Cantab Feature for Wednesday, November 25, 2015: Chloé Cunha

Chloé Cunha, occasional sapphic vampire, shown here performing at the 2015 Boston Poetry Slam Erotic Poetry Night. Photo by Marshall Goff.

Chloé Cunha, occasional sapphic vampire, shown here performing at the 2015 Boston Poetry Slam Erotic Poetry Night. Photo by Marshall Goff.

Chloé Cunha is a poet, screenwriter, and occasional sapphic vampire, such as in the upcoming film Blood of the Tribades (2016), or when in good company. When not dorking out about weird, surreal movies, she is probably dorking out about any number of other things, as she exists in a near-constant state of dorkiness. As a regular of the Cantab Lounge she is ecstatic to be featuring and looking forward to ordering a drink from the stage.

She once won a contest for Poetry Business Manager by writing a ghazal about Justice Antonin Scalia having a one-night stand in his voice, using many of his own words. It was truly disgusting and she is very proud of it. She has featured at BPS’ monthly queer reading Moonlighting, and her work has appeared on the Scout Cambridge website, Electric Cereal, Amethyst Arsenic, and the upcoming erasure anthology Bye-Bye Bukowski, from Hyacinth Girl Press, edited by Sarah Xerta. She is also co-host of the Encyclopedia Show Somerville.

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, November 18, 2015

Dang, but it’s been a wild two weeks at the Cantab! Just a couple of Wednesdays ago, we had the very excellent Joshua Bennett swing through and bring us an exceptionally fine set. Josh is in town for a few lucky semesters, so watch for his readings at MIT (and book him while you can!). And, actually, while you’re booking one new New Englander, you might as well think about a second: last night, we welcomed two-time Denver poet Eirean Bradley back to the Cantab stage for a paper-flinging, arm-waving, solid poem-poeming good time. Eirean is a new resident of Worcester, so you can hang with him in Wormtown while you’re checking out submissions to his press or literary magazine. What a winter it’s going to be around here!

Speaking of winter: the dead of winter is when we conduct our Team Selection Slams, and there are just a few more opportunities to qualify for those left. The most recent two were snapped up by first-time Cantab slam winner Quentin Lucas, who defeated rival venue favorite Melissa Lozada-Oliva for the spot… Then, last night, Cantab vets Meaghan Ford and Zeke Russell faced off for the ten-dollar prize, with Zeke taking top honors. A veritable murderer’s row awaits in January, slam fans!

Oh, oh, but next week: it’ll be a packed house as collegiate returnees and vacationing educators roll into the venue (and up to the bar) in droves. Expect to see some faces you’ve missed on the open mic, plus, of course, a much-awaited feature from local poet, host, and French-leaning thinker Chloé Cunha.

Cantab Feature for Wednesday, November 18, 2015: Eirean Bradley

Denver poet and 2015 NPS Finalist Eirean Bradley. Photo by Adam Rubinstein for NPS2015 and Poetry Slam, Inc.

Denver poet and 2015 NPS Finalist Eirean Bradley. Photo by Adam Rubinstein for NPS2015 and Poetry Slam, Inc.

Eirean Bradley is a two-time National Poetry Slam Finalist (and nine-time competitor) who is good at yelling at strangers in ways that get him applauded and not arrested. He believes that poetry should be done like everything else: loudly and unapologetically. He performed his poetry in all of the lower forty-eight states. He is a multiple time pushcart prize nominee, the poetry curator at Drunk in a Midnight Choir, and the author of two full-length books on University of Hell Press.

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.

Tips from the Bar: “Try Not to Just Make It About Life”

Write about a time you knew you were defeated before you even started arguing.

Cantab Feature for Wednesday, November 11, 2015: Joshua Bennett

Yonkers poet and Callaloo fellow Joshua Bennett.

Yonkers poet and Callaloo fellow Joshua Bennett.

Joshua Bennett hails from Yonkers, NY. He is a doctoral candidate in the English Department at Princeton University, and has received fellowships from the Callaloo Creative Writing Workshop, the School of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences at MIT, the Josephine de Karman Fellowship Trust, and the Ford Foundation. Winner of the 2015 National Poetry Series, his poems have been published or are forthcoming in Beloit Poetry Journal, Callaloo, the Kenyon Review, New England Review, Women & Performance: a journal of feminist theory and elsewhere.

Joshua has recited his original work at venues such as The Sundance Film Festival, The NAACP Image Awards, and President Obama’s Evening of Poetry and Music at The White House. Penguin Books will publish his first collection of poems, The Sobbing School, in 2016. He is also the founding editor of Kinfolks: a journal of black expression.

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, November 4, 2015

Happy November, Cantabbers! It might feel like spring, but it’s election season… Which means we have some of our favorite thinkers and educators taking the stage as winter draws nigh. This past Wednesday, DC slam champ, NOLA poet, and Harvard doctoral candidate Clint Smith graced our stage, giving us plenty of food for thought with the dynamism we only wish our schoolteachers had all had. Clint’s still new to town, so don’t forget that he’s available for bookings and to invite to your readings: get at him at his personal website.

Our slam, one of the last eight remaining before team qualifiers, showed off a lot of poets getting serious about competition! Chief among these were finalists Chloé Cunha and Neiel Israel. Despite Chloé possibly having slammed more poems on the Cantab stage than anyone else this year, National Poetry Slam veteran Neiel took her first ever Cantab win. What a night!

Next week: we’re back with another brilliant thinker in residence in Cambridge… It’s Joshua Bennett, UPenn slam sensation and Kinfolks founding editor. Plus, we’ll finish the night with the third slam in the current 8×8 series. See you there!

Writing Prompt: Dragons Don’t Live There

Adam Stone still hates the moon. Try this: “a way to cure the moon’s morning breath.”

Bonus MacKenzie family prompt: make use of the idea of “murderous intent.”

Moonlighting: A Queer Open Mic and Reading Series featuring Claudia Wilson on November 5, 2015

This reading is part of our monthly LGBTQ series, Moonlighting. Click here for more information about this recurring show.

The featured reader for November 5, 2015 is Claudia Wilson.

Claudia Wilson, Ohio transplant and recent grad.

Claudia Wilson, Ohio transplant and recent grad.

Claudia Wilson loves poetry and is from Cleveland/Columbus, Ohio. They recently graduated from Boston College where they studied Social Work. Claudia loves building community, listening to music, and watching Buffy The Vampire Slayer.

This show in our monthly Thursday LGBTQ series takes place at Fazenda Coffee Roasters, 3710 Washington St. in the Jamaica Plain area of Boston. An open mic begins at approximately 7:00 p.m. and the headliner follows the open mic. The show is all-ages and a $3 donation is requested.

Cantab Feature for Wednesday, November 4, 2015: Clint Smith

Harvard-via-DC poet Clint Ward Smith.

Harvard-via-DC poet Clint Ward Smith.

Clint Smith is a 2014 National Poetry Slam champion, an Individual World Poetry Slam Finalist, a Callaloo Fellow, and has served as a cultural ambassador for the U.S. Department of State. His poetry has been published or is forthcoming in Kinfolks, American Literary Review, Still: The Journal, Winter Tangerine Review, Lime Hawk, Harvard Educational Review and elsewhere. He is a recipient of the National Science Foundation’s Graduate Research Fellowship with research interests that include critical pedagogy, mass incarceration, race, and inequality. He has been profiled in The Washington Post, Vox, The Huffington Post, The Root, NBC News and the book, “American Teacher: Heroes in the Classroom” (Welcome Books, 2013). His TED Talk, The Danger of Silence, has been viewed more the 2 million times and was named one of the top 20 TED Talks of 2014. His new TED Talk, How to Raise a Black Son in America, was released in April 2015.

Currently, he is a doctoral candidate in Education at Harvard University with a concentration in Culture, Institutions, and Society (CIS). He earned a BA in English from Davidson College and is an alumnus of the New Orleans Public School System. Clint enjoys wool socks, burritos, and 3v3 pickup soccer– not necessarily all at the same time. You can visit his website or follow him on Twitter.

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 28, 2015

Last night was a cozy, sweet evening at the Cantab– a nice switch-up from our usual packed-to-the-gills house, where nearly everyone had a seat and fans of the feature trickled in slowly with the rain. The centerpiece of the night was the excellently smart Melissa Lozada-Oliva, a genuine performer and thinker who hasn’t let the title of National Poetry Slam Champion stop her from bringing her constantly evolving voice to light in her new poems.

By the time we got to slamtime, the house was full and so was the first slam in the 8×8 series! Eight poets faced off for a chance to qualify for the 2016 Boston Poetry Slam team (and maybe to take on new champ Mckendy Fils-Aimé in December). The final round came down to a ramping-up Chloé Cunha and an absolutely ruthless Nora Meiners: the audience knows they lucked out getting to hear three poems from each of these powerhouses, but an extra round of applause went to Nora for capturing the win and the ten-dollar prize.

Next week: our feature will be another National Poetry Slam Champion, DC slam sensation and Harvard doctoral candidate Clint Smith! There’ll also be another open slam in this final series of the year, so get prepped this week in time to jump in.

BUT WAIT, THE RECAP’S NOT OVER: you might have seen that we had an official photographer in the house last night to catch a visual recap of the show. Check out some stills of the show’s performances:

Thanks to BPS official photographer Rich Beaubien for these lovely photos! (Readers, please be friendly and don’t forget to apply proper credit when sharing.)