What a week, Cantabbers! A packed night, but we got through EVERYONE on the waitlist! We had Kelsey Kessler debut another fabulous poem that of course mentioned verity’s shades of red, last week’s slam winner Logan premiere a poem on home and pierogis, Reynard (Eddy Martinez) deliver a cathartic piece on applying to jobs, and first-timer Mookie bringing his poetry all the way from Los Angeles. Of course, I can’t NOT mention Cameron’s call to action on freeing the people from “Big Poetry” in his fantastic, ironic poem.
I also can’t NOT mention that we had an incredible workshop from our own Zeke Russell beforehand. Over 20 people showed up to experience a bit of Zeke’s mentorship, listen to some great example poems (including one from Patricia Smith), and write the beginnings of some great new poems. Thank you Zeke!!
The ✏️Line of the Wednesday ✏️ goes to first-timer Mookie, with: “I was born in the dust of a manger”
And then…. drumroll please… the LAST CHANCE SLAM!! We heard some of Daniel’s greatest hits, Sarah King performed a poem on if death was a woman, and Kai brought the house down with their impassioned pieces. It truly was, and I’m not just saying this, one of the best slams we’ve seen in the past year, with qualifying to try out for the team on the line. It was inspiring to be there and soak in everyone’s awesomeness.
Of course, in this little game we play. There are always winners. New regular BRYNNA won the $50, and Keaton was runner-up, qualifying both for the team selection slams. CONGRATS POETS! Congrats to all the slammers (below) and thank you to our staff and judges for making it possible.
- Brynna Boyd
- Keaton
- Sarah King
- Kai Wallin
- Mary S
- Nayeli
- Danny Riordan
- Decker
- Daniel Letona
- Shawn Dermer
Fundraiser alert – THIS WEEK!
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.
Tonight! It is VALENTINE’S DAY EVERYONE! VALENTINE’S DAY ON A WEDNESDAY! Don’t panic, dress up in cowboy costumes! That’s right, we have the first ever ODEO this Wednesday: the Ode Rodeo, if you will. Bring your odes, odes to a person, odes to your breakfast, odes to cowboys, odes to ODES, it doesn’t matter, anything to get into the spirit of love and dev-ode-tion. It will be a head- to-head style slam (think like an old western duel) and we encourage you to dress up in your best cowboy gear!
We also will have an accompanying dirty haiku slam hosted by Michael F. Gill, so prepare accordingly!
See you there,
– Amy ✈️
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