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Thanks to everyone who came out to the 2026 edition of NORTHBEAST this weekend! It was an incredible success. Congrats to Just Beloved for taking home the title, and to the BPS team for finishing in 4th!
Open Mic Highlights
• It was a night for the freaky poets! We had several first-timers/old-timers on the mic delivering weird, trippy, and esoteric work tonight. Host Amy even commented that it felt like a spontaneous Freak Shit/Thin Ice slam developed out of thin air!
• Austin paced around the stage speaking about how “everyone knows someone who’s grandfather died in a mining accident”, Ken sing-chanted faster and faster in rhythmic/rhyming circles, and Shivank’s poem was set in scenes, including a recurring rhinoceros at the pharmacy counter
• “Never knowing what saves the body is the scar” – Renee on loss
• “The fastest way to make someone a liar is to believe them” – Ed Wilkinson
• Myles weighing in on the definitions of being trans and cross-dressing, and family members who say thing like, “why don’t they just get the surgery if they want to dress like that?”
Feature
The 2026 Boston Poetry Slam Team featured tonight! The team presented 11 poems, with 5 (!) being group pieces, showcasing the team’s strong desire for collaboration and writing together. Jarvis performed their non-binary Macho Man Randy Savage persona piece as well doing a group piece version of their “I like my friends wet” piece. Bobby reprised their poem in the voice of the stewardess who was on the same flight as DB Cooper, a group piece with Aparna on how nature repeats itself, and a group piece with Will about clothes, closet space, and skeletons. Mugs and Will did two group pieces relating to their trans identity and transitioning, one using taxidermy as the central metaphor, the other revolving around the probing questions people consistently ask them. This is a definitely a “pushing the art forward” team, with group pieces not based on loudness/quick talking, but a kind of spaciousness and almost ambience that is rarely seen in competition. If you haven’t gotten a copy of this year’s team chapbook, we will continue to have copies at the door until they sell out!
Coming Up This Wednesday
Beloved former host and staff member Kat Anderson will be back in town to feature this weekend, promoting their new book!
BIO: Kat Anderson (She/They) is a Panamanian poet born, raised, and living in New York’s Hudson Valley. Her first collection “Etymology of Break” was released with Game Over Books in May, 2026. Her previous work was most frequently shared within the privacy of Boston Poetry Slam’s weekly show, where she was a regular attendee, volunteer, and board member for 3 years.
See you soon!
– MFG 🚪
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