Cantab Recap for Wednesday, May 13, 2015

The results of our fourteen-poet super-grand speed slam are in! After just three minutes of poetry (in two poems) each, standings are as follows:

1. Janae Johnson 54.5
2. Sean Patrick Mulroy 53.1
3. Kylie Noelle 51.3
4. Meaghan Ford 50.9
5. Nora Meiners 50.5
6. Zeke Russell 50.3
7. Mckendy Fils-Aimé 50.2
8. Sam Mercer 49.7
9. Ed Wilkinson
10. Zanne Langlois
11. Bobby Crawford
12. Nathan Comstock
13. Emily Carroll
14. Chloé Cunha

Poets in bold have qualified to slam in the June 10 World Qualifier Finals, with poets in italics invited to sacrifice for that show. Congratulations to all, and special thanks to sacrifices Marshall Gillson and Adam Stone, as well as our five not-even-surprisingly-consistent judges: Eric & Nicole, Elliot, Evan, Alex Hicks, and Ashley Truj.

This coming Wednesday: the slam don’t stop, folks. First, our feature will be NPS 2014 Finalist Anthony Ragler from NYC; the night will close out with our springtime Champion of Champions SPEED slam, where Sean Patrick Mulroy defends his long-running title. See you there!

Tips from the Bar: The Blind Assassin Prompt

You have a photograph of a meaningful moment. What’s just outside the frame?

Cantab Feature for Wednesday, May 13, 2015: World Qualifier Speed Slam

Our annual run of eight wildly and rapid speed slams winds down in May, folks, which means it’s time to ramp up for even more speed slam action: the World Qualifier series, a two-night, six-poem series to select the Boston Poetry Slam’s sole representative to the Individual World Poetry Slam! This year’s IWPS will take place in Washington, D.C. in October, and our World Qualifier slam winner will be entered into the event.

Night one of the World Qualifier will be our annual grand speed slam: a huge field of poets compete in a lightning-fast two-round slam using ONLY 2- and 1-minute poems. That means lots of new work performed by your favorite slam winners from the past year! Top scorers move on to Finals at the end of the month.

Want to see who’s qualified? Click here for the full list of speed slam invitees. You can also check out the full rules and format for the World Qualifier Series.

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. An slightly shortened 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; proceeds will go toward funding the World Qualifier winner’s trip to IWPS in DC this October.

Cantab Recap for Wednesday, May 6, 2015

Springtime, Cantabbers! Thanks so much for everyone who came out to see SlamMaster Emeritus Michael Brown upon his warm-weather awakening from Down East Maine hibernation. Michael worked the room with a smattering of old and new work, weaving together a bit of history for us on a sweet spring night. The four-person Last Chance Slam was won by Simone, who, despite the protestations of host Sean Mulroy, mathematically outranked Mckendy Fils-Aimé in the one minute-round of doom.

Next week: you might not know it, but you have been waiting for World Qualifier Speed Slam all year! More than two dozen of your favorite poets are qualified to slam… But they’ll have to come up with one- and two-minute poems to do it in this battle royale of wicked short poems. Come see one of our most creative events of the year– and root for your favorite eight to move on to the World Qualifier Finals in June.

Tips from the Bar: The Thomas Edison Prompt

Presented without comment: a link to creepy 1800’s doll audio.

Moonlighting: A Queer Open Mic and Reading Series on May 7, 2015 — Benefit for the Boston Dyke March!

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

The featured reader for May 7, 2015 is a round robin feature of fantastic ladies slinging poems on behalf of the Boston Dyke March! See below for the feature list, and be sure to get there early to snag a spot on the open mic.

As yet another bonus, Mad Femme Pride will be hosting a pre-show salon and workshop at 6:30PM.

A little more about your features:

JANAE JOHNSON is a Stevie Wonder-loving, Jamba Juice-sipping, slampoet, educator, and activist in the Boston area. Janae is the reigning Women of the World PoetrySlam Champion and was the grand slam champion of the 2014 Boston Poetry Slam Team. She is the founder/coach/advisor for the nationally ranked Simmons College (Speaks) Poetry Slam team.

SARAH LYNN HERKLOTS is a Performance Poet who believes in poetry and performance as tools for transformation and healing. Sarah represented Portland, ME in the 2012 Women of the World Poetry slam where she placed in the top 15. She has been published by Moon Pie Press in the anthology “Passion and Pride: Poets supporting Equality”, Nin Journal and by Resurgo Magazine.

CHLOE CUNHA is a poet and screenwriter, and an incoming host of the Encyclopedia Show Boston. She first discovered a love for poetry at Bar 13’s louderARTS while living in NYC. Though she deeply misses the constant throb of panicked sirens and the bevy of skunky dives, she is happy to have since moved back to her native hometown of Cambridge, MA.

CASSANDRA EUPHRAT WESTON is a poet and cheesecake enthusiast who performs as one half of the poetry duo About That Elephant. Emojis are among her favorite hobbies.

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 salon/workshop begins at approximately 6:30 p.m. with an open mic to follow at 7:00 p.m. The four-poet feature will follow the open. The show is all-ages and a $3 donation is requested.

Cantab Feature for Wednesday, May 6, 2015: Michael Brown

Michael Brown, founding SlamMaster, reads his own work from the Cantab anthology. Photo by Marshall Goff.

Michael Brown, founding SlamMaster, reads his own work from the Cantab anthology. Photo by Marshall Goff.

Michael R. Brown has published poetry, fiction, travel articles and columns in wide-ranging periodicals all over the world: his fourth book of poetry, The Confidence Man, was published in 2006 by Ragged Sky. Brown holds a Ph.D. in English and Education from the University of Michigan, and for 46 years he taught at high schools and universities from the South Side of Chicago to South Korea.

Since 1989, Brown has been active in poetry slams, performing in Europe as well as North America. For thirteen years, he hosted the Boston Poetry Slam at the Cantab Lounge and he appears in the film SlamNation. He is co-producer of The Culture of Peace, an international exhibit of art and poetry organized under the UN mandate for a decade of the Culture of Peace. He was general secretary of the Poetry Olympics, first held in Stockholm in 1998. He produced and directed Dr. Brown’s Traveling Poetry Show, a theatrical poetry ensemble.

After moving to Down East Maine in 2007, Brown and his partner Valerie Lawson have begun a monthly reading series and taken over the poetry journal Off the Coast. For a while, he covered the Passamaquoddy reservation and county health issues for the local newspaper. Now he is working on several books while he directs and performs with Stage East, the community theater at the Eastport Arts Center.

Note that tonight’s last chance poetry slam is a speed slam with 3-, 2-, and 1-minute rounds. Slam winners qualify for the 2015 World Qualifier.

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

Cantab Recap for Wednesday, April 29, 2015

Just so you know, Cantabbers: sometimes, when we say a reading was “intimate,” we don’t mean that nobody was in the room. We mean that the feature held us in the palm of his hand as though we were the only bar in the world, and his the only poems that mattered. Hanif Willis-Abdurraqib did just that for us last night, bringing us relief and renewed energy to take on the events of the week with broadened perspective and better language. What a beautiful and necessary night.

Our last speed slam of the series was a wild ride, finalizing in Mill City death match between Bobby Crawford and Zeke Russell. In this case, the student surpassed the master: Bobby escaped the one-minute round with ten dollars and the last spot in the May 20 Champion of Champions Slam.

Next week, our co-founder, now a resident of Onset, Maine, returns to the scene of the crime: please come welcome back SlamMaster Emeritus Michael Brown. Our speed slam will be the very last of the season, and the Last Chance Slam to qualify for the World Qualifier Speed Slam on May 13.

Tips from the Bar: Song of Yourself

Write a poem critique of another piece of art: poem, song, photograph, dance, street sign, drunken rant, etc.

Cantab Feature for Wednesday, April 29, 2015: Hanif Willis-Abdurraqib

Columbus-gone-Connecticut poet Hanif Willis-Abdurraqib.

Columbus-gone-Connecticut poet Hanif Willis-Abdurraqib.

Hanif Willis-Abdurraqib is a poet, writer, and dessert enthusiast from Columbus, Ohio. He is the author of Sons of Noah, a chapbook forthcoming from Tired Hearts Press, and the editor of Again I Wait For This To Pull Apart, an anthology forthcoming from Freezeray Press. His work has been published in Radius, Stirring, Muzzle, Vinyl, joINT, Borderline, and various other journals. He has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize, and his poem “Hestia” won the 2014 Capital University poetry prize. He wants to talk to you about the Cincinnati Bengals and your top 5 albums.

Note that tonight’s open poetry slam is a speed slam with 3-, 2-, and 1-minute rounds. Slam winners qualify for the 2015 World Qualifier.

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