Amy: Hi Cantab! I hope you all had a lovely week (and long weekend) – we sure did! Love was in the air during our special Valentine’s Day show. The mic list was full (like our hearts) and the Odeo – the Ode Rodeo – shot an arrow of incredible poetry through the audience. On the open mic, Kim shared about wanting (or maybe… not wanting) to quit her job, Daniel gave a heartfelt performance on not taking life for granted, and Brynna thoroughly educated us about their local Texas gas station, Bucky’s. Jarvis and Logan also performed standout pieces.
Michael: Hi Amy! Sorry to interrupt your recap, but Skylar Sweet Cheeks just texted me and told me one of your poem lines needs to be featured this week, and I agree! Therefore, without further ado, the ✏️Line of the Wednesday✏️ this week is “How much talent it takes to be blissful for just a moment” by Amy Argentar.
Ok now back to your regularly scheduled recap!
Amy: Thanks! <3 Towards the end of the open mic, we had a Dirty Haiku slam hosted by Michael F. Gill (who, if you didn’t know, also serves as editor for these recaps). We had newcomer Lysette blow us all away, staff member Kat with a crazy one-liner, and a series of three job-related haiku by Logan that took him to the final round! However, Logan was defeated by Siraj, who performed his infamous Taco Bell haiku (after possibly some peer pressure from the audience).
And now, the Odeo! We had a whopping 12 competitors go head-to-head for three rounds, performing odes to nearly anything you could think of! Highlights include the duo K&K (Kai Wallin and Kaitie Dilán) performed an Odesonnepuntal (Ode/Sonnet/Contrapuntal) telling us all to be gay and do crimes. We had great poems by recent feature Mica Rich and staff host Nayeli, while open mic regular Otto Vock tugged at our hearts with their personal experience being an educator, and then proceeded to made it all the way to the final round in their first-time slamming! At the end of it all, love was in the air, but so was $50 dollars and bragging rights; new standout regular Mary S claimed the big Odeo win!!! Thank you once again to our hosts, judges, and all slammers for a fabulous show!
Quick note: thank you to everyone who participated in our Blind Date with a Book fundraiser! We were able to raise so much for the continued development of the Boston Poetry Slam, and we hope you enjoy your book!
This week! We have Hailey Tran as our feature! Hailey is a Boston based and Lowell raised dreamer. Hailey is a queer Asian American Latina spoken word and performance poet, who believes in the transformative power of storytelling and art. Currently, they are a high school history teacher in Roxbury who is passionate about helping students understand their ancestral memories. They are an educator who uses the creative process to interrogate structural and interpersonal violence, to better understand racial, gendered, and queer identities, and connect with their community at large.
COMMUNITY NOTE: The current COVID surge is one of the highest throughout the pandemic and we want to keep our community accessible and safe. We STRONGLY ENCOURAGE the community to bring a mask to the show for the next few weeks and to keep it on when not drinking or performing.
– Amy ✈️
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