Happy Cantab Wednesday! This week was jam-packed with talent, with performances on the open mic including regular Cameron’s completely memorized Cassandra de Alba cover, the return of Skylar and Isaiah after not hearing from them in awhile, and a powerful and dare I say biblically impressive poem by Jennifer Martinez.
The ✏️Line of the Wednesday✏️ goes to our very own social media-er and poet extraordinaire, Kat Anderson: “I’ve always fit in between breaths. Only so I never have to hide.”
And then: judges were gathered, poets were prepped, and MFG had timer and calculator at the ready, because we headed straight into a SLAM! Eight slammers competed in a battle for $50 and to qualify for the team selection slams coming up. We saw a touching and polished performance from Keaton, pure, unbridled passion and internal rhyming from Jack Chasse, and even an interactive piece from new regular Sarah King. All slammers did incredible, but Logan Lopez (2023 slam team member) won the $50 with a trifecta of poems showcasing the full breadth of their talent! Youssef came in second place with his striking work, making both him and Logan qualified to try out for the team.
Fundraiser alert!
This Valentine’s day, we will have books for you to fall in love with! On our February 14th show, we are hosting a “blind date with a book.” Attendees may pay on a sliding scale to buy a brand-new poetry book and take it home to keep! In preparation, we ask our lovely community for poetry book donations. We invite you to bring a poetry book you’d like to contribute (along with a sticky note describing the themes in the book) to any of our upcoming Wednesday night shows. Funds will go towards the continued development of the Boston Poetry Slam.
This week! We have…. ANOTHER SLAM! Not just any slam though, this is the LAST CHANCE SLAM, as it represents the last chance to qualify to try out for our 2024 team. The slam will consist of three rounds, and all poets must have three original poems under three minutes to participate. Get ready to slam, judge, or cheer on the competitors!!
Not only is there a slam, but we are continuing our monthly workshop series with a workshop from our very own Zeke Russell! The workshop starts at 6:30, and it will be a generative workshop that will use specific events and locations in our writing to connect to a larger world. This workshop will focus on the tiny real things we experience in our daily lives, and how we can use those stories and images as threads to spin larger webs.
Readings will include: Mary Oliver, Nikki Giovani, Seamus Heany, Patricia Smith, Sharon Olds, Stephen King, and Jacob Rakovan.
NOTE: Workshop attendees will have first access to the open mic list and slam sign up. As this is the last chance to qualify for the team selection, we will be collecting the names of people who want to slam who are at the workshop as well as those who are in line upstairs. We will try to accommodate as many poets as possible (i.e. more than 8).
See you then!
– Amy ✈️
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