Boston Poetry Slam Team Bouts Tonight at the National Poetry Slam

Greetings from the National Poetry Slam, Cantabbers! Your Boston Poetry Slam team bouts for the first time tonight at 9pm. To follow along with the tournament, you can visit scores.poetryslam.com: you’ll find your home reps in Bout #10 vs. Chicago’s Uptown Poetry Slam, Chicago’s Mental Graffiti, and Atlanta’s Art Amok. Wish us luck!

Cantab Recap for Wednesday, July 27, 2016

Thank you, thank you, thank you to the folks who packed the house last night to make the 2016 Boston Poetry Slam Team’s last night in town the best ever! Last night’s crowd held on through a rollicking one-hour rollercoaster feature from World Qualifier winner Neiel Israel, Champion of Champions Mckendy Fils-Aimé, SlamMaster Simone Beaubien, Rookie of the Year Zeke Russell, and the soon-to-be-departed beloved bartender Bobby Crawford.

If you missed your chance to purchase the team CD, How Did You Even Find This Place, or the chapbook, ask a place to say its name, you’re not yet out of luck: there are a few remaining for $10 each, or $15 for both. Email the SlamMaster to see if one can be held (or shipped) to you.

Next week: the team might be out of town, but the show goes on! The very funny jeff taylor will be our feature, and the final open slam in the 8×8 series will go down. Excellent!

Tips from the Bar: For All Temperatures, Hot and Cold

Explain your gender using only song titles, advertising slogans, and warning labels on household products.

Cantab Feature for Wednesday, July 27: The 2016 Boston Poetry Slam Team

The 2016 Boston Poetry Slam Team is: Zeke Russell, Neiel Israel, Mckendy Fils-Aimé, Bobby Crawford, and Simone Beaubien. Photo courtesy of Marshall Goff.

The 2016 Boston Poetry Slam Team is: Zeke Russell, Neiel Israel, Mckendy Fils-Aimé, Bobby Crawford, and Simone Beaubien. Photo courtesy of Marshall Goff.

This night will mark the Cantab’s last show before the 2016 National Poetry Slam, when we send off the 2016 Boston Poetry Slam team to compete for a week in Decatur, Georgia! Neiel Israel, Zeke Russell, Mckendy Fils-Aimé, Simone Beaubien, and Bobby Crawford will have an extended feature set to bring out their top hits, one-off group pieces, and tender farewells before taking a run at the southern-based championship. It’s five all-star poets in one show, so get your requests in well before you get in line at the door! The team will have plenty of product on hand to help fundraise for their trip to NPS.

Note that we expect this to be Bobby’s last night at the Cantab before his cross-country move. Please prepare yourself accordingly.

To learn more about this year’s Boston Poetry Slam Team, click here. We’ll do our best to keep you updated here with the team’s upcoming bout schedule at the National Poetry Slam, and links to help you follow along: the bout draw will be announced in early July.

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 begins at approximately 10:00. The show is 18+ (ID required) and the cover charge is $5.

Cantab Recap for Wednesday, July 20, 2016

Glorious thanks and high-fives to everyone who came out to see the slam last night! After the dust cleared, a tight slam revealed the following standings:

  1. Providence Poetry Slam 108.9
  2. Lizard Lounge 106.9
  3. Boston Poetry Slam 106.8
  4. Slam Free or Die 104.1

Extra congratulations to Providence, who brought nuanced and important work to the stage to take a definitive win. The home team looks forward to bouting them again on August 4 at the National Poetry Slam.

SPEAKING OF THE NATIONAL POETRY SLAM: Did you know that the team will only be in town for one more week before going to Georgia for Nationals? Next Wednesday, you won’t want to miss your chance to see Neiel Israel, Zeke Russell, Mckendy Fils-Aimé, Simone Beaubien, and Bobby Crawford co-feature in an hour-long slamstravaganza. There will be fundraising chapbooks, CDs, poems on poems on poems, and, of course, your chance to wish the team well at Nats.

Tips from the Bar: tumblrnatrix Guest Prompt

With bartender Adam Stone out of the venue last night, our guest prompt was given by host and Boston Poetry Slam tumblr curator Cassandra de Alba.

True to form, Cass scoured the tiniest corners of the internet to come up with a whole passel of amazing prompts for you from Bernadette Mayer at UPenn. Here’s just one selection from the wealth of ideas at that link:

Write a series of titles for as yet unwritten poems or proses.

Cantab Feature for Wednesday, July 20, 2016: NorthBEAST Regional 4×4 Team Slam III

Boston Poetry Slam official logo, by Gary Hoare.

Boston Poetry Slam official logo, by Gary Hoare.

We come to the close of our summer of slam with the last of our three Nationals-style 4×4 matches– four teams in four rounds, the ultimate balanced format for a poetry battle of strategy, emotion, and wits. This final shot for the venue team to practice for competition at the 2016 National Poetry slam will feature three other local teams, and of course include your home team.

This third and final summertime 4×4 will pit four Nationals-bound teams against one another, including:

This show will have a slightly shortened open mic and will sell out in exactly two hot seconds, people, so we advise arriving for door time at 7:15 if you want to get in to catch the show… This will be the LAST 4×4 we’ve booked for the summer. Cover charge is $5 to help raise funds for our team to travel to Nationals in Decatur this August!

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 $5.

Cantab Recap for Wednesday, July 13, 2016

T’was a small but vocal audience at the Cantab last night, with many of our friends at the Mass Action protests downtown, but a few newcomers coming out to try their voices out loud in the room. Thomas Fucaloro did not disappoint, bringing high energy and intimate performance to the primed and listening room. The slam was a hot one, with NPS-bound Bobby Crawford eliminating Colin Killick in the final round.

Next week: it’s our final 4×4 of the summer of slam! Come hear poets from Providence, the Lizard Lounge, and Slam Free or Die take on our intrepid home team as they all prepare for their trip to the National Poetry Slam in the first week of August. Remember, it’s a $5 cover to help raise money to get our team to the competition in Decatur: bring a friend to judge and a thirst for poetry (and/or beer).

Tips from the Bar: Triple Threat

Did you notice that our recurring tipster, Adam Stone, was off duty last night? If you think that means you don’t get a prompt… Think again. Here are THREE prompts from the overachieving Cantab staff.

Adam Stone suggests: twenty-first century hints from Heloise! Write a poem about super-unusual lifehacks.

Bobby Crawford offers: unshopping, unpacking, unwaking up on time… Write a to-UNdo list.

And Gemma Cooper-Novak passes on the following Nathan Comstock suggestion: a piece of your body writes a referendum on leaving.

Summer is short, folks: better get writing!

Cantab Feature for Wednesday, July 13, 2016: Thomas Fucaloro

NYC poet Thomas Fucaloro. Photo by Kristopher Johnson.

NYC poet Thomas Fucaloro. Photo by Kristopher Johnson.

Thomas Fucaloro is an NYC poet. He has two books out by Three Rooms Press; his latest one, “It Starts from the Belly and Blooms” has received rave reviews. He has graduated with an MFA at the New School for Creative Writing. He has been on three national slam teams and was the Inspired Word’s 2012 Grand Slam Champion. He is a co-founding editor of Great Weather for Media and NYSAI press and a writing coordinator at the Harlem Children’s Zone.

Thomas was recently awarded a performance grant from the Staten Island Council of the Arts and the NYC Department. of Cultural Affairs. His new chapbook, “Mistakes Disguised as Stars,” was released in March on Tired Hearts Press, and his next chapbook, “Depression Cupcakes,” will be released in June through “Yes, Poetry.”

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.