Based on Lisa’s instructional poem, “How to Have a Nervous Breakdown,” begin to write your own instructions… Adding a location or condition under which your breakdown occurs. The more specific, the better!
Cantab Feature for Wednesday, May 28: World Qualifier Finals
This last week of May marks the second and final night of the annual World Qualifier: the final four poems (of a six-poem series) to select the Boston Poetry Slam’s sole representative to the 2014 Individual World Poetry Slam! This year’s IWPS will take place in Phoenix, Arizona on October 9-11, and our World Qualifier slam winner will be entered into the event.
This winner-take-all competition will feature the top eight finishers from the May 7 World Qualifier Speed Slam. A four-round night, including one limit-breaking 4-minute round, will culminate in a head-to-head finals to determine who will represent the BPS in AZ!
Our roster for the show is confirmed and complete. The order of the first round will be as follows:
1. Allison Truj
2. Zeke Russell
3. Mckendy Fils-Aimé
4. Princess Chan
5. Bobby Crawford
6. Janae Johnson
7. Meaghan Ford
8. Sean Patrick Mulroy
Sacrifice poems will be presented by Nora Meiners and Marshall Gillson.
For more details, 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 Phoenix, Arizona this October.
Cantab Recap for Wednesday, May 21
Last Wednesday, we had one of the most exciting rising slammers in the country scheduled to visit us for a full feature; we’d waited for months to see Tonya Ingram hit our stage just in time for the holiday weekend. Unfortunately, Tonya’s bus had a different idea about scheduling… What to do? Well, how about following a rockin’ open mic with our nightly open slam! Eight poets who had counted on having until 11 p.m. to prepare got thrown into the mix an hour early, and each rose to the occasion in their own way. The final round came down to rookie Austin Hendricks vs. our upcoming July 9 feature Nathan Comstock; Nathan brought a fun preview of our upcoming Star Wars vs. Star Trek slam (to be scheduled in the fall) and a few already-hits, but Austin’s new work’s momentum took the high score from the first spot, giving Austin her first Cantab slam win. Congrats to Austin, and also to our many first-time slam watchers who hung out to watch the early fun.
We’d barely dropped the $10 prize on our slam winner when Tonya Ingram did finally make it all the way down to our dank little cellar. A rapt crowd cozied up to the first three rows (okay, plus a handful at the bar) for an intimate late-night feature. Tonya treated us to a wonderful selection of tried and true slam work, short pieces from her book Growl & Snare, and some exciting unpublished poems straight from her notebook. Thanks so much to everyone who stayed; if you missed it, please consider visiting Tonya at Slam Free or Die next Thursday, May 29.
Next week: we’re back with the World Qualifier Finals! The top eight poets from the May 7 slam will slam off in four rounds (whoa!), including a long-form round, to see who will represent the venue at the Individual World Poetry Slam in Phoenix this October. That means you’ll see Sean Patrick Mulroy, Meaghan Ford, Janae Johnson, Bobby Crawford, Princess Chan, Mckendy Fils-Aimé, Zeke Russell, and Allison Truj in a fight to select one ultimate winner. This slam costs $5 because it’s just that awesome, and also because it’s not cheap to ship a poet to Phoenix. See you there!
Cantab Feature for Wednesday, May 21, 2014: Tonya Ingram
Tonya Ingram, NPS 2013 Finalist from NYC.
Tonya Ingram graduated from New York University with a Bachelor’s degree in Social Justice Education Through Performance Poetry. She has been fortunate to perform at the New Amsterdam Theater on Broadway, the Cutler Majestic Theater and Berklee Performance Center in Boston, the Apollo Theater, San Francisco Opera House, and Harvey Theater at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. She is the recipient of the 2009-2010 President’s Service Award, the Lorraine Hansberry Arts, Performance, and Media Award, the 2010 New York Cares Volunteer Extraordinaire Award and the BBVA Leader of Tomorrow Award. She is also the 2011 recipient of the Cora Craig Author Award for Young Women and is working on her first book of poetry.
Tonya has represented NYU at the 2010, 2011 and 2013 College Unions Poetry Slam Invitational, and as the NYU Grand Slam Champ in 2010 and 2013. In addition, she represented herself at the New York Knicks Poetry Slam during 2010 and 2011: in 2011 she won the city-sideevent. She was a member of the 2011 Urban Word-NYC poetry slam team that placed second in the nation at the Brave New Voices International Poetry Slam Festival in San Francisco, and subsequently a member of the 2013 Nuyorican Poets Cafe Grand Slam team that placed third at this past year’s National Poetry Slam. She is currently pursuing her MFA in Public Practice.
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, May 14, 2014
May can be a puzzling time at the Boston Poetry Slam… Should you wear shorts or a sweater to our marginally climate-controlled basement? Order a beer punch or a whiskey and lager? And are your favorite open mic readers staying local or headed home for the summer? At least one piece of information was absolutely unambiguous last night at the Cantab: Sasha Banks is a fabulous writer, and our audience of short-timers and old-timers alike was won over almost instantly by her incredibly solid feature. Excellent! Our slam was a four-person affair full of regular poets pulling out a few surprises: first-time slammer Catherine Martin achieved the final round on her first try, but was defeated by just a few tenths in the final round by eventual winner Nora Meiners. Congrats to Nora, who must be thinking ahead: she’s officially our first open slammer qualified to try out for the 2015 Boston Poetry Slam team!
Thinking ahead to next week, we’ve got another excellent young writer and 2013 National Poetry Slam Finals stage performer: New Yorker Tonya Ingram returns from school in L.A. to bring us a full feature next week, plus we’ll have another open slam in this brand-new 8×8 series.
Cantab Feature for Wednesday, May 14, 2014: Sasha Banks
Sasha Banks, poet and educator from Ft. Worth.
Sasha Banks is a poet and educator from Ohio, by way of Alaska, by way of Germany, by way of California. She lives in Ft. Worth, Texas, teaching writing workshops for elementary and university level students. She has spoken for Arun Gandhi, and was a Golden Poem Award winner and performer at the 2013 National Poetry Slam. Her work has appeared in The Austin International Poetry Anthology, Kinfolks Quarterly, Tulane University’s Vagina Monologues and was awarded publication in Alight. She is a 2013 Button Poetry Chapbook Prize finalist.
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 slam in the 8×8 series will follow. The show is 18+ (ID required) and the cover charge is $3.
Cantab Feature for Wednesday, May 7, 2014: World Qualifier Speed Slam
Our nine-round speed slam series has only just drawn to a close… Which means it’s time to ramp up for the biggest speed slam of them all, the opening rounds of the World Qualifier! This two-night, six-poem series will select the Boston Poetry Slam’s sole representative to the 2014 Individual World Poetry Slam, taking place in Phoenix this October.
Night one of the World Qualifier is our annual grand speed slam: poets who have qualified in the last three 8×8 slam series will 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.
The following qualified poets have confirmed that they will compete on Wednesday, May 7 (what a list!):
- Bobby Crawford
- Marshall Gillson
- Meaghan Ford
- Melissa Newman-Evans
- Mckendy Fils-Aimé
- Sophia Holtz
- Ed Wilkinson
- Kieran Collier
- Janae Johnson
- Nora Meiners
- Allison Truj
- Zanne Langlois
- Sierra Lister
- Chris Lee
- Sean Patrick Mulroy
- Omoizele Okoawo
- Chloé Cunha
- Zeke Russell
- Princess Chan
- Ellyn Touchette
- Nathan Comstock
- Emily Carroll
- Dave McKenna
- Sacrifice poems will be performed by Tom Slavin and Catherine Martin.
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 Phoenix, Arizona this October.
Boston Poetry Slam Online