Create a poem based on accidental emphasis– one where the narrator (or someone else) presents an idea garnered from improper inflection.
Cantab Feature for Wednesday, March 20: Sam Sax
Sam Sax, Bay Area slam champ.
Sam Sax is a Bay Area based writer, educator, and performer. He’s the first-ever Bay Area Unified Grand Slam Champion and Oakland’s first two-time queer Grand Slam Champion. Sam curates ‘the new sh!t show’, a reading series in San Francisco aimed at producing new poetry, and is the poetry curator for The Modern Times Bookstore. He has toured internationally, performing at universities, slams, basements, alleyways, and amphitheaters. Sam is currently leading writing and literacy workshops for queer at risk youth. You can
find some of his other work in Rattle, Muzzle Magazine, The Evergreen Review, The Orange Quarterly, The Nervous Breakdown, DeComp, 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 speed slam in the 8×8 series will follow. The show is 18+ (ID required) and the cover charge is $3.
Congratulations to the 2013 Boston Poetry Slam Team!
Ed Wilkinson, Omoizele Okoawo, Jade Sylvan, Nora Meiners, and Sean Patrick Mulroy held down the top five scores at the end of the nine-poet, three-round Finals. Excellent! Many thanks to our judges and fabulous audience. (Full recap forthcoming.)
Cantab Feature for Wednesday, March 13: Team Selection Finals
The Cantab’s Team Selection Slams are the venue’s biggest, wildest poetry slams of the year. This March will mark the earliest that the venue has ever selected a team, which gives them extra time to prepare as the home team for this year’s National Poetry Slam in Boston.
FINALIST UPDATE: want to hear about how our finalists got here? You can check out the premiere episode of SlamCenter, a sports-style recap of our February 6 semi-finals. It’s hosted by Kevin Spak and Zeke Russell and features some of your favorite all-stars, and you can find the audio right here.
Announcing our finalists! The top nine poets from Semi-Finals on February 6 will be fighting it out tonight in three rounds, each of them looking for a top spot to achieve the NPS-bound 2013 Boston Poetry Slam Team. Appearing in this order in the first round:
1. Meaghan Ford
2. Sean Patrick Mulroy
3. Jade Sylvan
4. Adam Stone
5. Ed Wilkinson
6. Nora Meiners
7. Mckendy Fils-Aimé
8. Omoizele Okoawo
9. Melissa Newman-Evans
sacrifice poets: Marshall Gillson and April Ranger
After four previous rounds in the last two months, plus with a new poem requirement each of the poets must have fulfilled, you can expect hot competition, tense strategic moves, and the mostly finely-polished performance work of the slam season.
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. A SHORTENED open mic begins at 8:00 and the slam begins at approximately 9:00. The show is 18+ (ID required) and the cover charge is $5; proceeds will go toward funding the National Poetry Slam this August in Boston.
Announcing the World’s First Serial Sporting Slamcast!
It’s an idea whose time has come, folks: a sports-style accounting of the ins, outs, and overtimes of poetry slam strategy. Boston Poetry Slam host Kevin Spak, along with Mill City SlamMaster Zeke Russell, bring you the on- and off-stage stories of all the biggest slams in town in the inaugural episode of SlamCenter.
Launched just in time to prepare for the 2013 National Poetry Slam, SlamCenter hits the ground running by recapping the Boston Poetry Slam Team Semi-Finals, including scores, analysis, poem sound-bites, and behind-the-scenes interviews. Check it out!
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!
Cantab Feature for Wednesday, March 6: Patricia Smith and Special Guests
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
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.
Boston Poetry Slam Online