Cantab Feature for Wednesday, May 21, 2014: Tonya Ingram

Tonya Ingram, NPS 2013 Finalist from NYC.

Tonya Ingram, NPS 2013 Finalist from NYC.

Tonya Ingram graduated from New York University with a Bachelor’s degree in Social Justice Education Through Performance Poetry. She has been fortunate to perform at the New Amsterdam Theater on Broadway, the Cutler Majestic Theater and Berklee Performance Center in Boston, the Apollo Theater, San Francisco Opera House, and Harvey Theater at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. She is the recipient of the 2009-2010 President’s Service Award, the Lorraine Hansberry Arts, Performance, and Media Award, the 2010 New York Cares Volunteer Extraordinaire Award and the BBVA Leader of Tomorrow Award. She is also the 2011 recipient of the Cora Craig Author Award for Young Women and is working on her first book of poetry.

Tonya has represented NYU at the 2010, 2011 and 2013 College Unions Poetry Slam Invitational, and as the NYU Grand Slam Champ in 2010 and 2013. In addition, she represented herself at the New York Knicks Poetry Slam during 2010 and 2011: in 2011 she won the city-sideevent. She was a member of the 2011 Urban Word-NYC poetry slam team that placed second in the nation at the Brave New Voices International Poetry Slam Festival in San Francisco, and subsequently a member of the 2013 Nuyorican Poets Cafe Grand Slam team that placed third at this past year’s National Poetry Slam. She is currently pursuing her MFA in Public Practice.

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, May 14, 2014

May can be a puzzling time at the Boston Poetry Slam… Should you wear shorts or a sweater to our marginally climate-controlled basement? Order a beer punch or a whiskey and lager? And are your favorite open mic readers staying local or headed home for the summer? At least one piece of information was absolutely unambiguous last night at the Cantab: Sasha Banks is a fabulous writer, and our audience of short-timers and old-timers alike was won over almost instantly by her incredibly solid feature. Excellent! Our slam was a four-person affair full of regular poets pulling out a few surprises: first-time slammer Catherine Martin achieved the final round on her first try, but was defeated by just a few tenths in the final round by eventual winner Nora Meiners. Congrats to Nora, who must be thinking ahead: she’s officially our first open slammer qualified to try out for the 2015 Boston Poetry Slam team!

Thinking ahead to next week, we’ve got another excellent young writer and 2013 National Poetry Slam Finals stage performer: New Yorker Tonya Ingram returns from school in L.A. to bring us a full feature next week, plus we’ll have another open slam in this brand-new 8×8 series.

Tips from the Bar: Ghost Title

How do you haunt a ghost?

Cantab Feature for Wednesday, May 14, 2014: Sasha Banks

Sasha Banks, poet and educator from Ft. Worth.

Sasha Banks, poet and educator from Ft. Worth.

Sasha Banks is a poet and educator from Ohio, by way of Alaska, by way of Germany, by way of California. She lives in Ft. Worth, Texas, teaching writing workshops for elementary and university level students. She has spoken for Arun Gandhi, and was a Golden Poem Award winner and performer at the 2013 National Poetry Slam. Her work has appeared in The Austin International Poetry Anthology, Kinfolks Quarterly, Tulane University’s Vagina Monologues and was awarded publication in Alight. She is a 2013 Button Poetry Chapbook Prize finalist.

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 slam in the 8×8 series will follow. The show is 18+ (ID required) and the cover charge is $3.

Tips from the Bar: Where Are They Now?

Consider what cereal mascots do after retirement.

Cantab Feature for Wednesday, May 7, 2014: World Qualifier Speed Slam

Our nine-round speed slam series has only just drawn to a close… Which means it’s time to ramp up for the biggest speed slam of them all, the opening rounds of the World Qualifier! This two-night, six-poem series will select the Boston Poetry Slam’s sole representative to the 2014 Individual World Poetry Slam, taking place in Phoenix this October.

Night one of the World Qualifier is our annual grand speed slam: poets who have qualified in the last three 8×8 slam series will compete in a lightning-fast two-round slam using only 2- and 1-minute poems. That means lots of new work performed by your favorite slam winners from the past year! Top scorers move on to Finals at the end of the month.

The following qualified poets have confirmed that they will compete on Wednesday, May 7 (what a list!):

  • Bobby Crawford
  • Marshall Gillson
  • Meaghan Ford
  • Melissa Newman-Evans
  • Mckendy Fils-Aimé
  • Sophia Holtz
  • Ed Wilkinson
  • Kieran Collier
  • Janae Johnson
  • Nora Meiners
  • Allison Truj
  • Zanne Langlois
  • Sierra Lister
  • Chris Lee
  • Sean Patrick Mulroy
  • Omoizele Okoawo
  • Chloé Cunha
  • Zeke Russell
  • Princess Chan
  • Ellyn Touchette
  • Nathan Comstock
  • Emily Carroll
  • Dave McKenna
  • Sacrifice poems will be performed by Tom Slavin and Catherine Martin.

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. An slightly shortened 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; proceeds will go toward funding the World Qualifier winner’s trip to IWPS in Phoenix, Arizona this October.

Cantab Recap for Wednesday, April 30, 2014

Around here at the BPS, a five-Wednesday month feels as good as a month with an extra paycheck! We spent our poetry payday with a raw, remarkable, and highly memorable feature from Corrina Bain; Corrina welcomed us to a rawly new 30/30 and a dark landscape of childhood memories, all laced with surprisingly homey sarcasm, taking names and changing lives the whole way. Want more? Corrina’s booked at tonight’s Moonlighting show in Jamaica Plain, including a special 6:30 workshop to help kick-start your writing to the next level, as well as an all-different set for those of you who are aching for another taste of this intense performer.

The slam last night was also of remarkable character: eight hopefuls lined up for the Last Chance Slam, the final opportunity for poets to get in on next week’s World Qualifier Speed Slam. Between collegiate all-stars and old school slam champions, wave after wave of slam was represented… And the final two came down to Jena, a clever and unshy poet visiting from Austin, and Dave McKenna, onetime Radio regular. Jena’s poem in the second round won the crowd and judges’ hearts, but Dave’s one-minute performance in the final round sealed the deal and earned him ten bucks and the last spot. Awesome work from everyone!

Tonight: Moonlighting, our LGBTQ reading, starts with a 6:30 workshop and continues with an open mic and feature from the awesome Corrina Bain.

Next week: an outrageous number of poets have qualified for what will actually be a super-efficient show… Our famous World Qualifier Speed Slam invites the last three series of winners back to do only 2- and 1-minute poems, hoping to make the cut for Finals at the end of the month! You can see the list of 20+ monster poets behind the link; we think that’s worth a $5 cover charge, which will help send the ultimate World Qualifier winner to the Individual World Poetry Slam in October.

Tips from the Bar: The E.B. White Prompt

Tell a joke. Now over-explain it.

Moonlighting: A Queer Open Mic and Reading Series Featuring Corrina Bain on Thursday, May 1, 2014

This reading is part of our monthly LGBTQ series, Moonlighting. Click here for more information about this recurring show.

The featured reader for May 1 is Corrina Bain.

Corrina Bain, Moonlighting feature for May 1, 2014.

Corrina Bain, Moonlighting feature for May 1, 2014.

Corrina Bain is a gender-nonconforming writer, performance artist, educator, and wearer of suspenders. He has an extensive background in poetry slam, and has performed at venues as varied as the Coronet at the Largo Theater in Los Angeles and the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York. Published in anthologies and journals including RATTLE and the Everyman’s Library book Villanelles, he has also been nominated for the Pushcart Prize three times. He lives in Brooklyn and is a social worker in emergency psychiatry. More at corrinabain.com.

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, April 30, 2014: Corrina Bain

Corrina Bain, onetime Worcester poet, returns to the Boston Poetry Slam from NYC.

Corrina Bain, onetime Worcester poet, returns to the Boston Poetry Slam from NYC.

Corrina Bain is a gender-nonconforming artist, activist and educator whose poetry on page and in performance addresses and illuminates issues of transgression, particularly related to sexuality, gender, family and religion/mythology. Fueled and informed by past work in a detox center, an abortion clinic, a rape crisis hotline, and as a volunteer educator responding to the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Mozambique, Corrina’s poetry embraces and expresses the grit and fury and endurance of humanity.

Corrina’s work has earned a spot on four National Poetry Slam rosters and an opportunity to compete at the Individual World Poetry Slam competition in 2004, as well as featured performances throughout the country both solo and with luminaries including Dorothy Allison, Patricia Smith, Buddy Wakefield, Jim Carroll, Tobias Wolff, Nick Flynn, and Paul Muldoon. Journals including Danse Macabre, decomP, Killauthor, PANK, Muzzle, and The November 3rd Club have published Corrina’s work and a spoken word concept album, “Distilled,” created in collaboration with musician Tom Inhaler, focused on the experience of addiction. Recently, Corrina was a featured performer with Boston-based queer performance art troupe The Femme Show.

Note that tonight’s open poetry slam is a speed slam 3-, 2-, and 1-minute rounds. This is the last chance for a winner to 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. The Last Chance Slam in the speed series will follow. The show is 18+ (ID required) and the cover charge is $3.