Cantab Recap for Wednesday, January 13, 2016

Official results from last night’s Team Selection Preliminaries are in, folks!

The top six poets have qualified to move on to Semi-Finals on February 17:
1. Bobby Crawford 58.1
2. JR Mahung 57.4
3. Neiel Israel 56.6
4. Simone Beaubien 56.2
5. Marshall Gillson 55.9
6. Joshua Elbaum 55.8
7. Colin Killick
8. Adam Stone

Congratulations to our finishers! Special thanks go to our intrepid judges: Ron, Nina, Chanell, Caitlin, and Andrew, as well as our very excellent host, Porsha Olayiwola.

Next Wednesday, six more poets will qualify for Semi-Finals in the second heat of the Team Selection Slam Preliminaries. Click the link to see the roster and don’t forget to pack a $5-spot: it’ll be another fundraiser to help send the eventual 2016 team to the National Poetry Slam in Georgia.

Cantab Feature for Wednesday, January 13, 2016: Team Selection Preliminaries (First Heat)

The Cantab’s Team Selection Slams have always been the venue’s biggest, wildest poetry slams of the season. For 2016, the venue will split the rowdy preliminary slam into two separate sessions, with this event being the first prelim pool of two: the rest of the field will compete at the January 20 event. The top six poets after two poems each will meet the top poets from the second heat at the Semi-Finals on February 17.

The following poets will compete tonight (order TBD):

  • Simone Beaubien
  • Neiel Israel
  • JR Mahung
  • Adam Stone
  • Joshua Elbaum
  • Marshall Gillson
  • Bobby Crawford
  • Colin Killick

  • Sacrifice poets: 1. Anna Binkovitz, 2. RebeccaLynn Gualtieri

Host: Porsha Olayiwola
Bout Manager: Tom Slavin, Scorekeeper: Jamei Bauer

Team Selection Slams are a three-session affair for Cantab poets, with the top five poets after seven rounds comprising the venue’s National Poetry Slam Team. The 2016 Boston Poetry Slam Team will travel to the National Poetry Slam in Decateur, Georgia 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. A SHORTENED open mic begins at 8:00 and the slam begins at approximately 9:30. The show is 18+ (ID required) and the cover charge is $5; proceeds will go toward funding the National Poetry Slam in August.

Cantab Recap for Wednesday, January 6, 2016

Is it 2016 already? Have we already said goodbye to 2015, including our beloved 2015 Boston Poetry Slam Team? Okay, very well, time marches on… But first: for our last show with the reigning team, we were extra-proud to present long-time Cantab regular, team favorite, and *temporary* New York City resident Sophia Holtz! Sophia’s set was an intense, poetry-packed half-hour of nearly all new work from her program, including a selection of beautiful new hand-made, hand-numbered chapbooks. The house was packed, so if you’re reading this, chances are you were there– and can hold this in your heart as a “remember when” for later years when Sophia’s too big to hope to fit all her fans in our bar.

The night finished up with the Last Chance Slam, a last chance (obvs) for eight poets to try to sneak into tryouts for the 2016 Boston Poetry Slam Team. Poets came from far and wide to compete, with the finals coming down to the uncasual personal work of Angelica Aguilera vs. the performative political poems of Colin Killick. Colin took the top score in the final pairing, making him the two! time! back-to-back! champion! of the Last Chance Slam.

Colin’s invited back to slam NEXT WEEK, by the way: that’ll be the first heat of the Team Selection Slams, where we winnow the field to see who survives to Semi-Finals in February. Our Last Chance Slam winner joins Adam Stone, Bobby Crawford, Josh Elbaum, JR Mahung, Marshall Gillson, Neiel Israel, and Simone Beaubien in a two-round elimination slam hosted by 2015 IWPS champ Porsha Olayiwola. Remember that we’ll have a special $5 cover that night to raise funds to send the team to the 2016 National Poetry Slam in Decatur, Georgia!

Tips from the Bar: Three-Word Prompt

“Mail-Order Groom.”

Good luck!

Cantab Feature for Wednesday, January 6, 2016: Sophia Holtz and the Last Chance Slam

2015 BPS team member and NYU MFA candidate Sophia Holtz.

2015 BPS team member and NYU MFA candidate Sophia Holtz.

Sophia Holtz is a writer, performer, and sometimes-illustrator. She has featured in bars, colleges, and the occasional basement throughout the United States, and was a member of the 2015 Boston Poetry Slam team. Her work has appeared glitterMOB, decomP, H_NGM_N, and other journals. She received her BA from Hampshire College, and is a current MFA candidate at NYU. Find her at sophiaholtz.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 Last Chance Slam, the final open poetry slam to qualify for the 2016 Team Selection Slams, will follow. The show is 18+ (ID required) and the cover charge is $3.

Cantab Recap for Wednesday, December 30, 2015

Happy old year, Cantabbers! Last night was an excellent celebration of everything we’ve done for 2015… Some familiar faces came out to visit the open mic, plus a few first-timers hit the stage already itching to make a name for themselves in the venue. What a fun night! Our feature, Sam Rush, brought the house down with a fabulously interesting feature: well-crafted and well-performed, Sam’s work took on topics from the sacred to the mundane, and their easy patter and (surprise!) banjo skills yanked on the heartstrings of everyone in the room. Can you think of a better way to close out the calendar year? Or a better resolution for 2016: keep up with more local artists like Sam Rush on Facebook so you know when art’s coming to your town.

After the open mic and feature, of course, we slam: this final slam of 2015 also marked the Champion of Champions slam for the fall season! Venue veterans Nora Meiners and Bobby Crawford faced off in the final, with Bobby making it his business to bring the funny and ride it all the way to the season championship title. Reigning champ Mckendy Fils-Aimé was unsurprised to see Bobby coming for him in the new poem round, however: the two recent teammates went heads-up with brand-new work in front of a selection of some of the harshest judges we’ve seen in months… And with a final score of 3-2, Mckendy retained his title, took the $100, and walks into January’s Team Selection Slams as the #1 seed.

That’s right, you heard it here: Team Selection slams are coming! With our first rounds taking place on January 13 and January 20, there’s only ONE LAST CHANCE to qualify to try out for the team… And it’s next week, January 6 of the very newest new year. Yes, we’ll have an open mic and and open slam, and in between those two we’ll welcome back 2015 slam team member Sophia Holtz for a full-blown feature.

Tips from the Bar: Worst Allston Xmas Ever

A giant squid goes apartment hunting.

Write a persona poem: consider taking on the voice of the squid, or the realtor, or the downstairs neighbor, or perhaps the prospective apartment itself.

Cantab Feature for Wednesday, December 30, 2015: Sam Rush and the Champion of Champions Slam

New Hampshire poet Sam Rush. Photo by Simon Sarris.

New Hampshire poet Sam Rush. Photo by Simon Sarris.

Sam Rush was raised in South Florida, but now makes poems and songs in and around New Hampshire. Sam got to writing poems after developing progressive hearing loss as a teenager and noticing how many words each word could be. Sam represented the venue Slam Free or Die in the 2014 and 2015 National Poetry Slams and the 2014 and 2015 Women of the World Poetry Slams (WOWPS), performing on Finals stage at WOWPS 2015. They have had work featured in Snacks, Drunk in a Midnight Choir, Alight: The Best Loved Poems of WOWPS 2014, and on Button Poetry, and are the author of chapbooks I meant to say glory and Halleluia or bedbug language for it. Sam currently directs programs at Friends Forever, a non-profit focused on empowering youth from cultures in conflict.

Tonight also marks the final night in our current 8×8 poetry slam series! Eight slam winners will slam off for the season championship and the opportunity to challenge the reigning Champion of Champions, Mckendy Fils-Aimé.

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

Cantab for Wednesday, December 23, 2015: NO SHOW TONIGHT

No poetry show tonight! Enjoy a night off and come see us with your new work at our next show on December 30, 2015.

Please see our upcoming shows page for the schedule:
http://bostonpoetryslam.com/see-a-show/weekly-show/upcoming-features-and-slams

Cantab Recap for Wednesday, December 17, 2015

Last night: Lauren Yates! Heavens to Mergatroyd, poetry fans, some of y’all did not see Lauren Yates coming. Did you know this very smart poet lives only six hours south of us in Philly? Did you know that she is powering through poems there at The Fuze slam and kicking ass/taking names all over the country? Well, heck, if you didn’t know, now you know: Lauren took us through an incredibly well-crafted, thoughtful, well-turned and exquisitely presented feature last night. What a lovely last treat before our brief winter break.

Our slam, by the way, was a barrage of fiery fire flames: with Team Selection Slams coming up in January, there are only a few slim chances to qualify to try out for the team! Last night’s glorious winner was Manvir, who surprised the slam and the room by jumping into the fray. (Manvir defeated Sean Patrick Mulroy for the win, by the way… Which means we can make Sean host for the upcoming championship slam. Everyone wins!)

Remember, folks: there’s NO SHOW NEXT WEEK ON WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 23, 2015. But it’s cool, it’s cool: we are back with a doubly-amazing show to finish out the year on December 30. You should join us to see a feature from Manchester’s own Sam Rush and what promises to be a remarkable Champion of Champions slam, where reigning champ Mckendy Fils-Aimé will have to defend his title against the eight scrappiest (we mean feistiest [actually we mean motherloving talented!!]) slammers the season has to offer. Don’t miss it!