Using any language you like, translate one piece of modern art to another piece of modern art.
Cantab Feature for Wednesday, February 19, 2014: Team Selection Semi-Finals
The Cantab’s Team Selection Slams are the venue’s biggest, wildest poetry slams of the year. This February, we continue our selection process with the second night of three, the Team Selection Semi-Finals!
Team Selection Slams go for three nights at the Cantab, with the top five poets after seven rounds comprising the venue’s National Poetry Slam Team. The 2014 Boston Poetry Slam Team will travel to the National Poetry Slam across the mainland in sunny Oakland, California.
The top twelve poets from the January 22 Preliminaries advance to this February show. Qualified poets will perform in the following order in the first round, pending confirmation of all competitors:
1. Allison Truj
2. Michael Monroe
3. Mckendy Fils-Aimé
4. Marshall Gillson
5. Meaghan Ford
6. Melissa Newman-Evans
7. Sean Patrick Mulroy
8. Sierra Lister
9. Princess Chan
10. Janae Johnson
11. Bobby Crawford
12. Omoizele Okoawo
sacrifice poets: Ed Wilkinson, Sophia Holtz
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 March 26… Making Semi-Finals just possibly the most interesting night of the selection series.
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.
Cantab Recap for Wednesday, February 12, 2014
Oooooohhhhh, Cantabbers. If your head hurts, your mouth is dry, and you have developed a passionate aversion to mangoes but a sudden attraction to French cheese, you might have been at last night’s Erotic Poetry Night/Box of Doom Slam. For those who don’t, won’t, or can’t remember what happened, we’ll just say: a lot of sexytimes came up to the mic and many of them were actually erotic! Just a few of our favorites included Andrew Campana’s foray into the mind of an unusual video game character, Sophia Holtz’ fruit poem to end all fruit poems, and Kemi Alabi’s sexuality-owning high-school-dancing Beyonce-all-day missive.
Of course, what with the open mic being pretty good, we had to get some really bad erotic poetry up in here. Adam Stone came to the rescue with a Box laden with Erotic Doom, and a selection of foolhardy poets willing to brave the horror within. After being regaled with terrifying rhymes about food, feet (foot fetishists: Adam has challenged you to up your game, remember), creepy stalkers, oral pleasure of questionable caliber, Star Trek, and a few anatomical impossibilities, the language of love ultimately prevailed… Chloé Cunha’s French accent in the first round brought the house down and achieved a few scores even higher than a 7.0, which was good enough to gain her a commanding lead and ultimately resulting in her big win. Thanks so much to everyone who slammed, judged, and heckled with us from the bar!
Next week: it’s time to get back to business, folks. February 19 marks the Team Selection Semi-Finals, wherein twelve poets are invited to return from Prelims to shoot for Finals in March. All of our winners from January have elected to advance, which gives us one wicked roster for the two-round show! Our open mic will be a little shorter than usual to make room for the 90-minute slam. Check out the link above for the listing for the first round, and don’t forget to pack $5 for this show, since we’ll be fundraising to send the eventual team to the National Poetry Slam in Oakland this August.
Cantab Feature for February 12, 2014: Erotic Poetry Night and Box of Doom
Is it hot in here, or is it just you? As tradition decrees, on the Wednesday closest to Valentine’s marks our wildly popular annual Erotic Poetry Night. We’ll present the best (and worst) of the erotic (and neurotic) all night long; open mic readers are strongly encouraged to bring original erotic poems, poems about sex, or poems about naughtiness in general.
Box of Doom Poetry Slam. Logo by Gary Hoare.
The centerpiece of our night will be the Erotic Box of Doom Slam, produced by bartender Adam Stone! According to Adam, the Box of Doom is an ancient tradition, wherein star-crossed lovers would exchange the worst presents possible in order to passive-aggressively break up in time for Valentine’s Day. Adam will be filling the Cantab’s Box with the very worst erotic work that poetry has to offer: slammers will draw these terrible poems at random and have three minutes to prepare their finest, most over-the-top erotic performance. Good luck!
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. The erotic-themed open mic begins at 8:00. The show is 18+ (ID required) and the cover charge is $3.
Encyclopedia Show: Somerville for Monday, February 10 — S2V5: OBSOLETE DISEASES
Encyclopedia Show: Somerville — OBSOLETE DISEASES on February 10, 2014! Art by Melissa Newman-Evans.
Monday, February 10, 2014
The Davis Square Theatre
255 Elm St. in Somerville
7pm doors, 8pm-10pm show
all ages, $10/$7 sliding scale
click for Facebook event
The Boston Poetry Slam and Simone Beaubien present the next installment in a slightly educational monthly series!
The Encyclopedia Show Somerville is an event franchised from the original series founded in Chicago in 2008, wherein invited artists from a variety of performance disciplines present all-new, original works on sub-topics of a single theme. A recurring cast of hosts and characters welcomes the artists with open arms and minds, while the resident Fact Checker is charged with maintaining the integrity of the Encyclopedic Truth of the show.
Our theme for this month’s show will be OBSOLETE DISEASES! Presenting all-original guest performances from local artists, plus work from our recurring cast members:
- Aimee Rose Ranger and Kevin Spak provide deft and earnest CO-HOSTING
- The Michael J. Epstein Memorial Library offers MUSICAL SUPPORT
- Wes Hazard dispenses QUESTIONABLE EXPERTISE with panache and aplomb
- and Intern Steve Subrizi will almost certainly not experience a resurgence of the Moon Flu.
Live Fact Checking is reluctantly provided by Jack van Sly from the Institute of Human Knowledge and Hygiene. The personal assistant to Mr. van Sly is Jade Sylvan.
This show in our monthly Encylopedia Show: Somerville series takes place at the Davis Square Theatre, 255 Elm St. in Somerville. Doors and the theatre bar open for a pre-show welcome party at 7:00. The show begins promptly at 8:00 and finishes at 10:00, including a short intermission. This is an all ages show! Admission is $10, or $7 for students, teachers, or guests in Prohibition-era dress.
Cantab Recap for Wednesday, January 5, 2014
Happy Black History Month, poetry fans! We hope your February has so far been packed with maximum learning and respect. There are a ton of great shows going on around the city this month, so check your event invites and get yourself in the habit of showing good support all year round.
Our plans for the first show of the month were very nearly crimped by a nasty snowstorm. Fortunately, not even the elements can withstand the refined brilliance and unshy power of the amazing Porsha O! Porsha brought us a roller-coaster of a feature filled with both brand-new and polished work, ranging from highly personal to outside-the-box persona. Folks all over the country wish they had Porsha performing in their town, so don’t forget to check out her other shows in the area when you get a chance.
After a slow start (does snow repel slammers from the Cantab?) the hosts heckled a total of six poets into slamming for the ten-dollar prize. Oddly, after being sassed into performing, everyone seemed ready to slam off-page, even with some new work… The big winner was Nora Meiners, who knocked out the on-fire Michael Monroe in the final round.
We’ll be back next week without a feature, but with the highly controversial annual Erotic Poetry Night, capped off by an on-theme Box of Doom Slam produced and hosted by bartender Adam Stone. Come by and take some notes for Valentine’s Day… Or partake of the bar in order to forget it’s coming.
Oh, and by the way: this month’s iteration of The Encyclopedia Show takes place this Monday, February 10. The theme will be Obsolete Diseases and you can catch some of your favorite poets reading brand new work there: come enjoy poems from Emily Carroll, Jeff Seigrist, and Catherine Martin, as well as a hula hoop routine by Catherine and a short film by Gary Hoare. Good fun ahead!
Moonlighting: A Queer Open Mic and Reading Series Featuring Marc Dones on Thursday, February 6, 2014
This reading is part of our monthly LGBTQ series, Moonlighting. Click here for more information about this recurring show.
Marc Dones, Moonlighting feature for February 6, 2014.
The featured reader for February 6 is Marc Dones. Marc is a writer, public policy human, blogger, and whiner.
A graduate of New York University’s Gallatin School with a concentration in Psychiatric Anthropology, he has previously served on the Massachusetts Commission on LGBT Youth, where he directed Commission’s communications as well as co-chairing the Administration Committee. Currently Marc serves as a Program Manager in the Executive Office of Health and Human Services where he works on youth homelessness, permanent supportive housing, youth violence reduction, and LGBTQ specific policy.
In his spare time Marc hangs out with his roommate’s dog, rides his bike, and is generally impractical. His favorite color is chartreuse. Feel free to follow him on Facebook, Twitter, tumblr, or anywhere else he can be followed (except down the street).
This show in our monthly Thursday LGBTQ series takes place at Fazenda Coffee Roasters, 3710 Washington St. in the Jamaica Plain area of Boston. An open mic begins at approximately 7:00 p.m. and the headliner follows the open mic. The show is all-ages and a $3 donation is requested.
Cantab Feature for Wednesday, February 5, 2014: Porsha O(layiwola)
Porsha Olayiwola, dope performer, educator, and coach.
Black, dyke, poet, lover hip-hop feminist, womanist friend, Porsha Olayiwola is a performance artist who believes in pixie dust and second chances. A resident of Boston by way of Chicago, Porsha O. was runner-up at the 2012 Women of the World Poetry Slam and a finalist at the 2013 tournament, as well as a driving member of multiple semi-finalist Lizard Lounge National Poetry Slam teams and a MassLEAP spoken-word teaching artist. Her intention is to speak, love, and maintain a cypher that is undocumented, uncontrollable and just plain ole dope.
Porsha earned a BA in African American studies from the University of Illinois. A native of Chicago, she moved to Boston in 2010 to serve as an AmeriCorps*VISTA for the National Coalition for the Homeless. During her year of service, she started the Massachusetts’ Faces of Homelessness Speakers Bureau. She is also a member of Boston’s HBGC Women’s Council, helping to address issues surrounding queer women of color in the Boston area. Porsha is super excited to be working with young people as Codman Academy’s Enrichment Coordinator and Slam Poetry Coach.
Poetically, Porsha intertwines the spirits of Audre Lorde, Fannie Lou Hamer, Ida. B. Wells Barnett and June Jordan with the bluntness of Hip Hop Feminism, creating poetry that speaks for itself. She has opened for Mae Jemison, the first African American female astronaut, MC LYTE, pioneering female hip-hop artist, Dr. Cornell West and Dr. Angela Davis. A founding member of the Chicago – based political performance group, “The Unwritten Amendment,” she uses poetry to create a dynamic flow of infra-politics that rebels against the norms and rigidity of society.
Note that tonight’s open poetry slam is a speed slam 3-, 2-, and 1-minute rounds. Slam winners qualify for the 2014 World Qualifier.
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. The open mic begins at 8:00 and the feature performs at approximately 10:00. An open speed slam in the 8×8 series will follow. The show is 18+ (ID required) and the cover charge is $3.
Boston Poetry Slam Online