A terrible person has cooked you breakfast. Why?
Cantab Feature for Wednesday, January 15, 2014: Hanif Abdurraqib
Hanif Abdurraqib, Columbus poet and NPS 2013 favorite.
Hanif Abdurraqib writes poems when he is not sitting in his Columbus, Ohio apartment eating red velvet cake, or judgmentally thumbing through your record collection. His first collection of poems, Three Crosses, was released in December 2012, and his second collection, Sons of Noah, is forthcoming from Tired Hearts Press in 2014. He wants you to tell him your top 5 albums of all time.
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, the final open poetry slam to qualify for the 2014 Boston Poetry Slam Team, will follow. The show is 18+ (ID required) and the cover charge is $3.
Cantab Recap for Wednesday, January 8, 2014
Is it still 2014, Cantabbers? Good news: from our poetry perspective, this year is awesome so far! We had a fun-sized open mic last night with a good group of solid newcomers, plus a great selection of folks returning from winter break, regulars trying out a new voice for 2014, and a few long-distance travelers who heard we had a killer feature lined up. Oh, and that feature? It was Casey Rocheteau, a long-time New Englander and once-upon-a-time Cantab open mic-er, on a visit to us from NYC. Casey rattled our hearts with a selection of almost-all new-to-us work, some fresh to the page and some from her 2012 book, Knocked Up On Yes. Casey doesn’t have another feature scheduled in the area any time soon, but you can always travel to see her: she’s curating a brand-new series called ALL the RAGE that kicks off on January 23 with a super-hot feature, and you are totally invited.
After Casey’s feature, we rolled right into the wicked crazy Champion of Champions slam! Even with a few folks out of town and one sitting the night out, our line-up was totally stellar: Janae Johnson, Nora Meiners, Zanne Langlois, Sierra Lister, and Sean Patrick Mulroy lined up to offer themselves as the 2014 Boston Poetry Slam Team challenge reigning Champion Tom Slavin for the venue title. The five-poet format meant we got to hear two poems from everyone without an elimination, which led to a great show with each poet trying on a few voices for the judges. The last 8×8 pairing came down to Janae Johnson and Sean Patrick Mulroy: although Janae, who is also the reigning Lizard Lounge champ, held a commanding lead for the first two rounds, Sean took the head-to-head in the third for the season title!
Sean then went on to challenge Tom Slavin for all the marbles. Having previously lost to Tom during his Reign of Terror in July of 2013, Sean came prepared; both poets brought strong, memorized work to the brand-new poem round, with Sean opting for informal storytelling and Tom showing off a formal rhyme scheme. After deliberation from some overall highly consistent judges (seriously, we want these guys to come back for the Prelims on January 22), Sean took the win over Tom, 3-2. The champ has been defeated –Tom held the title starting April 24, 2013– long live the champ! Congratulations to Sean, who’ll be invited to defend his title this coming April.
Next week: oh, boy, this week was so good, we almost forgot about next week. Almost, but we are better now… The awesome and remarkable music writer, sports critic, and amazeballs poet Hanif Abdurraqib will be in town from Columbus to burn up our stage. It’s worth noting that Hanif will also be an honored guest writer at our next Encyclopedia Show this coming Monday, January 13: the show is at the Davis Square Theatre and the topic will be Hockey. See you there!
Cantab Feature for Wednesday, January 8, 2014: Casey Rocheteau and the Champion of Champions Slam
Casey Rocheteau reminds you that the future is black. Photo by Thomas Sayers Ellis.
Casey Rocheteau is a Cave Canem Fellow, performs throughout the country, and has lead a variety of writing and performance workshops. She has been involved in slam poetry since 2003 including being a member of the 2012 Providence Slam Team. She’s released two albums on the Whitehaus Family Record, self-published four books and her most recent book, Knocked Up on Yes, was released on Sargent Press in 2012. She can be reached at her personal website.
Tonight will also mark the next installment in the Champion of Champions! Tom Slavin, three-time champion, will defend his title against the winner of this season’s 8×8 slam 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. The open mic begins at 8:00 and the feature performs at approximately 10:00. The Champions of Champions Slam in the 8×8 series will follow. The show is 18+ (ID required) and the cover charge is $3.
Moonlighting Recap for January 2, 2014
After a last-minute change of venue (our hosts at Fazenda had to close up shop due to the inclement weather), a small crowd gathered in Dorchester to hear feature Corrina Bain and spotlight performer Stevie Edwards share the poems they’d bundled with them through the snowstorm. Luckily some of our Moonlighters are as persistent as the snow, and they came out to the new venue for a cozy, round-robin style open mic and an intimate performance from the two artists. Stevie shared both poems from her book, Good Grief, and new work. Corrina’s stark, haunting poems and powerful performance filled the new space to the rafters and brought the audience on an exploration of gender and the body in the media and community. He performed some requested hits and some work unfamiliar to the audience. We can’t wait to have Corrina back soon to wow the whole crowd at Fazenda–in slightly milder climes.
Our next Moonlighting feature is TBA, but the date is firm: you can mark Thursday, February 6 in your calendar for the next reading!
Cantab Recap for Wednesday, January 1, 2014
Before you ask, folks… Yes, tonight’s Moonlighting show is on, but our venue has changed! Please see the info at the bottom of this post for more details.
Happy New Year, Boston Poetry Slam fans! Thanks so much to everyone who came out to celebrate with us and Stevie Edwards, a truly lovely performer, poet, editor, and educator from Cornell. Stevie helped us purge our old demons and gird ourselves for whatever 2014 has to offer.
Our slammers that night had a similar idea, many of them traveling many miles to be with us for the show! At the end of the night, though, it was two locals left standing: a valiant and poignant effort from Emily Carroll, however, was not enough to defeat a locked-on Oz for the final spot in next week’s Champion of Champions slam.
Next week: that’s right, Tom Slavin will be defending his title against the last eight slam winners! And and AND, as though that were not enough, professional badass and pull-no-punches real-talker Casey Rocheateau will be our featured poet. Excellent!
Of course, if you are craving more poetry just this minute, there’s always our Moonlighting show with Corrina Bain tonight! We did hear about that little snowstorm thingy, but Corrina was already on the way here, so we’re thrilled to host this poet at a NEW, CHANGED, AND PRIVATE VENUE in the JP/Dorchester area. For directions, please see the link above, or check out our Facebook event. Stay warm, poets!
Moonlighting: A Queer Open Mic and Reading Series Featuring Corrina Bain on Thursday, January 2, 2014
ALERT! ALERT! VENUE CHANGE! THE SHOW WILL GO ON!
Due to the inclement weather this evening, Fazenda Coffee Roasters is closed. However, as Corrina had already begun the journey to Boston when the news came in, we will still be offering a show from this remarkable poet.
The venue has changed to a private space in the JP/Dorchester area. Please see the Facebook event (click here) for precise location details and bus/subway directions.
If you are planning to head out tonight, please use caution and good sense! We strongly recommend that you avail yourself of public transportation; Boston has declared a snow emergency, which restricts parking in some areas. Stay safe and enjoy the night!
This reading is part of our monthly LGBTQ series, Moonlighting. Click here for more information about this recurring show.
The featured reader for January 2 is Corrina Bain.
Corrina Bain, Moonlighting feature for January 2, 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 on this one night only at a private residence 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, January 1, 2014: Stevie Edwards
Stevie Edwards, poet, editor, and educator.
Stevie Edwards is a poet, an editor, and an educator. She’s currently a Lecturer in the English Department at Cornell University, where she recently completed her MFA in creative writing. Her first full-length collection of poetry, Good Grief, was released by Write Bloody in 2012 and recently received the Independent Publisher Book Awards (IPPY) Bronze Prize for Poetry and the Devil’s Kitchen Reading Award. Her latest chapbook, Atomic Girl, is forthcoming from Tired Hearts Press. She is the Editor-in-Chief of MUZZLE Magazine and Assistant Editor in Book Development at YesYes Books. Her poetry has appeared in Verse Daily, Rattle, Indiana Review, Devil’s Lake, PANK, Vinyl, Aim for the Head: An Anthology of Zombie Poetry, and elsewhere.
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.
Boston Poetry Slam Online