Cantab Feature for Wednesday, February 18, 2015: Team Selection Semi-Finals

The Cantab’s Team Selection Slams are the venue’s biggest, wildest poetry slams of the year. This February, with Erotic Poetry Night safely behind us, we continue our selection process with the second night of three, the Team Selection Semi-Finals!

The top twelve poets from the first and second Preliminary heats (six from each) advance to the Semi-Finals show. Qualified poets will slam in the following order in the first round of the two-round show:

1. Sophia Holtz
2. Ed Wilkinson
3. Meaghan Ford
4. Sean Patrick Mulroy
5. Emily Eastman
6. Ellyn Touchette
7. Colin Killick
8. Marshall Gillson
9. Mckendy Fils-Aimé
10. Zeke Russell
11. Nora Meiners
12. Bobby Crawford

Sacrificial poets: John Mortara, Nathan Comstock

With two poems behind them and five to go, competing poets are likely to be reaching deep into their pockets on this particular night, or even trying out untested work in hope of saving some major ammunition for Finals on April 1… Making Semi-Finals just possibly the most interesting night of the selection series.

Team Selection Slams go for three rounds at the Cantab, with the top five poets after seven poems comprising the venue’s National Poetry Slam Team. The 2015 Boston Poetry Slam Team will travel to the National Poetry Slam across the mainland, once again in sunny Oakland, California.

This show in our weekly Wednesday series takes place at the Cantab Lounge, 738 Massachusetts Ave. in Cambridge. Doors for the show open at 7:15. A SHORTENED open mic begins at 8:00 and the slam begins at approximately 9:15. The show is 18+ (ID required) and the cover charge is $5; proceeds will go toward funding the team’s travel to the National Poetry Slam this August in Oakland.