Recaps from the Boston Poetry Slam @ the Cantab Lounge's weekly show.
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The 2026 NORTHBEAST REGIONAL POETRY SLAM AND FESTIVAL is this weekend, July 31 – August 2nd! Buy tickets HERE!
Open Mic Highlights 07/15
• “You do not have to be bitten by a Catholic Saint, you can be bitter by a non-Catholic Saint” – directions for applying to an experiment run …
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Open Mic Highlights
• Emma’s wild and ragged “Forced Femme Uncle Sam” which is just what you think it was about, and appropriate for July 4th…
• “We stood there waiting for someone to make the next move” – Gel’s description/conundrum about continuing to be in love / in a …
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Open Mic Highlights
• Ave Maria opened the mic off with a memorized and well-crafted piece about honey, despair, and pulling oneself back from the ledge
• River’s ode to bathroom graffiti and the unhinged “conversations” that happen on stalls (PS the Cantab bathroom graffiti is great!)
• What I …
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Open Mic Highlights 06/17
• There was World cup fever at the beginning of the mic! The Tartan Army from Scotland was in the house, and first-timer Bryan Bonner covered Robert Burns beautifully
• David Sherman’s letter-poem to the Cantab revealing his kinks, which are “talk to me in the subjunctive …
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Open Mic Highlights
• It was an open mic full of quotable lines!
• “Content warning: heteronormativity” – Scott Timothy
• Edie’s surprise narrative on the assassination of William Mckinley
• “I wish I had antlers–they’d stop the small talk” – Philip G
• “The magician walks in the …
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Open Mic Highlights 05/27
• Lynette’s soup-themed sestina ruminating on how “your brain isn’t fully developed until 25”
• Aanchal’s evil dentist poem (yes, a lot of us were thinking of this as a foil to Kai’s sexy dentist poem!
• Shivank taking the well-worn “inside you there are two wolves” …
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Open Mic Highlights 05/13
• Bailey’s cover of Pigeon’s poem about adopting both a Pokémon-themed version of health insurance and a Pokémon-themed version of socialism
• Shivank added another entry in the long line of open mic poems where a horse starts talking (…but does it walk into a bar?)
• …
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Open Mic Highlights
• “A line of iambic pentameter is a line of iambic pentameter” – from Bobby’s triple sonnet
• Zeke’s poem about the gratitude of still being alive, and an update on his former desire to be a poet that other poets talk about
• “How could you forget …
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NOTE: Tonight’s 05/06/26 show will be held at THE FOUNDRY, 101 ROGERS ST, Cambridge instead of the Cantab Lounge, due to a big concert happening there. Doors will be at 8 pm, Shortened open mic at 8:30, feature at 10 pm.
Open Mic Highlights 05/22
• Alex Kist’s incredible new …
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Open Mic Highlights
• Phoenix’s piece discussing why they identify as Xenogender
• Julie River’s ode to Denver’s former poetry cafe, The Mercury (later known as The Pearl)
• Ed Gault’s “1-800-ANSWERS” poem dedicated to absurd prompts given by automated phone systems, and what happens when the automated system asks questions …
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