It was another fun and festive night at the Cantab this past week, with an open mic packed with all-stars readers. Highlights include complimentary “I-Moved-To-New-England-From-Texas” poems from Brynna and Mary, Lila’s lush pastoral poem read off-book, odes to Frank O’Hara & Rainer Maria Rilke by Finn Flood and Nick Roberts, and Edie’s raucous piece about starting your own cult!
There were also some shenanigans when newcomer James accidentally signed up for the smoking section instead of the open mic, and later became an honorary smoking section member for one night only! This led quite nicely into the haiku slam, which had strong work from David Sherman and Conor, as well as another haiku group piece that failed to get out of the first round! You’d think the competition was rigged when our feature (and past haiku champion) RJ Walker breezed through the first two rounds, but in the end, it was Lynnette who stole the win and the $17 at the last second.
Speaking of RJ Walker, what a treat of a feature he gave us this past week! This is the kind of hard-working off-kilter performance poetry our venue has always yearned to cultivate, and RJ moved gracefully and effortlessly through a series of elegies before bringing down the house with a (pretty disturbing) piece in the voice of the Kool-Aid Man, and then finishing with a series of poems about highly-specific Pokémon. Be sure to watch the replay on our Instagram if you get a chance!
Tonight, pack your duffel bags and sign your permission slips, because we will be having the slam of your end-of-summer dreams: The Campfire Slam! It’s not tacky, it’s camp. It’s not camp, it’s a redemption arc for every bad campfire s’more you’ve burned to bits. Watch as two four-person “bunks” compete in SEVEN camp-themed head-to-head rounds for the crown declaring the campy-est campers of all camp! You do NOT want to miss this silly, action-packed, surprise-filled night!
P.S. Our slam team will be competing at Slam Free or Die’s Grudge Match Slam this Thursday in Manchester, NH! Hope you can make it down!
– MFG 🚪
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