Cantab Recap For Wednesday, February 22nd, 2023

Last week’s show sold out before the clock struck 8 pm, as we all expected — we had Chen Chen in the house, after all! The open mic was packed with returners and newcomers alike, including work about Sailor Moon, queer sex versus canon literature, and a glorious catalogue of pasta shapes. Chen Chen’s feature was like a warm hug for the audience, balancing deeper questions of family trauma with well-placed humor. It was snowing cats and dogs by the time we all left (more cats than dogs? 50/50 cats and dogs?) — hopefully for one of the last times this season before the basement starts to warm.

Coming up this week, it’s another open poetry slam! The top 2 slammers will be qualified for our big team selection slam (date TBD), with the winner getting $50! Be sure to join us for another great Wednesday night.

-Myles ✨

Click here to see all our upcoming features.
Click here to take our community survey! Your input will help make our show better.

All shows take place at the Cantab Lounge, 738 Massachusetts Ave. in Cambridge, with one flight of stairs to access the basement room (click for directions and accessibility information). Doors for the show open at 7:15. The open mic begins at 8:00 and the feature begins at approximately 10:00. The show is 21+ (ID/Proof of Vaccination required) and the cover charge is $3. The Cantab is in the midst of experimenting with a 5% inflation surcharge, so the final total may be $3.15 (cash/credit accepted).

Cantab Recap For Wednesday, February 15th, 2023

Reporting yet another happy and sold-out Wednesday at the Cantab! Energy was sky-high, and love was in the air during our special Valentine’s Day show, with a packed house and an elevated amount of crowd participation. During the open mic, we had someone come back after SEVEN YEARS to finish a poem they started performing at their last open mic. Other highlights included a sad tale of a mouse thief stealing a poet’s bagels, an incredibly-delivered German poem about the inherent suffering in the task of living every single day, and, during the smoking section, our very own Kat told of.… dairy-like appendages.

All of the energy from the open mic and smoking section led wonderfully into the dirty haiku slam hosted by the lovely Michael F. Gill. Slammers went head-to-head to impress the crowd with sensual and sexy haikus, but ultimately the astounding Skylar Sweet Cheeks narrowly beat out Lynette, partially due to a particularly creative use of the term “genderfluid.”

Onto the event of the evening, the Love vs. Death Slam hosted by Myles Taylor! Team Love, captained by Kai, and Team Death, captained by Dawn Gabriel, truly brought their best to the stage as the audience heard sweet (and occasionally slimy) love poems as well as wistful and harrowing poems about our inevitable end. There was rarely a unanimous victor for each round, but ultimately Team Love emerged victorious, winning a generous supply of candy. Special shout-out to our charismatic regular Danny for stepping in to slam last minute, and thank you to all the slammers!!

Lastly, I am starting a new segment of these recaps, entitled “Line of the Wednesday,” where I pick a particularly memorable line from any point in the show.

This week’s ✏️Line of the Wednesday✏️ is:
“Beluga whale blubber spread on avocado toast” from Danny Riordan. Thank you for this.

Next week: Come to the Cantab EARLY to secure a spot to see the incredible Chen Chen! Chen Chen is the author of two books of poetry, Your Emergency Contact Has Experienced an Emergency (BOA Editions, 2022) and When I Grow Up I Want to Be a List of Further Possibilities (BOA Editions, 2017), which was longlisted for the National Book Award and won the Thom Gunn Award, among other honors. Learn more about this poet and experience his excellence live this Wednesday at the Cantab!

– Amy ✈️

Click here to see all our upcoming features.
Click here to take our community survey! Your input will help make our show better.

All shows take place at the Cantab Lounge, 738 Massachusetts Ave. in Cambridge, with one flight of stairs to access the basement room (click for directions and accessibility information). Doors for the show open at 7:15. The open mic begins at 8:00 and the feature begins at approximately 10:00. The show is 21+ (ID/Proof of Vaccination required) and the cover charge is $3.

Cantab Recap For Wednesday, February 8th, 2023

Welcome back to another wacky Wednesday at the Cantab! In yet another sold-out show, the crowd watched a roller coaster of an open mic full of wonderful, weird, and wicked awesome poems. There were tales of love, loss, some songs, and a particularly environmentally-focused poem about turtle conservation. The night continued on to an especially fabulous smoking section featuring our wonderful staff and questioning if the chicken is measuring us, or if possibly something is measuring…the chicken?

Our feature, Dominique “Mo” Durden read many pieces from her chapbook, gifting the the audience with her passionate storytelling and lines that cut straight to the heart. You can find her on all social media at @momothepoet. Follow her and buy her merch!

Next week: In a Valentine’s Day special, we invite lovebirds and singles alike to join us in a themed Love vs. Death slam. Poets will compete head to head in an epic battle of romance and the fantastical versus macabre and the inevitable. Come to see which team, love or death, will win! And did we mention there will be an open dirty haiku slam at the end of the open mic? See you on Wednesday!

– Amy ✈️

Click here to see all our upcoming features.
Click here to take our new community survey! Your input will help make our show better.

All shows take place at the Cantab Lounge, 738 Massachusetts Ave. in Cambridge, with one flight of stairs to access the basement room (click for directions and accessibility information). Doors for the show open at 7:15. The open mic begins at 8:00 and the feature begins at approximately 10:00. The show is 21+ (ID/Proof of Vaccination required) and the cover charge is $3.

Cantab Recap For Wednesday, February 1st, 2023

What a night! The cold definitely did not stop Cantabbers from coming in droves this past Wednesday. For the first time in a while, we sold out before the show even started! A packed room resulted in a very full open mic — a grand total of 34 people got a chance to read. We had some pretty heavy hitters and an impressive amount of bangers from regulars and newcomers alike. One new poet made a very convincing argument on why snakes are their symbol of hope (rather than butterflies), and my personal favorite was when the word “Pokegeddon” was uttered in a poem. After a stunning smoking section, the crowd watched in awe as the incredible Miss Savage performed her feature. Her poems touched on topics from family and ancestry to religious and culture dynamics, and we thank her for such a great set!

Next week: Come join us for another incredible feature — the multi-hyphenate Dominique “Mo” Durden — as she performs poems from her new chapbook “BIRDSONG: a collection of poems.” To get a glimpse of what she’s been up to, check out @momothepoet on social media. See you soon!

– Amy ✈️

P.S. We want to wish our relatively new host, Aparna, a very happy birthday, which was over the past week. Happy Birthday to your lovely self!

Click here to see all our upcoming features!

All shows take place at the Cantab Lounge, 738 Massachusetts Ave. in Cambridge, with one flight of stairs to access the basement room (click for directions and accessibility information). Doors for the show open at 7:15. The open mic begins at 8:00 and the feature performs at approximately 10:00. The show is 21+ (ID/Proof of Vaccination required) and the cover charge is $3.

Cantab Recap For Wednesday, January 25th, 2023

It was another jam-packed January night at the Cantab Lounge, as an eager-eared crowd took in another full open mic with lots of memorable moments! Poem topics included being a hotline operator, changing your name back to what it previously was, and the metaphors found in an elaborate terms-of-service agreement. Honorable mention goes to Oliver, who may have had the best poem title of the night, with “On a Second Date I Invent a Fake Childhood Injury to Unclear Ends.” As the open mic wound down, four poets took part in one of the wildest haiku slams we’ve had so far! Aparna barely edged out Siraj in the final round to take the win, but a great time was had by all.

The open slam was no slouch either, with the final coming down to veteran slammer Zeke Russell and open-mic favorite PK Jade. Zeke emerged victorious by performing a brand new poem about miracles, and both he and PK will be qualified for our future team selection final.

Next week, local poet powerhouse Mariama Savage will be giving us a full 30-minute feature! Hope to see you there!

– MFG🚪(filling in for Amy)

Upcoming features!

February 1st, 2023 – Mariama Savage
Boston-bred poet and Brave New Voices vet Mariama Savage will feature for us!

February 8th, 2023 – Dominique “Mo” Durden
Emerging poet/artist/activist and author of the recent chapbook “Birdsong”

Further down the road:

2/15 – Valentine’s Day feat. Dirty Haiku Slam (More details to come!)
2/22 – Chen Chen
3/1 – Open Poetry Slam
3/8 – Ricky Orng
3/15 – Jarvis Subia
3/22 – Catherine Weiss
3/29 – Gabriel Ramirez
4/05 – Karen Garrabrant
4/12 – Patrick Roche

All shows take place at the Cantab Lounge, 738 Massachusetts Ave. in Cambridge, with one flight of stairs to access the basement room (click for directions and accessibility information). Doors for the show open at 7:15. The open mic begins at 8:00 and the feature performs at approximately 10:00. The show is 21+ (ID/Proof of Vaccination required) and the cover charge is $3.

Cantab Recap For Wednesday, January 18th, 2023

After a long, snowy weekend, Cantabbers reconvened once again for a great Wednesday full of poems! There were a considerable amount of new faces on the open mic, and highlights included Jarvis’ stirring ode to the history of their body, Danny Riordan’s immediate response poem to Jarvis, and March Penn’s excellently-titled “Do I Have Imaginary Friends Or Did I Just Imagine Having Them.” We also had to take a couple moments to recognize not just one, but TWO birthdays this week. Myles and Nayeli are both incredibly appreciated and loved by this community, no matter which side of the Aquarius/Capricorn cusp they identify with!

After the open mic was the anticipated 20 Questions slam, hosted by Myles, where each of the slammers wrote a 20-line poem describing something without explicitly stating it. Scores were based on whether our judges could guess what that something was. We had some beautiful poems accompanied by some crazy guesses, with one poem producing guesses of both “Penis” from one judge and “Hennessy” from another. At the end of the slam, the winning spot was awarded to both PK Kleiner and Meredith, for their poems about the wind and “stripper Santa” respectively.

This Week: If you thought we were done slamming for the month of January, you were wrong – we have an open slam this Wednesday! The top two slammers will also be eligible to compete in our team selection final, so we encourage you to bring your best poems! See you then!

– Amy ✈️

Upcoming features!

January 25th, 2023 – Open Poetry Slam
You need at least 3 poems to compete. $50 prize for the winner! There will also be an open haiku slam, with a $17 prize for the winner.

February 1st, 2023 – Mariama Savage
Boston-bred poet and Brave New Voices vet Mariama Savage will feature for us!

Further down the road:

2/8 – Dominique “Mo” Durden
2/15 – Valentine’s Day feat. Dirty Haiku Slam (More details to come!)
2/22 – Chen Chen
3/1 – Open Poetry Slam
3/8 – Ricky Orng
3/15 – Jarvis Subia
3/22 – Catherine Weiss
3/29 – Gabriel Ramirez

All shows take place at the Cantab Lounge, 738 Massachusetts Ave. in Cambridge, with one flight of stairs to access the basement room (click for directions and accessibility information). Doors for the show open at 7:15. The open mic begins at 8:00 and the feature performs at approximately 10:00. The show is 21+ (ID/Proof of Vaccination required) and the cover charge is $3.

Cantab Recap For Wednesday, January 11th, 2023

This Wednesday was the most full night we’ve had in months, with a jam-packed open mic and waitlist filled to the brim! Our lovely hosts brought great energy (and great new haircuts!) to the sold out show, and it kept getting better from there. Open mic highlights included advice to never date a pilot, thoughts on Eli’s boss, questioning if Sam Bucci… is Eli’s boss, an intricate tale of movie theatre farts, what to do if there’s a goblin under the bed, and a completely uncut WWE wrestler introduction. It’s safe to say that we had a huge range of vibes, but the talent was at an all-time high!

After the open mic, there was a surprise open slam! (We hope to re-schedule planned feature Dr. Joshua Bennett for another date.) 8 competitors rose to the challenge, with a surging Logan Lopez overtaking first-time slammer Bonnie in the final round.

Next week: Is it an animal? A mineral? No, it’s an open slam with a gimmick! Join us next week for the 20 questions slam! See you there, and have a great week!

– Amy ✈️

Upcoming features!

January 18th, 2023 – 20 Questions Slam
Special theme slam! Poets will have 20 lines to describe the subject of their poem without revealing it, and their score will be impacted by whether or not the judges are able to guess the subject in question.

January 25th, 2023 – Open Poetry Slam
You need at least 3 poems to compete. $50 prize for the winner! There will also be an open haiku slam.

Further down the road:

2/1 – Mariama Savage
2/8 – Dominique “Mo” Durden
2/15 – Valentine’s Day feat. Dirty Haiku Slam (More details to come!)
2/22 – Chen Chen
3/1 – Open Poetry Slam
3/8 – Ricky Orng
3/15 – Jarvis Subia
3/22 – Catherine Weiss
3/29 – Gabriel Ramirez

All shows take place at the Cantab Lounge, 738 Massachusetts Ave. in Cambridge, with one flight of stairs to access the basement room (click for directions and accessibility information). Doors for the show open at 7:15. The open mic begins at 8:00 and the feature performs at approximately 10:00. The show is 21+ (ID/Proof of Vaccination required) and the cover charge is $3.

Cantab Recap For Wednesday, January 4th, 2023

Happy New Year from everyone at the Cantab! We kicked off January with a completely full open mic and star-studded waitlist. Hosts Jimmy, Nayeli, and Dawn brought both raucous AND wistful vibes to the stage while introducing the first batch of poets of 2023. It was bars after bars after BARS at the mic, with newcomers debuting some especially impressive pieces ⁠— looking forward to seeing more of them throughout the year! The mic also included poems ranging in topic from ex slander to web browser history slander to other not-as-slanderous subjects like…the songs troll dolls sing when confronting a series of Capricorn goats? If you know, you know.

Our feature John Paul Davis then took the stage to deliver a mesmerizing set of both subtle and not-so-subtle poems about family, faith, technology, and not answering your phone. He also printed a chapbook exclusively for his feature ⁠— if you didn’t get one, be sure to reach out to see if he has any copies left!

Next Week: The renowned Dr. Joshua Bennett will be reading for us. Come on by to see this incredible poet!

– Amy ✈️

Upcoming features!

January 11th, 2023 – Dr. Joshua Bennett
Dr. Joshua Bennett is a Professor of English and Creative Writing at Dartmouth College. He is the author of three books of poetry and literary criticism: The Sobbing School (Penguin, 2016)—which was a National Poetry Series selection and a finalist for an NAACP Image Award—Being Property Once Myself (Harvard University Press, 2020) and Owed (Penguin, 2020). Bennett holds a Ph.D. in English from Princeton University, and an M.A. in Theatre and Performance Studies from the University of Warwick, where he was a Marshall Scholar. In 2021, he received the Whiting Award for Poetry and Nonfiction. His first work of narrative nonfiction, Spoken Word: A Cultural History, is forthcoming from Knopf.

January 18th, 2023 – 20 Questions Slam
Special theme slam! Poets will have around 20 lines to describe the subject of their poem, and then the judges will see if they can guess it correctly. More details to come!

January 25th, 2023 – Open Poetry Slam
You need at least 3 poems to compete. $50 prize for the winner!

Further down the road:

2/22 – Chen Chen
3/1 – Open Poetry Slam
3/8 – Ricky Orng
3/15 – Jarvis Subia
3/22 – Catherine Weiss
3/29 – Gabriel Ramirez

All shows take place at the Cantab Lounge, 738 Massachusetts Ave. in Cambridge, with one flight of stairs to access the basement room (click for directions and accessibility information). Doors for the show open at 7:15. The open mic begins at 8:00 and the feature performs at approximately 10:00. The show is 21+ (ID/Proof of Vaccination required) and the cover charge is $3.

Cantab Recap for Wednesday, December 28th, 2022

The Wednesday between Christmas and New Years proved to be an end-of-the-year extravaganza at the Cantab! After getting a copy of the newly-debuted “Cantabernacle,” a newsletter curated by many wonderful Cantab folk, both regulars and first-timers took their seats. The open mic this week included some wholesome reflections on the year, some poets paying homage to other poets that inspired them, and the continuation of a chain of self-proclaimed “sad poems.” The smoking section featured the usual display of talent (as well as some dazzling new years outfits) and a short-but-sweet haiku slam, where the winner C. S. Taylor was awarded the dignified $17. The night got even sweeter as it was announced that the lovely Sam Bucci brought homemade champagne-flavored cupcakes!

To top off the night, an open slam hosted by Myles Taylor ended the year in style. Eight slammers competed for a $50 prize, two of whom were first-time readers! After several consistently great performances, Kai Wallin came out on top, narrowly beating runner-up Charlie V. with an incredible and enthusiastic love poem.

Next week: Please join us in our excitement to see a wonderful feature by John Paul Davis, and the first open mic of 2023!

– Amy ✈️

Upcoming features!

January 4th, 2023 – John Paul Davis
John Paul Davis’s poems have appeared in numerous journals such as RATTLE, MUZZLE, The Bennington Review, Four Way Review, Southern Humanities Review, Maine Review and many others. His first book, Crown Prince Of Rabbits was published by Great Weather For Media in 2017. He twice represented Chicago at the National Poetry Slam as part of the Mental Graffiti team. He is a former curator of Page Meets Stage and the louderARTS Project. He also composes and performs music as part of Love In The Ruins and Day Of The Mountain. You can find out more about him at johnpauldavis.org or follow him on “the gram” at john.paul.davis.

January 11th, 2023 – Dr. Joshua Bennett
Dr. Joshua Bennett is a Professor of English and Creative Writing at Dartmouth College. He is the author of three books of poetry and literary criticism: The Sobbing School (Penguin, 2016)—which was a National Poetry Series selection and a finalist for an NAACP Image Award—Being Property Once Myself (Harvard University Press, 2020) and Owed (Penguin, 2020). Bennett holds a Ph.D. in English from Princeton University, and an M.A. in Theatre and Performance Studies from the University of Warwick, where he was a Marshall Scholar. In 2021, he received the Whiting Award for Poetry and Nonfiction. His first work of narrative nonfiction, Spoken Word: A Cultural History, is forthcoming from Knopf.

Further down the road:
January 25th – Open Poetry Slam
February 22 – Chen Chen

All shows take place at the Cantab Lounge, 738 Massachusetts Ave. in Cambridge, with one flight of stairs to access the basement room (click for directions and accessibility information). Doors for the show open at 7:15. The open mic begins at 8:00 and the feature performs at approximately 10:00. The show is 21+ (ID/Proof of Vaccination required) and the cover charge is $3.

The Boston Poetry Slam Is Officially Back!

Poets, the Boston Poetry Slam is officially no longer on hiatus!

The recent series of Wednesday readings at The Cantab Lounge, helmed by Dawn Gabriel and Myles Taylor, have been going strong since March, and with the beginning of a new year upon us, we felt it would be an apt time to re-announce our unified presence as the Boston Poetry Slam.

In the near future, we will be updating this website to reflect the current staff, events, and shows. In the meantime, you can look forward to reading weekly show recaps written by open mic regular (Airplane) Amy Argentar, as well as the online version of our new community zine.

We have been incredibly inspired by how this community has regenerated over the past nine months, and can’t wait for our community to grow even stronger in 2023.

Yours in poetry,

Dawn Gabriel
Myles Taylor
Michael F. Gill
Sam Cha
Briana Crockett
Jimmy
Kat Anderson