Note: Due to the Cantab being closed for Christmas and New Year’s Day, our next shows are THIS SATURDAY NIGHT, December 28th at 6:30 PM (Downstairs at The Cantab), and Wednesday January 1st at 7 PM (happening at Trident Booksellers on 338 Newbury Street in Boston). More info below! Follow us on Instagram or sign up for our newsletter for the latest updates. Now on to your regularly scheduled recap…
We had a wholesome, reunion-filled, charismatic Wednesday last week, as our usual crowd of regulars filled the room along with many returning familiar faces, all anticipating the Cantab return of our feature, Melissa Newman-Evans! The mic was all bangers, legends, no-pressure-perfection, and more (FYI: our hosts have started naming their sections of the open mic for fun, and these are the names we got this week). We had Mars’ highly anticipated debut about being a poet (they turned 21 recently, so now they are finally able to join us in the basement!). David F shared messages from his WhatsApp chat, detailing his grievances with Harvard business students (though of course no offense to them!). Cameron decided to NOT do a bit, instead sharing how grateful he is for this community via poem (awwww). My personal favorite moment was Hunter’s fantastic superhero poem, which was IMMEDIATELY followed by Abbie Langmead’s banger superVILLAIN poem! What a coincidence! We also had a triumphant return from former Cantab host Kevin Spak, with a thrilling, energetic, wrestling/poetry/state of US politics-themed poem, ending the open mic with a bang!
The ✏️Line of the Wednesday ✏️ is from Becca, with “I didn’t have rose colored glasses, I had blackout curtains”
Our feature, Melissa Newman-Evans, read powerful, slap-you-in-the-face-with-the-truth poems, taking us through heartbreak, anger, standing in your power, and speaking from the most honest parts of yourself. We also heard timeless hits like “How To Bake Bread in America” and “9 Things I Would Like To Tell Every Teenage Girl.” The room felt very… together… throughout the feature; all of us were listening in the same way at the same time, knowing how important this poet’s work is, and their longtime contributions to the community. It was an incredible feature.
Our next show is THIS SATURDAY 12/28, and it is our third-annual POETRY THEATRE night! Produced by Michael F. Gill and featuring a cast of open mic and slam regulars, we’ll be hearing group pieces, short poetic plays, conceptual tomfoolery, and other outside-the-box work! The doors will open downstairs at the Cantab at 6 pm for a 6:30 show, with a short poetry open mic happening before the feature. Featured performers will be March Penn, Katya Zinn, Edie Churchill, Ericka Ainsley, David F, Cameron Vanderwerf, and more!
Happy holidays!
– Amy ✈️
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