There is no poetry show for Wednesday, December 25, 2013.
Please enjoy the night off. We’ll return to our usual schedule on January 1, 2014!
Cantab Recap for Wednesday, December 18, 2013
Cantabbers, for the last Wednesday show of the year, we were super-proud to bring you a feature from a not-so-long-ago local favorite, David Winter. Now a resident of New York City, David returned home for the season and brought us the impeccably crafted, carefully delivered poems that have always landed so beautifully in our listening room. What an excellent reunion to celebrate the end of the year.
Following David’s feature was our first-ever Sestina Slam– a two-sestina, all-form competition that brought in eight hard-thinking writers and five very serious judges, including special guest celebrity judge Tom Daley. Emily O’Neill and Chloé Cunha kicked in the door as a dual sacrifice to get the judges in the mood for the sestina sound; Chloé also kicked in the clock with a wicked time penalty, assessed to the angry dismay of a vastly entertained crowd. Some exceptional work came from all of our readers, including Gemma Cooper-Novack (an early sign-up for the slam and one of the event’s inspirations), Jade Sylvan (right in the midst of a sestina-writing frenzy for a related project of her own), and Patrick S. (who’s been successfully slamming sestinas for years).
Some of the night’s most memorable moments commuted to us from Slam Free or Die locals: Mckendy Fils-Aimé made the strategically questionable but admirably nerdy decision to slam a sestina about Pokemon battling, whereas Christopher Clauss achieved the second round only to be eliminated after his nuanced piece about the Mandela memorial sign language interpreter. The big story of the night, however, had to be Jonah Comstock and Nathan Comstock: after drawing one another in the last pairing in the first round, each presented carefully crafted work about Mos Eisley and Harry Potter… Only to tie and be called back to the stage to present two more sestinas.
Nathan took the first round win and eventually advanced to the final round, where he met up with a crowd-walking Sean Patrick Mulroy in the final dramatic pairing. Nathan won the title for most poems read (four to Sean’s three), but Sean took home the high score and the $10. What a night!
We’ll be on break for the 25th of December this year, but don’t worry: the Boston Poetry Slam will be back with a vengeance (not exactly like Die Hard, which is Carlos Williams‘ favorite Christmas movie, by the way) before the calendar year is over. You can catch Kevin Spak producing our evening show at First Night on Tuesday, December 31… Then swing by for the return of our Wednesday series on Wednesday, January 1 with Stevie Edwards… And finish ringing in your New Year right with Moonlighting on January 2. Looks like a grand year for poetry already!
Cantab Feature for Wednesday, December 18: David Winter and the Sestina Slam
David Winter, Boston-gone-NYC poet.
The first time David Winter performed his poetry was at the Cantab Lounge in 2004. In 2013, his chapbook Safe House was published by Thrush Press. His writing has also appeared or is forthcoming in Four Way Review, Atlanta Review, and For Some Time Now: Performance Poets of New York City. He is an MFA student in Creative Writing at The Ohio State University and an Associate Poetry Editor for The Journal.
David’s feature will be followed by the SESTINA SLAM, an open poetry slam in the 8×8 series requiring at least two sestinas from each participant. All standard poetry slam rules will apply and the slam will run in the standard 8×8 format linked here. In addition, each participant must have at least TWO SESTINAS and one additional form poem: round one of the slam will require a sestina, round two may be a form poem of any type, and round three requires another sestina. You may peruse the writing rules for a sestina on Wikipedia.
Due to the specific nature of the slam, advance signups will be taken by email. There is ONE SACRIFICE SPOT remaining, but the slam is now full! Confirmed participants: Nathan Comstock, Gemma Cooper-Novak, Sean Patrick Mulroy, Mckendy Fils-Aimé, Jade Sylvan, Jonah Comstock, Patrick S, Christopher Clauss, with Chloé Cunha as sacrifice.
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 Sestina Slam, which will also serve as an open slam in the 8×8 series, will follow. The show is 18+ (ID required) and the cover charge is $3.
Cantab Recap for Wednesday, December 11, 2013
Sure, maybe Radio Boston told you all Suzi Q. Smith was going to be a great feature, but we at the Boston Poetry Slam are especially glad to see how many investigative folks trekked out to our basement on a cold night to see for themselves! As predicted, Suzi rocked the mic, opened some eyes, and even brought us a new form poem (in chapbook format) to try. Thanks so much to our excellent open mic, too, packed with newcomers, old friends, and good work all around.
With just a few open slams left until Team Selection Preliminaries, competition is really heating up during the late-night part of the show! This week was no exception, as Omoizele “Oz” Okoawo battled against Chris Lee in the final round, ending with a dynamic performance by Chris that netted him the win.
Next week: as the New Year draws to a close, we often welcome back poets who have moved away. This year will be no exception, as our feature will be the much-missed David Winter. Our slam that night will be our first-ever Sestina Slam– the roster is already full, but if you’d like to hear a whole buncha six-pointed poems slammed, this is your night! It’ll also be our last show of 2013, so come hang out with us and maybe knock back some drinks at the bar for auld lang syne.
Cantab Feature for Wednesday, December 11: Suzi Q. Smith
Slam NUBA SlamMaster Suzi Q. Smith. Photo by Aaron Lopez.
Suzi Q. Smith lives with her brilliant daughter in Denver, Colorado. Her work has appeared in a few magazines and anthologies, and she lives her life writing, performing, in addition to leading workshops on writing and performance. She has shared stages with the late Gil Scott Heron, Les Nubians, Dead Prez, Rev. Run, Talib Kweli and many more, performing at colleges and universities, night clubs, coffee houses, and festivals throughout the U.S. Her slam titles include top honors in 2012 and 2013 at the Taos Poetry Festival, Finalist at the 2013 Women of the World Poetry Slam, 2012 Southwest Shootout Champion, and Finalist at the 2011 Individual World Poetry Slam.
In Denver, she currently works with Slam Nuba, Denver Minor Disturbance Youth Poetry Slam, and Flobots.org. She is the founding Slammaster of Slam Nuba, and she serves on the Executive Council of Poetry Slam, Inc.
You can listen to a preview of this show, as well as learn more about the history of the poetry slam, at Radio Boston’s ARTery show, featuring Caroline Harvey.
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.
Moonlighting Recap for Thursday, December 5, 2013
On Thursday we kept Fazenda rocking, packing the house for a Moonlighting feature from Kemi Alabi. The open mic was more packed, more hilarious, and more raw than ever. Kemi started us out with a celebratory toast and launched into one of the most poem-packed features we’ve seen, hardly coming up for air during her exuberant, affirming set. You guys did a great job snapping up her exclusive, Moonlighting-edition chapbook, too!
Our next Moonlighting show will take place on Thursday, January 2, to kick off the new year right! And don’t forget to check out Fazenda’s other Thursday night event, the New Sh!t Show Boston, on December 19, with all-new poems from Sam Cha, music from Brendan Burns, and comedy from Danica Burt.
Cantab Recap for Wednesday, December 4, 2014
So it turns out that if every person who said they’d been inspired by Nora Meiners wrote a poem about it, we’d have a two-hour open mic every Wednesday… Yeah, that’s right: Wednesday’s open was a glorious layering of connections missed and made, stories from the newspaper’s back pages, and a pretty sweet love-fest all about our feature. Turns out it just set her up for success: Nora performed and read a broad selection of new and old from her two! new! chapbooks, making it totally clear why this longtime regular and very strong slammer has such a strong local following. The slam was also pretty sweet, coming down to one-time Hampshire College rep Emily O’Neill vs. rising Emerson College performer Sierra Lister. Sierra took home the win and the $10, earning a spot in our upcoming Champion of Champions in January.
Next week: we’re excited to welcome Denver powerhouse Suzi Q. Smith to the mic! Suzi loves cold Denver winters, heavy metal, and winning national championships– so we know you’ll love her, too. We’ll finish up the night with another open poetry slam in the 8×8 series.
Boston Poetry Slam Online