Wondering where to catch the Boston Poetry Slam Team before they head to Nationals in Oakland? No problem! You can grab their schedule on the team’s bio page, or join the Facebook event if you’d like push notifications for all the details. See you around the NorthBEAST!
Moonlighting: A Queer Open Mic and Reading Series Featuring Chloé Cunha on Thursday, July 3, 2014
This reading is part of our monthly LGBTQ series, Moonlighting. Click here for more information about this recurring show.
The featured reader for July 3 is Chloé Cunha.
Hippy-dippy NYC-Boston poet Chloé Cunha.
Chloé Cunha is an aspiring poet and screenwriter, even though both of those things can often seem contradictory. She first discovered a love for poetry at Bar 13’s louderARTS while living in NYC. Though she deeply misses the constant throb of panicked sirens and the bevy of skunky dives, she is happy to have since moved back to her native hometown of Cambridge, MA. By day she is a hippy-dippy first grade assistant teacher, and by night she is probably asleep at the bar.
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, July 2, 2014: Patricia Smith
Patricia Smith. (Photo by Rachel Eliza Griffiths.)
Boston Poetry Slam co-founder, winningest slam competitor ever, and honest-to-metaphor firework Patricia Smith will return to the Cantab tonight for a special summer holiday feature.
Patricia Smith, lauded by critics as “a testament to the power of words to change lives,” is the author of six acclaimed poetry volumes. Shoulda Been Jimi Savannah was winner of the 2013 Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize from the Academy of American Poets, awarded to the best poetry book published in the United States the previous year. Patricia is also a 2008 National Book Award finalist, winner of the Hurston-Wright Legacy Award in Poetry, the Carl Sandburg Literary Award, the National Poetry Series award, the Patterson poetry award, two Pushcart prizes, and the Rattle poetry prize. She won the Robert L. Fish Memorial Award for short story writing and has had work selected to appear in both “Best American Poetry” and “Best American Essays.” In 2006, she was inducted into the International Literary Hall of Fame for Writers of African Descent, and she was the recipient of both McDowell and Yadoo fellowships. She is a 2014 Guggenheim Fellow.
This show will sell out: arrive BEFORE door time if you want to get in. (You want to get in.)
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 (there is no poetry slam tonight). The show is 18+ (ID required) and the cover charge is $3.
Cantab Recap for Wednesday, June 25, 2014
Well, that was awesome: Brendan Constantine came from the left coast to take over our stage last Wednesday and took us on a wild ride through the possibilities of language. What a great feature! The man has three books and tons of work to share, so even if you saw him this week, you might want to check out his website for his remaining local gigs, including Slam Free or Die and the Dirty Gerund.
The slam was packed with regulars looking ahead to qualify for 2015, all filled with high spirits and hijinks. After three rounds, a great set of poems, one blistering tie, and more than a few close calls, Bobby Crawford took home the win and the ten bucks.
Next week: we’re back with an extended Wednesday feature from Patricia Smith! And, yes, you know that’s going to sell out in a hot second, but we’ve fortunately scheduled a poetry double-header for you that week: you can also head across the river to catch Chloé Cunha at Moonlighting on Thursday.
Cantab Feature for Wednesday, June 25, 2014: Brendan Constantine
Brendan Constantine, Los Angeles poet.
Brendan Constantine’s work has appeared in numerous journals, most notably Ploughshares, FIELD, Zyzzyva, Ninth Letter, Poetry Daily, Verse Daily, ArtLife, The Los Angeles Review, The Pinch and the L.A. Times bestseller The Underground Guide to Los Angeles. His most recent collections are Birthday Girl With Possum (Write Bloody Publishing) and Calamity Joe (Red Hen Press). Brendan has received grants and commissions from the Getty Museum, James Irvine Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts. He is currently poet in residence at the Windward School and adjunct professor at Antioch University. In addition, he regularly offers classes to hospitals, shelters and with the Alzheimer’s Poetry Project. Visit him at brendanconstantine.com.
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 poetry slam in the 8×8 series will follow. The show is 18+ (ID required) and the cover charge is $3.
Cantab Recap for Wednesday, June 18, 2014
So many new folks turned out for the NorthBEAST 4×4 last night at the Cantab! …Well, actually, we think they turned out to get a spot on what was a super-fun and thoughtful open mic, but the room was still packed with excited listeners when slamtime rolled around. The Boston Poetry Slam team was prepped and ready to take on the Providence Poetry Slam from Rhode Island, the Rhythmic Cypher team from Portland, and the far-flung travelers from louderARTS NYC!
The show started strong with a thoughtful and funny three-woman group piece about crying in public from Mikayla Mitchell, Jordan Peterson, and Melissa Lozada-Oliva, followed by a more serious (and chilly!) sacrifice from Zeke Russell. First round highlights included a new cut of some older work from Oz and a carpetbagging Jamie Martin hitting the stage for NYC on a short jaunt down from his Portland feature, putting Boston and NYC neck and neck going into round two.
The second round was a cavalcade of confession, starting with RC’s Generalissimio setting his own house on fire. Muggs Fogarty got the on-page response award for the night from the two-spot in this round with her poem about anxiety and queerdom– her raw score would have been enough to put Providence up over New York, but a big time penalty gave the audience another reason besides great writing to shout and stomp. Brendan Wolff followed up from NYC to remind us that “sanity is a relative concept,” which led into a blistering performance of Melissa Newman-Evans’ Hurricane poem that pulled the home team well into the lead.
The NorthBEAST is rocking several lady-heavy teams for NPS this year, and that was most evident in the third round: three more solo ladies hit the stage for NYC, Portland, and Boston, including Bengal tiger Sophia Garcia from Portland: the judges even started giving up some of their precious 9s by the time Janae Johnson hit the stage with The Art of Being Feminine. The round closed with brand-new group piece from Sabine Quetant and Marshall Gillson from Providence; the audience was excited to see group work, but the judges preferred to wait until everyone was off page to give up the high scores.
Boston opened the fourth round with a new edit of a new off-page poem (new new new!) from Meaghan Ford, sealing the deal on the home team’s victory. LouderARTS was just behind with a portrait of high school from Gabriel Ramirez. Providence continued to shun performance in favor of shiny new ideas with a smoldering astronomy poem from Astrid Drew to garner Rhode Island the third place spot, and then the unmatchable Princess Jones got to close the night for Rhythmic Cypher with a very funny and self-empowering body love poem that was a perfect finish for the audience after a heavy night.
Thanks so much to all the teams who traveled to hang with us, and to our judges: Laurel, Sue, Elaine, Amanda, and Edward & Sarah. Hope to see everyone back at next month’s regional on July 16: that one’s got teams from the Lizard Lounge, Port Veritas, Slam Free or Die, and Urbana NYC!
Meanwhile, of course, we’ve got three other shows between now and then… As always, show up early and stay late for next week’s open mic, open slam, and, in the middle, weird and wonderful headliner Brendan Constantine in town from the left coast.
Cantab Feature for Wednesday, June 18, 2014: NorthBEAST Regional 4×4 with louderARTS, Providence, and Rhythmic Cypher
The National Poetry Slam is just a few months away, folks, and you know what that means: it’s time to kick off our summer of slam! This year’s inaugural event will be a Nationals-style 4×4 match– meaning four teams in four rounds, the ultimate balanced format for a poetry battle of strategy, emotion, and wits. If you’re wondering what slam looks like at its highest level, this is it, folks.
This first of two summertime 4x4s will pit the following Nationals-bound teams against one another:
- louderARTS Project (New York)
- Providence Poetry Slam (Rhode Island)
- Rhythmic Cypher (Maine)
- Boston Poetry Slam (your home team!)
This show will have a slightly shortened open mic and will sell out in exactly two hot seconds, people, so we advise arriving for door time at 7:15 if you want to get in to catch the show… Otherwise you’ll be waiting until July 16 to catch the other 4×4 we’ve booked this summer. Cover charge is $5 to help raise funds for our team to travel to Nationals in Oakland this August!
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 slam begins at approximately 10:00. The show is 18+ (ID required) and the cover charge is $5.
Cantab Recap for Wednesday, June 11, 2014
Holy smokes, Cantab, where did all you late-spring poetry lovers come from? The house sold out in a hot second for Maya Phillips last night, who brought nearly all new-to-us work to the Cantab stage from her fresh chapbook, Welcome Home. After missing Maya on the mic for the two years she’s been in New York City, it’s a savory, rare treat to hear so much of her work again.
(If you missed it, by the way, or found yourself locked out when the open mic sold out by 8:00, you might consider checking out the FAQ on how best to plan to see a show.)
The night’s slam was packed as well, full of eight experienced poets trying out lots of new work! The final round came down to Sophia Holtz and Zeke Russell vying for the $10 prize: Zeke came out on top by just 0.1, but the tight finish earned a huge response from the crowd for both poets.
Upcoming shows: two big slams are going down in the next six days, people! First up is the Nationals-style team slam going down up in Manchester tonight (Thursday, June 12), featuring a wicked four-way grudge match among the poets from Slam Free or Die, Rhythmic Cypher, Lizard Lounge, and our very own Boston Poetry Slam team; there’s plenty of room up at Milly’s and you’re invited to check out the show! Then, next Wednesday, we’ll host our own 4×4 NorthBEAST Regional where the home team takes on Providence, Rhythmic Cypher, and louderARTS-NYC– that one’s a $5 cover to help get our team to the National Poetry Slam in August, so save your quarters and gear up for a big night. See you soon!
Boston Poetry Slam Online