. and want to write at least one more poem in the month of May, Toni will be here to make it happen for you. See you there!

Tips from the Bar: In the Pines, In the Pines

Write about your best night of sleep. Write about your worst night of sleep.

Cantab Feature for Wednesday, May 22, 2019: Shay Alexi

Atlanta poet and NPS Group Piece Finals Champion via Art Amok: Shay Alexi. Photo by RJ Owens.

Atlanta poet and NPS Group Piece Finals Champion via Art Amok: Shay Alexi. Photo by RJ Owens.

Shay Alexi is a poet and performance artist based out of Atlanta, GA. They are the author of DIARY OF A GHOST GIRL (Glass Poetry Press, 2019). Shay’s work explores the intersections of tenderness and aggression- navigating queerness, girlhood and various forms of softness. Shay has been featured by or is forthcoming from The Rumpus, Button Poetry, Tinderbox Poetry, Write About Now, FreezeRay, and Glass, amongst others.

Shay was the winner of the 2017 Brett Elizabeth Jenkins poetry prize and the 2017 Java Monkey Slam championship. In 2018, their slam team, Art Amok, won the National Poetry Slam group piece finals. Shay was a Whitinger Scholar at Ball State University, where they earned a BFA in Acting.

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. The show is 18+ (ID required) and the cover charge is $3.

Cantab Recap for Wednesday, May 15, 2019

We did it, Cantab: eight poets hit the stage last night in the hope of achieving the first-ever 2019 Boston Poetry Slam Team, went three rounds against one another with utmost joy and professionalism, and, at last, when the dust cleared the results were in:

1. Joshua Elbaum 83.8
2. Arianna Monet 82.3
3. (tie) Terah Ehigiator 82.2
3. (tie) Zeke Russell 82.2
5. Kieran Collier
6. Myles Taylor
7. George Abraham
8. Meaghan Ford

The four top-scoring poets in bold are invited to represent the venue as the 2019 Boston Poetry Slam Team! An enormous bouquet of gratitude to each and every one of the slammers tonight: expectations are always high for team finals, and the range, craft, tenderness, and power of the work this year spoke so exceptionally to the community we aim to foster.

Thanks also to our glorious sacrifice poets, Yehya Barakat and Lip Manegio, and all-star scorekeeper Jamei Bauer. Lastly, let us not forget our important judges who sat tight (and kept the scores tight) for 100 minutes of poetry: Brandon Melendez, Roswell Seamark, Emily O, Kara, and Srimana and Namratha. Thank you to everyone for making this show possible and beautiful.

Next week: poetry rolls on! For those who missed out on the open mic this week, we have a regular-sized sign-up list coming for March 22, as well as southern-based poet and performer Shay Alexi on tour with their new book, Diary of a Ghost Girl. See you there!

Tips from the Bar: Gentrificapitalism

A title to prompt your poem:

I Live in the Capital of Everything You Love Is Gone

Cantab Feature for Wednesday, May 15, 2019: Team Selection Finals

Breaking the national mold, but refusing to break with tradition, the Boston Poetry Slam is on the cusp of selecting a four-poet team to represent the venue for 2019. After fighting through Prelims and Semis in the last two months, already requiring four pieces in competition plus a brand new poem, you can expect the eight competitors qualified for tonight to bring competitive performance, tense strategic moves, and the most finely-polished work work of the slam season.

The following poets have earned invites to the Finals show. Contingent upon their acceptance, this will be the order of the first round:

1. Meaghan Ford
2. Joshua Elbaum
3. George Abraham
4. Zeke Russell
5. Kieran Collier
6. Arianna Monet
7. Myles Taylor
8. Terah Ehigiator

Poets will each perform three poems, with a TOTAL time limit of 9 minutes. The top four poets at the end of the evening will comprise the 2019 Boston Poetry Slam Team.

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. A SHORTENED open mic begins at 8:00 and the slam begins at approximately 9:15. The show is 18+ (ID required) and the cover charge is $5.

Cantab Recap for Wednesday, May 8, 2019

What’s better than looking at the calendar and seeing you get five poetry Wednesdays in a single month? We’ve got it, and it’s definitely: getting a springtime double-barrel of features from the outgoing National slam team! This past week, 2018 NPS semi-finalist, CUPSI coach, podcast star, and Ploughshares production manager Allison Truj brought a brand-new chapbook, an intense and fun feature, and a series of bits, banter, and welcoming hilarity that sets a bar for features to come. If you missed it: we hope you had a good excuse, but you can ask Truj for a copy of her gorgeous chapbook, Fat Girl Feelings, the next time you catch her at the open mic.

This week: it’s coming! It’s really almost here! This Wednesday will mark the season’s most high-stakes slam: the eight-poet battle to see who will represent the Boston Poetry Slam on this year’s sweet-n-ultracompetitive slam team: Team Selection Finals! It’s a $5 night with a slightly shorter open mic, so come early if you want a seat and/or a chance to read, and don’t forget to bring your discerning yet unsuspecting friends along to volunteer as judges.