Cantab Feature for Wednesday, March 6, 2019: CUPSI Warm-Up

Warm up for college nationals with the Cantab! Photo courtesy of ACUI.

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.

Cantab Recap for Wednesday, February 27, 2019

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.

Tips from the Bar: What Fresh Grocery Hell

Wander your local supermarket (recommended: pick one where you don’t have to cross a picket line) and find a flavor you think is fucked up. Orange vanilla cola? Watermelon sandwich cookies? Cucumbers? Whatever: describe it. Now explain.

Cantab Feature for Wednesday, February 27, 2019: Krysten Hill

Decorated Boston-based poet Krysten Hill. Photo by Jonathan Beckley.

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.

Cantab Recap for Wednesday, February 20, 2019

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!

Tips from the Bar: Cellar Door Prompt

As part of Claudia Wilson’s workshop this evening, participants were asked to name their favorite word, or favorite word of the moment. A two-pronged prompt:

Use your favorite word of the moment to prompt a poem, but don’t use that word

or

Ask someone else for their favorite word, and write a poem that supports or refutes their choice.

Additional inspiration: a quote from J.R.R. Tolkien on the words “cellar door.”

Cantab Workshop for Wednesday, February 20, 2019 with Claudia M. Wilson

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.

Cantab Feature for Wednesday, February 20, 2019: Claudia M. Wilson

MFA student, teacher, and Game Over Books author Claudia M. Wilson. Photo courtesy of the artist.

MFA student, teacher, and Game Over Books author Claudia M. Wilson. Photo courtesy of the artist.

Claudia M. Wilson is a poet, instructor, and social worker who lives and plays in Amherst, MA. They have featured at various venues in Ohio & Boston such as Writer’s Block, Fazenda Queer Reading, & Oberon. Claudia’s present work in progress centers embodiment, familial relationships, blackness and living in the woods, and WWF wrestlers from the mid-80’s. They do creative community play in two collectives: the Mass Collective and the Black Girl Slumber Party Collective. Claudia studied English & Black Literature at The Ohio State University and is a TWH & VONA graduate. Their forthcoming chapbook GROWN is published through Game Over Books Press and is about Claudia’s time in foster care. They study poetry at Umass Amherst and they live in the woods with their cat Pablo a.k.a Lil Pooder a.k.a Pooderbutt. Claudia is an avid watcher of Game of Thrones, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and Westworld. They are originally from Cleveland & Columbus, Ohio.

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, February 13, 2019

Drama! Heartbreak! Masquerade! Not having to get a stupid dinner reservation for two people at a stupid restaurant! Thanks to everyone who came out this past week for the best non-holiday-eve ever, as the Lovers and the Leavers slammed off in a head-to-head Totally Not Fixed poetry slam hosted by a decidedly objective Zeke Russell. In true Cantab fashion, some of our finest Lovers showed up to sweep their matchups, but the crowd’s will for the Leavers was strong. Congratulations to everybody, seriously everybody, who wrote a new poem in the very middle of February to make this an exceptional night.

February rolls on, of course, and it’s all really good. This week, the Boston Poetry Slam is exceptionally pleased to present Claudia M. Wilson as our Wednesday headliner; Claudia will be swinging in from Amherst with their new chapbook, GROWN, totally hot off the presses to share with you. Poets interested in a revision workshop with Claudia should plan to arrive early for the show: please see our workshop event details to join in.

Cantab Feature for Wednesday, February 13, 2019: NO ROMANCE Open Mic and the Lovers vs. Leavers Slam

For Valentine’s Day this year, the Boston Poetry Slam will not offer a specific Erotic Open Mic for the Wednesday closest to the “holiday;” instead, the reading presents a NO ROMANCE open mic, at which the one-off stylings of would-be Casanovas shall be soundly mocked. Proper erotica (note that “consent” is a non-negotiable component of erotica), fanfic/shipping, or professions of aromantic love to your best friend, dog, or favorite comfy sweater will be warmly welcomed. Bingo cards (good for nearly valueless prizes) will be offered to those audience members parties interested in ensuring the success of the No Romance rule.

Of course, if you’ve got the sensible stamina to last the open mic, then you’ll want to stick around for the high-stakes poetry slam thereafter: romantics clash with realists/believers with cynics/rose gardeners with thorn-gatherers in the head-to-head Lovers vs. Leavers poetry slam. The following poets will appear (order will be randomized):

LOVERS TEAM LEAVERS TEAM TOPIC
Capt. Joshua Elbaum Capt. Meaghan Ford “Peach Emoji”
Mugs Myers Natalie Florescu “No Scrubs”
Emily Duggan James Merenda “Send Nudes”
Chloé Cunha Katya Zinn “First Date”
Becca Mackenzie Thea Harris “Silent Movie”
Kieran Collier Myles Taylor “Rearranging Deck Chairs on the Titanic”
Amy Mevorach Charlotte Charlie “Just in Time”
sac: Truj sac: Cali Stenson “Rock Bottom”

This poetry slam will be hosted by cynical lover and lover of cynicism Zeke Russell. Prospective judges of any allegiance are encouraged to email slamseries@bostonpoetryslam.com to get free admission in exchange for scoring the slam.

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 the slam will follow at approximately 10:00. The show is 18+ (ID required) and the cover charge is $3.