Cantab Recap for Wednesday, March 6

The Association of Writers and Writing Programs is in town, and you know what that means… 10,000 writers want to get into the Cantab, that’s what! Our co-founding SlamMaster Patricia Smith was back for a visit last night, and she brought about ten AWP folks along with her who are just as comfortable on the slam stage. The house regulars rocked a two-part open mic, then Patricia performed with her own posse, including Angel Nafis, Anis Mojgani, Daemond Arrindell, Jon Sands, Sara Brickman, Jan Beatty, Lauren Alleyne, Tyehimba Jess, Glenis Redmond, Saeed Jones, and Tim Seibles. HOLY HECK, that is an amazing line-up! And they’re all here in town for the week at AWP, so if you missed your chance to buy a book straight from the author, you can head to the free session of the book fair on Saturday and track ’em down.

Of course, some of you may have felt something was missing from last night’s open. Where were the judges, you asked? The heckling and high-pressure performance? The seemingly random numbers assigned to valuable and personal art after each round? Well: as much as we’d like to welcome some of last night’s features to our 2013 Boston Poetry Slam Team, there are only nine finalists qualified to take the stage at next week’s Team Selection Finals. It’ll be a slightly shorter open mic and a $5 cover to see three rounds of the hottest competition this side of the National Poetry Slam.

Oh, but there’s more: want a preview of the poets performing next Wednesday? Need your member jogged about the triumphs and tragedies of the February Team Selection Semi-Finals? Never fear, SlamCenter is hear! Hosted by Kevin Spak and Zeke Russell (and produced by a crack team of other poets you know), this is the first release of an all-poetry, all-slam sportscast that will be featuring full coverage at the 2013 National Poetry Slam. Check SlamCenter out here, and check back next week for the recap of Finals!

Slam-Center-Logo3

Writing Prompt: Double-Feature Prompts for AWP!

Prompt #1, from bartender Adam Stone: write a poem about a city that prevents you from reaching your destination. For bonus points, make it a sestina. For an extra degree of difficulty, use landmarks for all your ending words.

Prompt #2, from server Emily Carroll: the Anti-Stone Prompt… Give a certain bossy bartender directions on how to write a poem.

Cantab Feature for Wednesday, March 6: Patricia Smith and Special Guests

Patricia Smith. (Photo by Rachel Eliza Griffiths.)

Patricia Smith. (Photo by Rachel Eliza Griffiths.)

UPDATED SHOW SCHEDULE:
7:15 — doors, open mic sign-up (both sets)
8:00 — open mic part une
9:00 — first feature set with Patricia Smith and AWP All-Stars!
9:45 — intermission
10:00 — open mic part deux
10:45 — second feature set with Patricia Smith and AWP All-Stars!

THIS SHOW HAS A STRICT CAPACITY OF 100.
WE WILL SELL OUT!

Patricia Smith. Patricia Smith. Patricia Smith. Four-time individual National Poetry Slam winner, National Book Award nominee, AWP all-star, and she’s never lost a slam at the Cantab, the venue she co-founded and hosted since day one. Simply put, she’s easily the highest-ranked slammer of all time, the mama of all things Boston Poetry Slam, and one of the reasons Wednesday is even permitted to be a day of the week. She gets an extended set tonight because the audience would riot if she only performed for thirty minutes. You can order her newest book, Shoulda Been Jimi Savannah, ahead of time in case you are too poet-struck to buy it from the author herself.

If that isn’t enough for you, though… There’s a big ol’ writers’ conference in town this week, and Patricia won’t be the only old-school slammer attending. She’s offered to guide a few of those writers and performers to our stage to give us a star-studded night at the old dive bar, and we hope a few first-timers to slam will wander in to see what all the fuss is about, too. Come early, stay late, and take notes: it’s going to be a night to remember at the Cantab Lounge.

AMAZING UPDATE! We now have the full list of people who’ll be performing at the Cantab on this night, and it is a doozy. The murderer’s row:

  • Roger Bonair-Agard
  • Afaa Weaver
  • Jon Sands
  • Sara Brickman
  • Daemond Arrindell
  • Angel Nafis
  • Jan Beatty
  • Lauren Alleyne
  • Tyehimba Jess
  • Glenis Redmond

Unconfirmed rumors: Saeed Jones, Tim Seibles

And we are excited to announce that the lead singer of Roomful of Blues, Phil Pemberton, will be accompanying Patricia! YOWZA.

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. To allow for extended feature time, there is no open poetry slam tonight. The show is 18+ (ID required) and the cover charge is $3.

The Encyclopedia Show: Somerville for Monday, March 4 — S1V6: VICE PRESIDENTS

Encyclopedia Show: Somerville -- S1V6: VICE PRESIDENTS

Encyclopedia Show: Somerville — S1V6: VICE PRESIDENTS

Monday, March 4
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 new 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 VICE PRESIDENTS! 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 Library offers MUSICAL SUPPORT
  • Teacher Meg presents a poignant HISTORY LESSON
  • And Intern Steve Subrizi is predestined to probably not ruin the show.

Live Fact Checking is reluctantly provided by Jack van Sly from the Institute of Human Knowledge and Hygiene.

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, February 27

Was school vacation just last week? Folks, this week we were back to school with an official CUPSI Warm-Up slam: Emerson College, Simmons College, Harvard University, and the Berklee College of Music mixed it up in a friendly 4×4 to get ready for college nationals in April. Emerson took the top scores in the bout at their home-venue-away-from-home, with Harvard University close behind; Berklee showcased some new work, including a harmonized group piece, to finish a respectable third, and Simmons earned the crowd favorite award for their very strong five-woman team. Looking forward to hearing about how all these teams fare at the big show!

This week: get ready for a HUGE Patricia Smith feature, poetry lovers. Not only is our very own co-founder and four-time national slam champion bringing a ridiculous all-star line-up with her (including Roger Bonair-Agard, Jan Beatty, and Angel Nafis)… She and her crew will also be doing TWO extended feature sets!

Our first open mic will begin at 8:00 as usual, followed by a 9:00 feature set. We’ll take a short break, then start with a second-half open mic around 10:00 with a second feature set to close the night. THIS SHOW WILL SELL OUT, so line up for our 7:15 door time, or take your chances hoping for room to open for you at the 9:45 intermission.

Questions? Check out our event page, or Patricia’s very own Facebook event. Trust us, you don’t want to miss out on this one.

Tips from the Bar: the Jack Slavin Prompt

Write a three-part poem: your personal ad, date, and break-up with an addiction.

Cantab Feature for Wednesday, February 27: CUPSI Warm-Up

Boston Poetry Slam

SCHEDULE CHANGE! Sadly, the performer originally scheduled for tonight won’t be able to make this feature date. We’ll reschedule Amy Everhart as soon as we can, but in the meantime…

Did someone mention CUPSI? We heard that the collegiate national poetry slam tournament is being held in New York this April, and that there’s a ton of Boston teams headed there this year. To help our local students gear up for the competition, we’ll be offering the CUPSI Warm-Up, a 4×4 team slam featuring Emerson College, Simmons College, Harvard University, and one more team TBA.

Here’s the best part: we’re proud to present this slam in conjunction with reVERB, the slam poetry organization at the Berklee College of Music! Ours is only one match in a one-day, two-night extravaganza of workshops, competitions, and meet ‘n’ greets, known as The NorthBEASTer Friendly (click for all the details via Facebook). All students are welcome and we are still actively seeking teams to join in: email slam coach and Berklee Assistant Professor Caroline Harvey for details.

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. There is no open poetry slam tonight. The show is 18+ (ID required) and the cover charge is $3 ($2 for non-competing NorBEASTer Friendly teams).

Cantab Recap for Wednesday, February 20

You can always tell it’s school vacation by the way teachers –and students– turn out for poetry in the middle of the week! The venue was jam-packed just a few minutes after doors opened last night, with folks of all stripes finding a good excuse to stay out late on a cold Wednesday. Perhaps in honor of feature Wes Hazard, work on the open mic leaned to the funny all night, warming up our stomach muscles in time for the feature. Wes himself showed off some of his comedy chops, but also took the opportunity to use “the full range of human emotions,” as he quipped; this classy guy put on a great show, and if you missed it, you can still ask him for the chapbook he produced especially for us.

The speed slam was the last one we’ll be having before mid-March, so the venue’s performers made the most of it! Eight poets became two as Bobby Crawford and Kieran Collier faced off in the final round, with Bobby’s thirty-second metaphor winning out over Kieran’s series of haiku. Bobby will be back in the next Champion of Champions slam in April, along with all our winners from this series: check out the list of speed slam winners here.

Next week: SCHEDULE CHANGE! It’s the CUPSI Warm-Up! Poetry slam teams from Emerson College, Simmons College, and Harvard University will face off in a practice round for college nationals, coming to New York City in just six weeks. We’re proud to present our slam as part of a two-day event, the NorBEASTer Friendly, with Berklee College of Music’s reVERB poetry club.

Tips from the Bar: the Russian Novelist Prompt

What unexpected thing does something in your refrigerator say about you?

Cantab Feature for Wednesday, Feburary 20: Wes Hazard

Wes Hazard, Boston comic and poet.

Wes Hazard, Boston comic and poet.

Double-dipping as a stand-up comic and a poet, Wes Hazard loves language, technology, over-thinking the institutions of pop culture, and entertaining audiences. An open mic favorite at the Cantab, Wes also produced a comedy-poetry show pairing at our summer Radio series, as well as presented at the inaugural Encyclopedia Show: Somerville. Navigating skillfully between the vulgar and the whimsical he takes few things seriously, least of all himself. Visit him on Twitter: @weshazard.

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.