Cantab Recap for Wednesday, June 19

Oh, boy, Cantabbers: the summer of slam is almost here, and you could tell by the wall-to-wall packed house last night! It’s hard to keep talking about our open mic without bragging, but we can only take partial credit for last night: Michael F. Gill and the Brighton Word Factory crew successfully crashed the mic to bring us a telephone-game version of the Odyssey. What!

Once Odysseus cleared the stage, we had room for landlocked Omaha poet Ross Hickerson. Ross brought us a deep, dark selection of the work that graduated him from the slam stage years ago. A brave and consummate performer, as well as a captivating storyteller, Ross let us wring all the goodness out of his extremely rare touring experience. Thanks for making us a stop on your two-city tour, Ross!

The night was capped, as always, by an open slam… But this time, the slammers came from all over New England! The final pairing was Robin Merrill (from Portland’s Rhythmic Cypher Slam) paired up against Princess Chan (from Lowell’s Mill City Slam). Congratulations to Princess, who took the $10 in her first open slam at the Cantab.

…And if you liked that, you’ll love this: we’re back next week with a NorthBEAST Regional National Poetry Slam style 4×4 poetry slam, featuring teams from Rhythmic Cypher, Mill City, Slam Free Or Die, and your very own 2013 Boston Poetry Slam Team. As if that weren’t enough, we’ll also be hosted by the MC of the 2011 National Poetry Slam Finals himself: Nick Fox! Come early for the show as we’ll be shortening the open mic just a bit to make room for all the regional slammers in the house.

Tips from the Bar: A(nother) April Penn Prompt

A telephone-game version of the Odyssey? Check. Next up: telephone your favorite children’s book.

Cantab Feature for Wednesday, June 19, 2013: Ross Hickerson

Ross Hickerson, Nebraska poet.

Ross Hickerson, Nebraska poet.

Ross Hickerson is the two time Lincoln, NE city slam champion, and has competed as part of the Omaha, NE slam team. A former bouncer, and current EMS helicopter dispatcher, Ross also picks up corpses for a funeral home part time. You can find his work in The New and on thenervousbreakdown.com. Ross enjoys powerlifting and doom metal. He currently lives in Omaha, NE.

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.

Cantab Recap for Wednesday, June 12

Sweet mother of kiwifruit! We got to hang with Eliel Lucero all night last night and now you know: trying to tell the poetry crowd that Eliel is a DJ is like trying to tell them that Adam Stone is a bartender (a pursuit Eliel is also known for, by the way). This hard-working NYC mainstay endeared himself to the crowd immediately and rocked a raucous and intensely-listening room. Maybe we can blame that intensity for the moment the slam almost went off the rails (pro tip: bring more than one poem if the slam is more than one round, readers!); after a surprise resurrection from the first round and having edged out Alex Erhardt in a tie, Phoenix Bunke took the win over a still-smiling Ed Wilkinson.

Next week: doom metal! Powerlifting! Super-sensitive poetry guy! Ross Hickerson, who doesn’t tour, has come to us from Omaha, Nebraska just because we asked so nicely. We’ll finish the night with the next slam in our 8×8 series.

Tips from the Bar: SlamCenter on the Hour

Find, and write about, an event or pursuit even less deserving of SlamCenter-style play-by-play than poetry slam.

Cantab Feature for Wednesday, June 12, 2013: Eliel Lucero

Eliel Lucero, New York City poet and bartender.

Eliel Lucero, New York City poet and bartender.

Eliel Lucero is a native New Yorker, bartender, poet and DJ. His work appears in the International Poetry Review (The University of North Carolina at Greensboro), in Barber Shop Chronicles (penmanship press) and in Gape Seed (Uphook Press). He is the resident DJ for the LouderARTS Project. He was baptized in the funk at age fourteen and hasn’t taken a proper shower since.

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.

Cantab Recap for Wednesday, May 29 AND Wednesday, June 5

Time flies when you are planning the National Poetry Slam, folks! But don’t worry: we are still rocking the stage at the Cantab Lounge every Wednesday with the Boston Poetry Slam.

Just a few weeks ago, in fact, we put aside four rounds of slam to select our Individual World Poetry Slam representative for 2013. We’ll be sending just one poet to IWPS in Spokane, Washington this October! After narrowing the field to just eight poets in the semi-final round, we asked the audience to hold fast to their seats for a roller coaster ride of hilarity, tragedy, and ties, ties, ties until we got down to just two poets in the final round! In a startling upset, 2013 team member Omoizele Okoawo fell in the head-to-head round to BPS regular-yet-rookie (and member of the 2013 Mill City Slam team) Bobby Crawford! Huge congratulations to Bobby, who will travel across the country to try his hand at the 72-poet competition this fall.

The next week (that’s just last Wednesday for those of you keeping track) we welcomed Vancouver poet and organizer Lisa Slater to our stage. This thoughtful queer artist dredged up some heavy feelings, interspersed with some lovely light moments. Our slam that night was won by Mill City Slam Team (there’s that name again!) captain Nathan Comstock.

Tonight, tonight, tonight: we’ll be back, of course, with the famed poet-DJ-bartender Eliel Lucero from NYC. We’ll also finish up the night with another open slam. See you there!

Tips from the Bar: I Am From Betelgeuse Five

Write a rallying identity poem for a place or thing that either doesn’t exist, or else isn’t frequently made the focus of identity (i.e. carpet embroiderers, soup enthusiasts, what have you).

Moonlighting: A Queer Open Mic and Reading Series on Thursday, June 6, 2013, featuring Casey Rocheteau

THE THIRD INSTALLMENT IN OUR LGBTQ MONTHLY SERIES, MOONLIGHTING! Click here for more information about Moonlighting.

New England-gone-NYC poet Casey Rocheteau.

New England-gone-NYC poet Casey Rocheteau.

This month’s Moonlighting feature will be Casey Rocheteau, who began performing poetry at Hampshire College in 2003. She was a member of the first Five College teams at CUPSI. She performs throughout the country, at venues such as the Green Mill, The Cantab Lounge, and Portland Poetry Slam. She has lead a variety of writing and performance workshops for adults and students from middle school to college. She’s released two albums on the Whitehaus Family Record: Pump Your Concrete in 2008 and Chiaroscuro in 2011. She has self published four books: Roguish Young Things (2006), Keelhaul (2007), and List of American Rituals (2008), 11:11 (2009). Her most recent book, Knocked Up On Yes, was released on Sargent Press in 2012. Recently her work has appeared in Amethyst Arsenic and Side B Magazine. Casey was a member of the 2012 Providence Slam Team.

Lisa Slater, touring Vancouver poet.

Lisa Slater, touring Vancouver poet.

The show will also feature a mini-spotlight reading from Lisa Slater, a spoken word artist living in Vancouver, BC. Feminist, survivor, and community builder, her poems explore what it means to reclaim our bodies and identities from what broke us open and how we relearn love, sex, friendship and family in the process. Lisa was recently a finalist at the 2012 Individual World Poetry Slam and the 2013 Canadian Individual Poetry Slam. She is the 2012 Vancouver Poetry Slam Indie Champ, Erotica Slam Champ and Queer Slam Champ, as well as a five-year board member for Vancouver Poetry House and its current President.

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, June 5, 2013: Lisa Slater

Lisa Slater, Vancouver Poetry House President.

Lisa Slater, Vancouver Poetry House President.

Lisa Slater is a spoken word artist living in Vancouver, BC. Feminist, survivor, and community builder, her poems explore what it means to reclaim our bodies and identities from what broke us open and how we relearn love, sex, friendship and family in the process. Lisa was recently a finalist at the 2012 Individual World Poetry Slam and the 2013 Canadian Individual Poetry Slam. She is the 2012 Vancouver Poetry Slam Indie Champ, Erotica Slam Champ and Queer Slam Champ, as well as a five-year board member for Vancouver Poetry House and its current President. Lisa’s work has been published in The Moose & Pussy and Poetry is Dead, as well as Flicker and Spark: A Contemporary Queer Anthology of Spoken Word and Poetry.

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.