Cantab Recap for Wednesday, November 1, 2017

Success! This week, we enjoyed a fabulous All Hallows/Saints’/Souls’ slam, courtesy of director and host Cassandra de Alba. Seven pairs of poets slammed off for the dubious honor of a mysteeeeeeeeeeeeerious discount pharmacy prize, plus eternal (for real this time) glory. We are pleased to offer congratulations to the Died Young team, who, clocking in just over Medicare age, defeated the upstarts of the Died Younger team in a decisive 5-2 finish! That means Anna Binkovitz, Caroline Merrit, Jeffrey Salamone, Mara Stangl, April Penn, Zeke Russell, and George Abraham walked away with the coveted prize, leaving Austin Hendricks, Christian Arthur, Meaghan Ford, Colin Killick, Sara Mae, Chloé Cunha, and Lip McDonald to haunt the venue with their loss. Thanks for slamming, ghostly poets! And, no, you still can’t stand on the stairs.

This coming Wednesday: we welcome powerhouse craftperson and thinker Nicole Homer, who’s making us a stop on the tour for her latest book, Pecking Order from Write Bloody. A visit from Nicole is a rare treat, so act accordingly: we hope you’ll come out early and stay late for this feature with deep roots in northeastern slam.

Cantab Feature for Wednesday, November 1, 2017: The All Souls’ Slam

Some people already can’t think of anything scarier than a night at a poetry show. Why not celebrate All Souls’ Day with the world-famous Boston Poetry Slam at the Cantab Lounge? To honor the holiday, the Cantab will host a real fright fest: a dozen-odd (and we do mean odd) dead poets will present their work in honor of the season. The deceased will haunt a team-based poetry slam where members of the audience judge who is really the best of all time— at least for this year’s Halloween, All Saints’ Day, and All Souls’ season.

This slam accepted all signups in advance, so we are pleased to announce the rosters for two fight-like-your-life-depends-on-poetry teams at the All Souls’ Slam! Check it:

DIED YOUNG vs. DIED YOUNGER
Adrienne Rich vs. Sylvia Plath
Irene McKinney vs. Max Ritvo
Wanda Coleman vs. Pat Parker
Louise Bogan vs. Mark O’Brien
Robinson Jeffers vs. Robin Williams
Jack McCarthy vs. Frank O’Hara
Brigit Pegeen Kelly vs. Kurt Cobain

Oh, you want to know whose bodies these spirits will be inhabiting for the show? Hold on to your witch hats, because it’s a doozy of a roster… We’ll be welcoming the mortal coils of Zeke Russell, Anna Binkovitz, Jeffrey Salamone, Lip McDonald, George Abraham, Christian Arthur, Colin Killick, April Penn, Meaghan Ford, Sara Mae, Chloé Cunha, and even more awesome souls. Those coming to listen in are also encouraged to dress as their favorite departed poet, and the night will kick off with an open mic: bring your own dead poet if you dare!

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

Cantab Recap for Wednesday, October 25, 2017

Ah, October in New England: when the leaves turn a warm yellow-gold, then are beaten off the trees by a lashing, unseasonably warm rain… amirite? But look, no matter what kind of weather you needed shelter from, you could find it in the Cantab last Wednesday, under the protective real-world vision of our feature Claudia Wilson. Claudia brought no product, no special requests, and no ego to our little show on Wednesday: they sat in the front row for our sweet and friendly open mic, packed with first-timers, and then rocked our worlds gently and firmly with their deeply personal, thoroughly true narratives of childhood. Our thanks go out to Claudia for just the feature we needed this autumn night.

After the feature, we rolled right into our other feature: the Champion of Champions slam! RebeccaLynn was geared up to defend her long-held title against eight seven attending challengers, including last week’s on-a-roll slam winner Lucas Dean, and she showed how little she was planning to hold back with a blistering intro in the sacrifice round. Slammers were dropping left and right until the final round, pitting two NPS 2017 attendees against one another: Meaghan Ford and Zeke Russell. True to his Master Plan(TM), Zeke took the win in the final round to achieve the Season Championship, leaving him just one poem away from the yet-unachieved venue trifecta of World Qualifier Champ, top Team Selection Slams scorer, and Champion of Champions. The final, head-to-head, new-poem-only round between Zeke and RebeccaLynn was one for the ages, but, when the dust cleared, RebeccaLynn stood triumphant, driving any other title-collection bids back into the shadows. Congratulations to both our Champ RebeccaLynn (who, don’t forget, features for us on December 6) and Good Sport Zeke, who we are certain have not met in slam for the last time.

Next week: it’s a slameriffic All Souls Day! Bring your favorite dead poet to life on our stage: sorry, no seances allowed, you’ll have to get in character instead… You’re invited to costume up (but you gotta be decent, people) and perform in character at the All Souls’ Slam! Producer Cassandra de Alba is still taking sign-ups, so click here to learn more and sign up, or just come to our open mic with a poet from behind the veil you’d like to share.

Tips from the Bar: The Russell de Alba Prompt

Write a poem in which a ghost appears and does not hurt you in any way.

Cantab Feature for Wednesday, October 25, 2017: Claudia Wilson and the Champion of Champions Slam

Poet and social worker Claudia Wilson.

Poet and social worker Claudia Wilson.

Claudia M. Wilson is a poet and social worker who lives and plays in Boston, Mass. They have featured at various venues in Ohio and Boston such as Writers’ Block, Moonlighting, and the Grudge Match at Oberon. Claudia’s present work in progress is a collection of poems about family history and coming of age in foster care while living in Cleveland, Ohio. They work actively to build black and queer community spaces (most recently) by playing board games.

Claudia studied English & Black Literature at The Ohio State University and is a TWH and VONA graduate. Claudia is an avid Game of Thrones watcher and Buffy the Vampire Slayer fan. Their current favorite video games are Mario Kart and Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood.

Tonight also marks the final night in our current 8×8 poetry slam series! Following the feature, eight slam winners will slam off for the season championship and the opportunity to challenge RebeccaLynn, the current reigning Champion of Champions, in a head-to-head elimination 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 feature performs at approximately 10:00. An open poetry slam in the 8×8 series will follow. The show is 18+ (ID required) and the cover charge is $3.

Tip from the Bar: The Not Your Average Herbie Prompt

Write a poem about the weirdest thing that has ever happened to you involving a car.

Cantab Feature for Wednesday, October 18, 2017: Zenaida Peterson

Top national slammer and FEMS curator Zenaida Peterson.

Top national slammer and FEMS curator Zenaida Peterson.

Zenaida is a fire starter, a southern green witch and a queer of color who likes the wind chimes outside her window and giving rocks to people they love. Zenaida has competed in four collegiate and national poetry competitions placing in the top ten each time. Most recently Zenaida was on the House Slam team placing third nationally and is organizing the Feminine Empowerment Movement Slam, the first slam tournament for feminine people. Zenaida believes the softness and floral of people is silenced too often. They also believe everything they hear so you shouldn’t lie to them. Zenaida unwrites the lies they’ve been given. Zenaida also unwrites violence, misogyny, racism and their ancestors’ curses.

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 poetry slam in the 8×8 series will follow. The show is 18+ (ID required) and the cover charge is $3.

Cantab Recap for Wednesday, October 11, 2017

Hope you had a happy National Coming Out Day, poets! We had a gloriously good open mic last night, full of good surprises and solid supportive humans. Our blow-the-top-off-the-room feature was Robbie Dunning of Northampton, who brought a selection of the work that over the years has made their name as a tender thinker, a self-alert humorist, and a compelling crafter of narrative. If you missed your chance to grab their chapbook or one of those extremely important bottlecap magnets everyone is talking about, you can still hit Robbie up on Twitter and get your life right.

Our open slam was a four-poet affair (this has been the lucky number for at least as many weeks) featuring a selection of poets with an intimidating amount of late-night slam experience. The final round came down to 2017 Boston Poetry Slam teammates Mckendy Fils-Aimé vs. Myles Taylor, who pulled no punches in fighting for the #1 spot while teammate Zeke was out of town! Mckendy took home the $10, leaving Myles (and you) just nine more slams to qualify for Team Selection Slams in January.

Can’t get enough slam this week? That must be because you can feel the ripples of the Individual World Poetry Slam in Spokane, Washington, all the way over on this side of the country. To follow scores for our representative to the event, Zeke Russell, plus local NorthBEAST favorites like Sara Mae, Catherine Weiss, and Jelal Huyler, check out the SCORES LINK HERE.

Next week at the Cantab: it’s our final open poetry slam in the 8×8, with a headliner from FEMS organizer Zenaida Peterson! If you still have more to learn about the Feminine Empowerment Movement Slam, come hear the powerful work of the leader of this fem-forward movement.

Tips from the Bar: Don’t Go In the Basement, It’s Kind of Dusty

Write a horror narrative about something that isn’t really horrific, just bothersome or annoying.

Cantab Feature for Wednesday, October 11, 2017: Robbie Dunning

Robbie Dunning performs at Easthampton's Pulp Slam. Photo by Christopher Clauss.

Robbie Dunning performs at Easthampton’s Pulp Slam. Photo by Christopher Clauss.

Robbie Dunning is a poet, performer and deluxe jellyfish living in Northampton, Mass. They also spend a lot of time doing graphic design and petting their very needy cat. Originally hailing from rural Virginia, Robbie spent much of their youth singing to the cows in the field next door and writing very telling science fiction stories about men with their shirts off.

Robbie competed in the 2015, 2016 and 2017 National Poetry Slams as well as the 2016 Individual World Poetry Slam, all representing Northampton. You can find their work through SlamFind, Voicemail Poems, and the SlamChop podcast.

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 poetry slam in the 8×8 series will follow. The show is 18+ (ID required) and the cover charge is $3.