Send us feedback anonymously or via email
Open Mic Highlights
• Cam S delivered a beautiful piece on his failing vision and reflecting on how he may be following the path of family members before him
• Excellent bite-sized queer love poems by River (“I feel like a man, that is to say: salvageable”) and Lily (“This poem is about tomatoes and realizing you are a lesbian”)
• Kaitie D’s innovative “Broken Sestina” form poem & the one-week-only return of former Cantabber Jacq Roderick, who gave us a taste of what they are writing in their MFA program
• An unexpected fiery group piece on gossip by Jen Martinez and Amy Argentar
• Cameron’s highly autobiographical piece about the hemorrhoids he’s been dealing with, which was made even more notable because the BIG SURPRISE of the night happened right while he was performing: Patricia Smith, living legend and co-founder of our show, casually walked into the venue! The room was abuzz with excitement (and maybe a bit starstruck) as Patricia not only listened to all of us but later read us an INCREDIBLE poem from her forthcoming collection, based on a prompt to write about something in the drugstore that smells nostalgic of your childhood. If you missed it, fear not, Patricia is scheduled to feature for us in the late fall of this year!
Feature
Our feature Julie River brought us through a whirlwind of their past, present, and future work in poetry slam, including their well-known “Alfred Hitchcock vs. The SAW movies” poem (and its accompanying response poem). Having competed in poetry slams for over two decades, Julie had their fair share of material about the form, including a very meta piece about the nature of poetry competition itself, and the process of rewriting an old poem after coming out as a trans person. Fully charismatic, with their setlist written on their arm, and most of the work memorized, it was a joy to see Julie back on the Cantab stage after a long absence!
Coming Up This Wednesday
This week, we will have the book release celebration of long-time Cantab favorite Meg Ford!
Meg Ford is a queer writer from New Jersey who was voted Most Likely to Leave and Never Come Back. They are a two-time National Poetry Slam semi-finalist with the Boston Poetry Slam Team and received their MFA from Emerson College. Their work has previously appeared in The Rumpus, NAILED, PANK, and the We Will Be Shelter Anthology from Write Bloody. Their debut collection, Wild/Hurt arrives from Button Poetry in June 2025. Meg can most often be found hanging out with the cat at your party.
See you soon!
– MFG 🚪
Our upcoming features
First timer? Looking for show info? Check out our Frequently Asked Questions!
Sign up for our Newsletter
Boston Poetry Slam Online