Ah, October in New England: when the leaves turn a warm yellow-gold, then are beaten off the trees by a lashing, unseasonably warm rain… amirite? But look, no matter what kind of weather you needed shelter from, you could find it in the Cantab last Wednesday, under the protective real-world vision of our feature Claudia Wilson. Claudia brought no product, no special requests, and no ego to our little show on Wednesday: they sat in the front row for our sweet and friendly open mic, packed with first-timers, and then rocked our worlds gently and firmly with their deeply personal, thoroughly true narratives of childhood. Our thanks go out to Claudia for just the feature we needed this autumn night.
After the feature, we rolled right into our other feature: the Champion of Champions slam! RebeccaLynn was geared up to defend her long-held title against eight seven attending challengers, including last week’s on-a-roll slam winner Lucas Dean, and she showed how little she was planning to hold back with a blistering intro in the sacrifice round. Slammers were dropping left and right until the final round, pitting two NPS 2017 attendees against one another: Meaghan Ford and Zeke Russell. True to his Master Plan(TM), Zeke took the win in the final round to achieve the Season Championship, leaving him just one poem away from the yet-unachieved venue trifecta of World Qualifier Champ, top Team Selection Slams scorer, and Champion of Champions. The final, head-to-head, new-poem-only round between Zeke and RebeccaLynn was one for the ages, but, when the dust cleared, RebeccaLynn stood triumphant, driving any other title-collection bids back into the shadows. Congratulations to both our Champ RebeccaLynn (who, don’t forget, features for us on December 6) and Good Sport Zeke, who we are certain have not met in slam for the last time.
Next week: it’s a slameriffic All Souls Day! Bring your favorite dead poet to life on our stage: sorry, no seances allowed, you’ll have to get in character instead… You’re invited to costume up (but you gotta be decent, people) and perform in character at the All Souls’ Slam! Producer Cassandra de Alba is still taking sign-ups, so click here to learn more and sign up, or just come to our open mic with a poet from behind the veil you’d like to share.
Boston Poetry Slam Online