A title to prompt your poem:
I Live in the Capital of Everything You Love Is Gone
Cantab Feature for Wednesday, May 15, 2019: Team Selection Finals
Breaking the national mold, but refusing to break with tradition, the Boston Poetry Slam is on the cusp of selecting a four-poet team to represent the venue for 2019. After fighting through Prelims and Semis in the last two months, already requiring four pieces in competition plus a brand new poem, you can expect the eight competitors qualified for tonight to bring competitive performance, tense strategic moves, and the most finely-polished work work of the slam season.
The following poets have earned invites to the Finals show. Contingent upon their acceptance, this will be the order of the first round:
1. Meaghan Ford
2. Joshua Elbaum
3. George Abraham
4. Zeke Russell
5. Kieran Collier
6. Arianna Monet
7. Myles Taylor
8. Terah Ehigiator
Poets will each perform three poems, with a TOTAL time limit of 9 minutes. The top four poets at the end of the evening will comprise the 2019 Boston Poetry 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. A SHORTENED open mic begins at 8:00 and the slam begins at approximately 9:15. The show is 18+ (ID required) and the cover charge is $5.
Cantab Recap for Wednesday, May 8, 2019
What’s better than looking at the calendar and seeing you get five poetry Wednesdays in a single month? We’ve got it, and it’s definitely: getting a springtime double-barrel of features from the outgoing National slam team! This past week, 2018 NPS semi-finalist, CUPSI coach, podcast star, and Ploughshares production manager Allison Truj brought a brand-new chapbook, an intense and fun feature, and a series of bits, banter, and welcoming hilarity that sets a bar for features to come. If you missed it: we hope you had a good excuse, but you can ask Truj for a copy of her gorgeous chapbook, Fat Girl Feelings, the next time you catch her at the open mic.
This week: it’s coming! It’s really almost here! This Wednesday will mark the season’s most high-stakes slam: the eight-poet battle to see who will represent the Boston Poetry Slam on this year’s sweet-n-ultracompetitive slam team: Team Selection Finals! It’s a $5 night with a slightly shorter open mic, so come early if you want a seat and/or a chance to read, and don’t forget to bring your discerning yet unsuspecting friends along to volunteer as judges.
Cantab Feature for Wednesday, May 8, 2019: Allison Truj
2018 Boston Poetry Slam Team member and light of the world: Truj. Photo by Brian Hamilton.
Allison Truj is an award-winning designer and performing artist living in Boston, but more importantly, she is an octopus who has escaped from the aquarium and cannot be stopped. She is a National Poetry Slam semifinalist, 4-time coach of the Emerson College CUPSI team, and member of the Boston Poetry Slam 2018 national team. Truj is the Production Manager of Ploughshares, co-host of the breakfast podcast Most Important Meal, and she probably likes you.
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 show is 18+ (ID required) and the cover charge is $3.
Cantab Recap for Wednesday, May 1, 2019
A dream come true! We kicked off the heart of New England springtime this past week with our very own Maeday: Sara Mae, 2018 Boston Poetry Slam Team member and Game Over Books author, was our radically smart and tender feature. The FEMS director read and performed old favorites and new, including a generous dose from her chapbook, Priestess of Tankinis, available from Game Over Books or at your local bookstore.
Next week: ohhhh, it’s a spring double-header, folks… 2018 BPS team member and glorious octopus Allison Truj will be our featured poet. Come early for our open mic: doors open at 7:15 for our 8:00 show, and Truj hits the stage right around 10:00.
Cantab Feature for Wednesday, May 1, 2019: Sara Mae
FEMS Executive Director Sara Mae. Photo by C. Hartman.
Sara Mae is a kitchen witch and community organizer raised in Baltimore and based in Boston. She is the 2017 IWPS rep for Slam Free or Die, a 2018 Emerson College CUPSI team member, and a 2018 Boston Poetry Slam NPS team member. She is the Executive Director of the Feminine Empowerment Movement Slam (FEMS) Organization. Her work can be found in Tinderbox, Peach Mag, Breakwater Review and elsewhere. Her first chapbook, Priestess of Tankinis, is out via Game Over Books. She believes in the magic of blue bicycles and orange lipstick. If she could go to dinner with any famous person, she wouldn’t care who it was as long as there was Old Bay on the food.
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 show is 18+ (ID required) and the cover charge is $3.
Cantab Feature for Wednesday, April 24, 2019: Team Selection Semi-Finals
The Cantab’s Team Selection Slams are the venue’s biggest, wildest poetry slams of the year. This National Poetry Month, we continue our selection process with the second round of three, the Team Selection Semi-Finals. With prelims behind them and two more nights to go, competing poets are likely to be reaching deep into their pockets on this particular night, or even trying out untested work in hope of saving some major ammunition for the upcoming Finals… Making Semi-Finals just possibly the most interesting night of the selection series.
Competing poets from this night are drawn from the April 3 Team Selection Preliminaries, and the April 10 Last Chance Slam. Poets will each perform two poems, with a TOTAL time limit of (get this) 7 minutes, and will appear in this order in the first round:
1. Dahlia Hill
2. Yehya
3. Mugs Myers
4. Zeke Russell
5. Lip Manegio
6. Max Evans
7. Kieran Collier
8. Myles Taylor
9. George Abraham
10. Arianna Monet
11. Meaghan Ford
12. Joshua Elbaum
13. Terah Ehigiator
The top eight poets at the end of the night will advance to our May Finals show; after that, the top four poets will comprise the venue’s 2019 National Poetry 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. A SHORTENED open mic begins at 8:00 and the slam begins at approximately 9:15. The show is 18+ (ID required) and the cover charge is $5.
Cantab Recap for Wednesday, April 17, 2019
Congratulations! Happy National Poetry Month! What is this life! Last night, we were ultra-pleased to host a release party for Brandon Melendez’s hyper-new and shiny book, Gold That Frames the Mirror, a collection exploring family, home, joy, and just a little bit of tequila. It’s been an honor and a joy to host Brandon as a beloved local, team member, and slam champ at the Cantab, and his feature touched on many of the poems we’ve come to love and plenty of new work for us to learn from. Great gratitude to everyone who came to the basement to make this such a warm and special affair.
Next week: heads-up heads-up, we will have a slightly shorter open mic on Wednesday! But why? Oh, only because we have qualified THIRTEEN lucky slammers for our Semi-Final Team Selection Slam, a two-round affair wherein poets have seven whole minutes to spend. Watch for some new work, some free-wheeling long-form, and surely a good dose of surprises as this baker’s dozen compete for the eight spots in our May 15 Finals. Click here to see the roster!
Boston Poetry Slam Online