Recaps from the Boston Poetry Slam @ the Cantab Lounge's weekly show.
It took us two Wednesdays, Cantabbers, but we finally finished up the first round (two poems each from nineteen slammers) of the 2018 Team Selection Slams! Our second heat closed out last night, a strong field taking deeply personal work unto the prelim. After two rounds, the dust cleared to reveal:
1. Neiel Israel 57.1
And so it begins… The first night of our 2018 Team Selection Slams is in the books, with another prelim heat to go before we finalize our roster for semi-finals. This week’s field was strong and getting stronger, with rookies coming out of the woodwork and local veterans digging deep with new work. Check the …
Hot January greatness, Cantab! The gusts of our enthusiastic industrial heater were no match for the hair-blown-back level of sweetness and grace from last night’s feature, Nancy Huang. This welcoming, thoughtful, and dexterous writer shook us into and out of our bodies on a journey through her first collection, Favorite Daughter. Nancy’s in New York …
What a 2018 we are having so far, Cantabbers! Folks who made it out to the venue last night (hoo boy, there were lots of you) were treated to a rare feature from Northampton’s Jelal Huyler, a brilliantly engaging artist with an enviably deft hand at comedy, irony, hip-hop, and free metaphor, all wrapped in …
Happy new calendar year, Cantabbers! Thanks so much to each and every one of you who came out to celebrate the first Wednesday of 2017 with local 2017 National Poetry Slam finalist Angelica Maria. Angelica performed beautifully, bantered sweetly, and shook our emotions fiercely and unrelentingly; what a way to dust out our hearts for …
Happy Old Year, Cantabbers! How pleasing to have enjoyed our last Wednesday of 2017 with seven-year-irregular Emily Duggan on the stage. Emily brought her poetry, theater, and ghostly skills to the show, taking us on a grand journey through the personal and the historical, all wrapped up in a delightful bundle of banter. We hope …
Happy solstice time, Cantabbers; we were so pleased to celebrate one of the longest nights of the year with one of the premier curators in New England, Northampton poet Catherine Weiss. This editor-in-chief and slam founder showed off her slam cred both on and off the page, bringing her beautifully illustrated work to the merch …
It just wouldn’t be right to call Austin Hendricks‘ feature at the Cantab this past Wednesday “spider-infested;” after all, we invited the spiders over, enjoyed their company greatly, and, ultimately, were saddened to see their part in the feature end… So let’s call Austin’s carefully crafted, gently personal set something more like “spider-bedazzled” or “spiderfull” …
What an exceptional open mic this week, folks: really thoughtful work, a great range of emotion and entertainment, and a deep thread of generosity of spirit running through the night… Oh, wait, was it RebeccaLynn’s feature night? Well, that all makes perfect sense. RebeccaLynn took the stage in a whirlwind of one-to-two-minute poems, leaving us …
Poets! Wizards! Muggles who retain hopes for magical outcomes! Gdangit, folks, you all packed the house on Wednesday for the Hogwarts House Slam and it might be the most fun we’ve had since we made the four MBTA train lines slam off against each other. Twenty intrepid poets (plus one sacrificial Sorting Hat) represented Hufflepuff, …
Boston Poetry Slam Online