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Open Mic Highlights
12/30/25
• Our regular Worcester contingent had Bailey rattling off several sonnets in 3 minutes, and the actual/bonus last time on the mic from Ember before they move out of town!
• “My father’s anger is an expensive palette / with more silence than I can afford / he does not speak my language” – Hallie C
• Sophie’s ode to the red dress that saved their life, and Edie C’s “If life is an escape room…”
• The way famous literary authors seem to constantly visit Nick Roberts’ poems. You are never more than stanza away from a Kafka or John Donne cameo!
• John’s Rick Astley-themed Golden Shovel and Bob’s S poem about stolen lobsters
01/07/26
• We had an early bird music-themed workshop from Flight or Visibility, who in exchange for making everyone sing during the workshop, read a very sound-heavy poem with the repeating phrase “check in scales disclipine rinse repeat”
• Birthday poet Keaton wrote about choosing to drop out of The 27 club and the upshot of abstinence
• The welcome return of Left Eye to the mic for the first time in a year, who brought us a breakup aftermath poem with the specter of raw violence and the key line “No one asks me if I’m safe”
• Ed’s writhing examination of a man who said “‘So, my wife just had her first baby…”
• Will S. leading the charge of anti-ICE poems, and very raw confessional work from newcomer Diana
• Brynna’s turn hosting brough us some delightful “2026 goals” from her young students, as well as starting up a lively debate on the merits of indoor vs outdoor recess
• Myles’ examination of “Knowing someone in the biblical sense” with the cutting thought that “I never felt like I knew myself or someone else more through sex”
Feature
On December 30th, we had our newest slam innovation, The Wild Card Slam! In this format, all poems were 2 minutes long and everyone gets to read at least twice. If you’ve ever been wronged by the judges in the first round, this is the slam for you to get redemption in the second chance/wild card round! In fact, Edie C survived the wild card round to win the night and the $75! On January 7th, we welcomed back Erica Fabri, who first featured on the Cantab stage back in 2010. Erica read from her new book, Morphology, and mixed the personal, the political, rats, snakes, and a whole lot of hyperlocal NYC vibes to an engaging effect. She even took an unexpected Q&A session with the audience mid-feature as a palette cleanser! Thank you Erica.
Coming Up This Wednesday
This week we will have our normal extended open mic and one of the last few open poetry slams before team selection starts! If you have 3 poems that are 3 minutes or less, you can compete for the chance to win $75! The top 2 slammers will also qualify for the 2026 Boston Poetry Slam team selection.
See you soon!
– MFG 🚪
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