Cantab Recap for Wednesday, January 2

We don’t fool around on the first Wednesday of the new calendar year, people! Last night, we stuffed a whole buncha people into the venue before the show even started, all of them looking to learn a little something new at Jon Sands’ early-bird workshop. Just a little extra work from these dedicated writers paid off for all of us: the open mic was excellent, and capped off by wonderful, personal, and exciting work from feature Jon Sands himself. Did you like what you heard? You can grab his book, The New Clean, online at Write Bloody any time!

So after all that good time, you’d almost think we were ready to wind down for the night… Except that we had a bar to close, and, as always, we did it with slam. Our Last Chance Slam had only six of the eight spots filled, but our participants made up for the missing quantity with exceptional, high-quality work. At the end of the night, the final pairing came down to Dawn Gabriel, veteran New England slammer, and the mysteriously named Danger Ranger. Despite burning an extra poem back in the semi-final round, Danger came out on top, securing the very last spot in the 2013 team selection process.

OH WOW OH WOW OH WOW WE START SELECTING THE TEAM NEXT WEEK! That’s right: on January 9, we’ll be invited 25 slam winners back to compete at the Team Selection Preliminaries, the biggest-est-est slam of the year! Poets who show up (we expect about 20) will fight through two rounds to cut the field down to the top twelve poets. Yes, your favorite performer is probably on the list: you can check it out here on our website. Remember, cover charge is $5 to help raise money for the 2013 National Poetry Slam in Boston!

Tips from the Bar: the Alexander Nemser Prompt

Why can’t your parents ever be president?

Cantab Feature for Wednesday, January 2, 2013: Jon Sands

Jon Sands is a Brooklyn based author known for electrifying readings. He wrote The New Clean, released in 2011 from Write Bloody Publishing, and starred in the award winning 2011 web-series “Verse: A Murder Mystery” from Rattapallax Films. He is Director of Poetry Education at the Positive Health Project (a syringe exchange center located in Midtown Manhattan), an adjunct with the City University of New York, and a Youth Mentor with Urban Word-NYC. He’s represented New York City multiple times at the National Poetry Slam, and is a member of the groundbreaking performance poetry tours, “The Whirlwind Company” and “The SpillJoy Ensemble.” He tours extensively, both nationally and internationally, and makes better tuna salad than anyone you know.

Jon Sands performing “EPITHALAMION,” a love poem for Ben and Wendell on their wedding day. (Shot and edited by Danny Corey.)

In addition to his feature, Jon will also present an early-bird workshop at the Cantab before doors open for the show.

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, an open 8-person poetry slam to determine the last qualifier for the 2013 Team Selection Slams, will close the evening. The show is 18+ (ID required) and the cover charge is $3.

Workshop for January 2, 2013: “Carving Out the Poem” with Jon Sands

Jon Sands, early-bird workshop leader for "Carving Out the Poem."

Jon Sands, early-bird workshop leader for “Carving Out the Poem.”

Join Jon Sands, the night’s scheduled feature, for an early-bird workshop at the Cantab Lounge before the show. Jon will welcome all comers to his one-hour workshop: Carving Out the Poem: You, Your Poems, and the 3-Dimensional World. From the workshop leader:

“When our life experience suggests that celebration always comes laced with melancholy, and joy is a border that surrounds sorrow; how can we construct poems that acknowledge a complicated and dynamic world? How do we avoid writing that transforms us into caricatures? How can we guide an audience into the experience of what it actually feels like to be us? In Carving Out the Poem: You, Your Poems, and the 3-Dimensional World, we will explore tangible ways to create a 3-dimensional view of our poems. Bring a notebook, pen, and a sense of adventure as we take our art to the edge of the universe, and bring back proof that we’ve been there.”

Doors for the show open at 5:30, and the workshop runs from 6:00 to 7:00. Cover charge is $5, which includes admission to the evening show. The venue is 18+ (ID required).

Cantab Recap for Wednesday, December 26

For the last Wednesday of the year, we knew we had to bring in an absolutely apocalyptic feature… Or post-apocalyptic… Look, whatever: we were lucky Casey Rocheteau was in town! This Whithaus-gone-NYC celebrity shared work all from her latest book, Knocked Up On Yes, available now on Sargent Press. Our Champion of Champions slam was a three-fer, with Jade Sylvan taking the season championship over Sean Patrick Mulroy and Eddy Martinez! However, in the final new-poem Champions round, Jade was taken down by our still-reigning champ, Zanne Langlois. Congrats to Zanne and thanks to everyone for a great night to wrap up 2012.

Next week: we’ll be ringing in the new year with Jon Sands, who’ll bring us both an early-bird workshop and a feature on this special night. We’ll close the evening with the last, last, very last, Last Chance Slam: an open 8-person poetry slam to qualify just one more tryout at the Team Selection Preliminaries on January 9.

Tips from the Bar: e.e. cummings It Ain’t

The balloon man is handing out free balloons to the children. When each takes one, the balloon lifts the child up, up, and away. Where do they go? What happens to them?

Cantab Feature for Wednesday, December 26: Casey Rocheteau

Casey Rocheteau, Whitehaus poet, performing at the Encyclopedia Show: Providence.

Casey Rocheteau, Whitehaus poet, performing at the Encyclopedia Show: Providence.

Casey Rocheteau began performing poetry at Hampshire College, where she was one of the leaders of the Slam Collective from 2003-2007. She was a member of the first Five College teams at CUPSI. She performs throughout the country and she has lead a variety of writing and performance workshops at colleges and high schools. She’s released two albums on the Whitehaus Family Record: Pump Your Concrete in 2008 and Chiaroscuro in 2011. She has published four books: Roguish Young Things (2006), Keelhaul (2007), and List of American Rituals (2008), 11:11 (2009). Her next two books, Wild Child and The Dozen are forthcoming in 2012. Recently her work has appeared in Amethyst Arsenic and Side B Magazine. Casey was a member of the 2012 Providence Slam Team.

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. Poetry slam details are TBA.

Cantab Recap for Wednesday, December 19

Did someone tell you that the Cantab would be less packed the week before Christmas? If so, they were definitely lying: every seat was filled for Deonte Osayande, who came all the way from Detroit to rock the house on his last New England stop. The slam was full of surprises, with the judges clearly affected by the dense and surreal work they enjoyed during the open mic; the final round saw Adam Stone defeated by Omoizele Okoawo, and thus concludes the last slam in our current 8×8 series!

Oh, and a reminder: anyone who told you we wouldn’t be laying poetry down on the day after Christmas is definitely just trying to keep the great upcoming feature by Casey Rocheateau to themselves. Come see Casey present a full set, then stick around for the Champion of Champions slam, where we invite the past eight winners to slam off for the title, currently held by Zanne Langois.

Tips from the Bar: Not Just for Under the Bed Any More

If you’ve ever thought that your dull, thriftstore landscape painting needed a little spicing up, then you weren’t the only one. Check out this Slate article about artists adding monsters to boring landscapes…

Want to try your hand? Try taking a dull poem, perhaps one about tea (our bartender, a natural enemy of tea, suggests Billy Collins), and put your own monster in it.

Cantab Feature for Wednesday, December 19: Deonte Osayande

Detroit poet Deonte Osayande. Photo by Ashley Smith.

Detroit poet Deonte Osayande. Photo by Ashley Smith.

Deonte Osayande is a touring poet out of Detroit, Mich. He was a member of the 2011 Detroit National Poetry Slam Team, as well as the SlamMaster of the 2012 Detroit Rustbelt Regional Poetry Slam Team where he individually placed 5th in the Midwest. He is a two time Dudley Randall Poetry Contest winner, as well as one of the winners of Wayne Literary Review’s 2011 Poetry Contest and for the Define Your Legend Poetry Contest at the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History. He is co-winner of the Howling Wolf Chapbook Contest at the University of Detroit Mercy and will have a co-written chapbook published in the fall. He was a former presidential ambassador for that same university with publications including issues 16 through 19 of the literary journal [sic], and online publications with Curbside Splendor, Requiem Magazine, Quantum Poetry Magazine and Emerge Literary Journal.

Want to check out some of Deonte’s work online? Check out “Drains” at Quantum Poetry Magazine.

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 poetry slam in the 8×8 series will follow. The show is 18+ (ID required) and the cover charge is $3.