Feature for February 9, 2011: Erotic Poetry Night

Is it hot in here, or is it just you? On this Wednesday closest to Valentine’s, we present our wildly popular annual Erotic Poetry Night. We’ll present the best (and worst) of the erotic (and neurotic) all night long; open mic readers are strongly encouraged to bring original erotic poems, poems about sex, or poems about naughtiness in general.

Don’t have anything sexy to read? Don’t worry! This year, we’re also planning our first-ever round of Erotic Poetry Night Bingo, featuring prizes and fun for audience and open mic readers. Poets, beware: hit too many clichés in your poem and you could be subject to a prize-winning bingo call!

Doors for the show open at 7:15. The erotic open mic begins at 8:00 and continues until we can’t take it any more! There is no poetry slam tonight. The show is 18+ (ID required) and the cover charge is $3.

Feature for February 2, 2011: Lynne Procope

Lynne Procope

Lynne Procope

Lynne Procope is a Cave Canem fellow and a former National Poetry Slam champion (Team: Nuyorican NYC 1998). She is co-author of the collaborative collection Burning Down the House (Soft Skull 1999). Her poems appear in Drum Voices Review 2000, Poetry Slam: The Competitive Art of Performance Poetry (Manic D Press 2000), His Rib: Women’s Anthology (Penmanship 2007), Bowery Women (YDK 2006), The Last American Valentine (Write Bloody 2007), Word Warriors: 35 Women Leaders in the Spoken Word Revolution (Seal Press 2007), Quarter After Eight, Washington Square, decomP Literary Magazine and the So Much Things to Say anthology from the Calabash Literary Festival. She is a poet in residence with Vision Into Art, an editor for Union Station Magazine, and Executive Director of the louderARTS Project.

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.

Feature for January 26, 2011: Blair

Blair

Blair

Award-winning Detroit based poet and singer-songwriter David Blair finds his way back to the Cantab at least once per year just to visit and hang. But this casual guy just so happens to be a National Poetry Slam Champion and a 2010 Callaloo Fellow published on Penmanship Books, not to mention a seven-time Detroit Music Award Nominee and Seattle’s BENT Writing Institute Mentor Award.

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.

Feature for January 12, 2011: Charley Pope & Kevin Devaney

Charley Pope (photo by Marshall Goff) and Kevin Devaney

Charley Pope (photo by Marshall Goff) and Kevin Devaney

Charley Pope is a relative newcomer to the New England Slam Poetry scene. Hailing from Anchorage, Alaska, he now spends his time trekking around the Northeast to frequent as many poetry venues as he can. He was the SlamMaster for the Hampshire College Slam collective during 2009, and has represented the college at three national events (as well as numerous regional competitions). You can Google him, or find a sample of his poetry at www.charleypope.net.

Kevin Devaney is an MFA student at Sarah Lawrence College and is the founder and co-director of the Sarah Lawrence College Spoken Word Collective. In his free time, he likes to try to devise new ways for art to intersect with daily life. His latest book, Why I Believe in Winter, can be found at desirepress.org.

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.

Tips from the Bar: False Yelp

Write a stylized review of a restaurant or business: something that gives the impression of being written by the owner, or perhaps a friend of the owner, after taking one too many creative writing courses.

Tips from the Bar: Jack McCarthy Prompts 1 through 3

Part 1: Write about your blind date with God.

Part 2: Write about sharing an apartment with God.

Part 3: Write about your break-up with God.

Tips from the Bar: the Living Eulogy

Write a eulogy for a poet who is still, currently, breathing. It can be a true piece of admiration, a fictional skewering (or, for that matter, a true skewering), or something entirely satirical.

We did this at The Cantab five or six years ago, and Eric Darby wrote a rather heady piece concerning Prabakar Thyagarajan’s life as a luchador.

Tips from the Bar: Between the Lines

Find a poem that you feel strongly about, either positively or negatively. Double space the poem, and write line
that connect the end of one line to the beginning of the next. (For example: “So much depends/upon/a red wheelbarrow,” becomes “So much depends/on the length of rope coiled/upon/the pile of manure in/a red wheelbarrow”), now remove the original poem, and you have a new poem (“On the length of rope/the pile of manure”). Yours will hopefully be better than the pile of manure.

Tips from the Bar: Thirteen Ways of Looking at Wallace Stevens

Write the same sentiment thirteen different ways: “It was cold this morning,” “I woke up to a snowman leaning over my bed,” “This morning my thermostat registered Republican,” etc.

Tips from the Bar: the Patricia Smith Prompt

Think of the person who means the most to you in the entire world: not necessarily romantically, but someone you love with all your heart. Now, dress them for their funeral.