Hey Cantab!
Last week was proof you could always count on our wonderful community to bring the energy even in unexpected scenarios! Our mic was packed with talent this Wednesday: 1) Phoebe performed an extended metaphor (a REAL one, John Green, please take note) on standing at the edge of a subway platform 2) Cameron did a poem on Pagliacci the Clown, inspired by Myles’ Pagliacci poem a few months ago (who knows, this may start a Pagliacci trend!) 3) Otto Vock, one of the winners of the previous week’s Tag Team Slam, successfully caused the audience to shake in their collective boots while reminiscing on the time someone told them that “You only like poetry because it’s the only thing you’re good at.” Thank you Otto, and also oof.
The ✏️Line of the Wednesday✏️ this week is from Edie, with “I will only reopen my wounds to remove the rot”
Back to what I said about this being a very adaptable community, unfortunately Tongo, our feature for last week, had to reschedule for 7/24, so our staff whipped up a great idea for how to fill his slot. After our fabulous open mic we had an incredible three-tiered Haiku Slam! We had three categories: Traditional, Dirty, and Experimental. 14 haiku slammers signed up and battled it out head-to-head—the winners of each pairing determined by audience applause. We had some dirty…. list haiku from Chris, a roast of Myles’ outfit from Cameron, and some beautifully crafted traditional Haiku from newcomer Michael. In the end, Kai won the traditional round, Sam Bucci won the dirty round, and Youssef won the experimental round! Kai with their clever and witty haiku, Sam with her shocking and empowering haiku, and Youssef with his beautiful and mesmerizing haiku. When the three took the stage to declare the ultimate winner, Kai won by a hair! Congrats to all the slammers and thank you to our audience for all the cheers!
This week, our feature is Blue Nguyen! Blue Nguyen (they/he) (Instagram: @blue.ngu and on Twitter: @queerqhost) is a Vietnamese non-binary lesbian poet and community organizer based out of Boston, MA. They have been nominated for Best of the Net Anthology and Best New Poets Anthology. Their poetry can be found at The Mantle Poetry, Glass: A Journal of Poetry, Protean Magazine, Prolit Magazine, DEAR Poetry Journal, Peach Mag, and more.
See you then!
– Amy ✈️
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