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This past Wednesday at the Cantab brought both the highly political and the highly wacky! The open mic started off with Siraj’s anti-RFK Jr poem (and how it may have consequences for his job), David F’s free market critique, and newcomer Mazz’s gentrification poem with the call and response of “It’s time to leave.”
Then, things started getting wild. Danny Riordan brought us a poem in the voice of a turkey being picked by a couple, and framed it as a polyamorous (sorry, “birdsexual”) relationship, and then Cameron let all the wheels fall off by performing a piece about a lovelorn “silly little guy” entirely in a high-pitched, child-like/cartoonish voice. The whole room was in hysterics, and even Cameron couldn’t keep it together as Myles and Amy completely lost it in laughter. Edie then blew everything up with a poem of outlandish facts about himself, his family, and his hometown of Brockton. Who would guess that the front row was made up almost entirely of Brockton residents? What did Otto Vock think when they walked in as the poem ended with the logical-in-context line “Ronald Reagan helped me f%*k the police”? Who didn’t expect that Amy would read a poem a half hour later responding to Edie’s attacks on Chicago deep dish pizza? You never know what kind of ride you are getting on during the BPS open mic! And there was more going on that I haven’t even mentioned, like the welcomed returns of former regulars Lila and Stevie to the mic, and Siraj beating out Logan for the win in our monthly Haiku Slam.
Our feature was the Cantab/New England veteran and legend Mckendy Fils-Aimé! Mckendy brought us exciting new work from his upcoming 2026 book about Haitian superstition, generational trauma, and healing. After opening with an old favorite about growing up in Manchester, New Hampshire, highlights of the set included a pair of new poems that imitated the form of business documents to explore issues of identity, and some even-newer persona poems about the Haitian lougarou. Be sure to look out for Mckendy’s book next year, it’s been a long time coming!
This week…do we even have to promo this? It’s the FINALS OF TEAM SELECTION! This will be our biggest slam of the year, as our nine finalists will be going THREE rounds head-to-head to see which five will become the 2025 BPS Slam Team! Please note that due to this, this week’s open mic will be shortened, and the show will likely sell out early and often. We’ll be back to our extended open mic next week. Here are our nine finalists who will be battling it out:
Jennifer Martinez
Jarvis Subia
Kaitie Dilán
Logan Lopez
Ilse Ruizvisfocri
Brynna Boyd
Aparna Paul
Amy Argentar
Myles Taylor
See you there!
– MFG🚪
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