Local published poet and formidable slammer torrin a. greathouse. Photo courtesy of the artist.
torrin a. greathouse is a genderqueer trans womxn & cripple-punk haunting the greater Boston area. She is the author of boy/girl/ghost (TAR Chapbook Series, 2018) & winner of the Peseroff Poetry Prize, Palette Poetry Prize, & the Naugatuck River Narrative Poetry Prize. Their work is published/forthcoming in POETRY, The New York Times, Poem-a-Day, Muzzle, Redivider, BOAAT, & The Rumpus. When she is not writing, her hobbies include awkwardly drinking coffee at parties & trying to find some goddamn size 13 heels.
An open poetry slam is scheduled for the late-night portion of this show, following the feature. The slam will be speed slam format: eight open sign-ups will be available starting at door time, and poets will slam head-to-head in up to three rounds with time limits of 3-, 2-, and 1-minute. Winner and runner-up qualify for the 2019 Team Selection Slams. To volunteer to judge in exchange for free admission to the show, or to ask questions about the slam, email the slam curator at slamseries@bostonpoetryslam.com.
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, with an open poetry slam to follow. The show is 18+ (ID required) and the cover charge is $3.
Arrive in advance of tonight’s CUPSI Warm-Up 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 Sophia Holtz is a writer, performer, and sometimes-illustrator who has been a member of the Cantab open mic community since Hampshire College CUPSI days. You can learn a little more about the workshop leader here.
Description from the workshop leader: “Fuck-ups!(?): the goal of this generative workshop is to examine and mess with your writing patterns. We will talk about kinds of discomfort & Stravinsky, and write some experiments.”
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 and slam, click here.
Warm up for college nationals with the Cantab! Photo courtesy of ACUI.
The annual collegiate national poetry slam tournament is the driving performative force behind a good number of the Cantab’s regular readers and listeners. This year, slammers will convene at the University of Houston for the annual College Unions Poetry Slam Invitational. To help our town favorites gear up for the big competition, we’ll be offering the CUPSI Warm-Up, a team slam featuring locals in a nationals-style event, incorporating all the collegiate regulations, poetry, and intensity of competition we’ve come to expect from CUPSI.
The night’s slam will feature poets from Emerson College, Wellesley College, Smith College, Northeastern University, and Lesley University! It’s (just some of) the future of slam, folks: bring your fight songs, flags, and/or tough, objective judging faces to help these poets prepare for their national tournament in April. Prospective judges are also invited to email; judges who sign up in advance of the show will enjoy complimentary admission.
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 slam begins at approximately 10:00. The show is 18+ (ID required) and the cover charge is $3.
Heck yeah, Cantabbers: thanks to everyone who squeezed into the house this past week for a(n expectedly glorious) feature set from locally-based writer and educator Krysten Hill. Krysten presented a selection of already-published work from her book and other sources, but also an elegant and exciting selection of new poems, questions to ponder, and her trademark quick-witted banter. Our brightest and most heartfelt thanks to this poet for closing out our February series.
Next week: it’s one of our most high-energy events of the year as we welcome the CUPSI Warm-Up to the Cantab stage! The featured event will be a five-team collegiate slam for local nationals-bound teams: Lesley, Northeastern, Smith, Wellesley, and Emerson will go four rounds in a winner-take-bragging rights celebration of rising New England slam talent.
Decorated Boston-based poet Krysten Hill. Photo by Jonathan Beckley.
Krysten Hill is an educator, writer, and performer who has showcased her poetry on stage at The Massachusetts Poetry Festival, Blacksmith House, Merrimack College, U35 Reading Series, and many others. She received her MFA in poetry from UMass Boston where she currently teaches. Her work can be found or is forthcoming in apt, Word Riot, The Baltimore Review, B O D Y, Muzzle, PANK, Winter Tangerine Review, Take Magazine and elsewhere. She is the recipient of the 2016 St. Botolph Club Foundation Emerging Artist Award. Her chapbook, How Her Spirit Got Out, received the 2017 Jean Pedrick Chapbook Prize, and can be purchased through Aforementioned Productions. Visit the author at krystenhill.com.
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.
Did you hear? Our feature this week, Claudia Wilson, arrived at our venue with hotly printed books from in-town press Game Over in tow: Claudia’s compiled work from her time in Amherst and Boston comes together in her full length-collection, Grown, that she combined with new work to share from the stage this week. Missed your chance to come support? Here’s your solution: you can order the book here to support this lauded local artist.
Next week: February rolls on with the most excellent Krysten Hill, dynamic reader and author of How Her Spirit Got Out. Krysten’s work always draws a crowd, so you might want to plan on an early arrival if you want a seat for this week’s headliner!
Join Claudia M. Wilson, the night’s scheduled feature, for an early-bird poetry 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 revision workshop and anyone who wants to bring a poem of their own to edit and contribute to the workshop environment is welcome. Description from the workshop leader:
“Revision is making the poem become more itself.” —Audre Lorde
What are the default words that you use in your poems? What are the words that do the most work and words that do not? What words are used anyway when you feel you have run out of options? We’ll look at the poems of Gary Soto, Carolyn Forche, and Lucille Clifton to form and refine our framework. We’ll look at drafts of our own work and then look at words that are doing the most work. We’ll also look for words that are not. Under these guidelines, we’ll linger on what our poems become when we make these choices. Can they become themselves?
*This workshop requires that you bring: one draft of your own work for revision, a pen, something to write on, kindness for yourself and your peer, and full attire cause it’s cold in these streets.
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. Please note that no one who desires to write and contribute to the community of the workshop will be turned away for lack of funds!
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 be sure there is room in the workshop for you is to directly email the series curator.
The venue is 18+ and a photo ID is required. For more information on the night’s open mic, slam, and feature from Claudia, click here.
Boston Poetry Slam Online