Tip from the bar for Wednesday, May 11, 2016 (by Adam Stone)
Write about a shocking or embarrassing surprise, but focus on the least personal, least interesting detail.
Cantab Feature for Wednesday, May 11, 2016: Anis Mojgani
Anis Mojgani, champion of all the things. Photo by Natalie Seebooth.
Anis Mojgani is a two time National Poetry Slam Champion, winner of the International World Cup Poetry Slam, and multiple-time TEDx Speaker. He has been awarded residencies from the Vermont Studio Center, AIR Serenbe, and the Oregon Literary Arts Writers-In-The-Schools program. Anis has performed at numerous universities, festivals, and venues around the globe and has performed for audiences as varied as the House of Blues and the United Nations. His work has appeared on HBO, NPR, and in the pages of such journals as Rattle, Forklift Ohio, Paper Darts, andThrush.
A founding member of the no longer touring Poetry Revival, Anis is also the author of three poetry collections, all published by Write Bloody Publishing: Songs From Under the River, The Feather Room, and Over the Anvil We Stretch. A visual artist as well, his latest book, The Pocketknife Bible, is a fully illustrated poetry-novella. Originally from New Orleans, Anis lives in Oregon. You can learn more at Anis’ home page, the piano farm.
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.
Cantab Recap for Wednesday, May 4, 2016
Wednesdays are the best, folks. What better way to spend Star Wars Day than by watching an epic battle of the most core representations of good and evil, presented through good poetry and… Actually, all the poetry was pretty good. A diabolical dozen slammers turned out last night for the season’s shortest epic: a two-round speed slam with just 2-minute and 1-minute slam rounds. After sacrifices from Adam Stone and Austin Hendricks, the poets faced off with their three-minutes-or-less of poetry, and when the dust cleared, the standings were:
1. Marshall Gillson 51.7
2. (tie) John Pinkham 51.2
2. (tie) Neiel Israel 51.2
4. Bobby Crawford 49.6
5. (tie) Nora Meiners 49.2
5. (tie) Mckendy Fils-Aimé 49.2
7. RebeccaLynn Gualtieri 49.0
8. Chloé Cunha 48.4
9. Emily O’Neill
10. Zeke Russell
11. Ed Wilkinson
12. Meaghan Ford
Poets in bold will advance to the four-round Finals on May 18, and those in italics will be invited to sacrifice. The first round on May 18 will be seeded in order of last night’s finish, from high to low; if you’re wondering how we manage ties, the poet who earned their total first (by going earlier in the final round) is considered to have the higher score (thus earning a later spot on May 18).
Congratulations to all our hard-working poets, and special thanks to our talented bout manager, Tom Slavin, and most deadpan on-stage scorekeeper, Kieran Collier.
Next week: we’ll have a brief interlude from slam with the pretty-much-retired-but-still-champion-of-all-things-slam Anis Mojgani. Yes, this will sell out, YES, this show will be the bomb, YES, get here early if you want a seat! See you soon!
Cantab Feature for Wednesday, May 4, 2016: World Qualifier Speed Slam
Our annual run speed slams winds down in May, folks, which means it’s time to ramp up for even speedier action: get ready for the World Qualifier series, a two-night, six-poem series to select the Boston Poetry Slam’s sole representative to the Individual World Poetry Slam! This year’s IWPS will take place in Flagstaff, Ariz. in October, and our World Qualifier slam winner will be entered into the event.
Night one of the World Qualifier will be our annual grand speed slam: a huge field of poets compete in a lightning-fast two-round slam using ONLY 2- and 1-minute poems. That means lots of new work performed by your favorite slam winners from the past year! Top scorers move on to Finals on May 18.
Confirmed slammers for this week include:
- Marshall Gillson
- Zeke Russell
- Jess Rizkallah
- Bobby Crawford
- Emily O’Neill
- Ed Wilkinson
- Mckendy Fils-Aimé
- Neiel Israel
Cecily Schulerwithdrew from slam- RebeccaLynn Gualtieri
- Nora Meiners
- John Pinkham
- Meaghan Ford
- Chloé Cunha
…Plus maybe a few more surprises from our quailfied list. You can also click here for the full rules and format for the World Qualifier Series.
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. An slightly shortened open mic begins at 8:00 and the slam begins at approximately 10:00. The show is 18+ (ID required) and the cover charge is $5; proceeds will go toward funding the World Qualifier winner’s trip to IWPS in DC this October.
Cantab Recap for Wednesday, April 28, 2016
Oh, National Poetry Month! We are sure gonna miss you… Like we are already missing Rose Smith, one of the rarest touring poets we’ve ever had the joy to book out of Columbus, Ohio. Rose started her set with an understated opening, drawing the crowd close to hang on her every printed word… And finished out with two big performances of some of her biggest and best-known pieces from her years in slam. Thanks so much to Rose for traveling to see us!
After Rose’s feature, we held our Last Chance Slam, the final speed slam of the year and the ultimate year to get in on our World Qualifier Speed Slam next week. The one-minute round for all the marbles came down to RebeccaLynn Gualtieri and Cassandra de Alba: with her signature 50%-under-the-time-limit style, RebeccaLynn took 100% of the $10 prize and locks herself in as a favorite for the big show.
Want to see who else is competing in the big show next Wednesday? Click here for the complete list, and don’t forget to pack a $5 bill for the increased cover charge; we’ll be raising money to send our World Qualifier winner to the 2016 Individual World Poetry Slam in Flagstaff, Ariz.
Cantab Feature for Wednesday, April 27, 2016: Rose Smith and the Last Chance Slam
Rose M. Smith, Columbus touchstone poet.
Rose M. Smith is a shy, quiet poet who’s lived most of her life in Columbus, Ohio– a conversational voice heavily informed by human situations and emotion. Locally voted “poet most unlike herself at the mic,” she has been known to silence an unruly room when her poems begin to speak. She has represented the Columbus poetry venue Writers’ Block Poetry at the National Poetry Slam on four separate occasions, performing at the Finals Stage showcase in 2012.
A Cave Canem fellow, she is the author of Shooting the Strays (Pavement Saw Press, 2003) and A Woman You Know (Pudding House Publications, 2005) and was co-editor of Cap City Poets: Columbus and Central Ohio’s Best Known, Read, and Requested Poets (Pudding House Publications, 2008). Her work has appeared in Chiron Review, The Iconoclast, Good Foot, Pavement Saw, Concrete Wolf, Boston Literary Magazine, The Examined Life, Main Street Rag, and The Pedestal Magazine, and other journals and anthologies. Rose is also one of the organizers of The Poetry Forum, Columbus’ longest-running poetry series, and a 2011 TEDx Columbus speaker.
Note that tonight’s open poetry slam is a speed slam 3-, 2-, and 1-minute rounds, and is the Last Chance Slam in the series. The slam winner qualifies for the 2016 World Qualifier.
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, the final open SPEED slam to qualify for the 2016 World Qualifier, will follow. The show is 18+ (ID required) and the cover charge is $3.
Cantab Recap for Wednesday, April 20, 2016
Happy April, Cantab. What a gift this month brings us: Ross Gay, our just-for-a-minute neighbor, presented to us from his award-winning book Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude –including the long-reaching title poem, a rare treat in our venue that so often holds us to three minutes. Truly, as excellent a feature as we could have hoped for, and maybe one of Ross’ last in the area before returning home to Indiana. What a lucky Wednesday night we are.
Oh, oh, and speaking of luck/curated by skill/underpinned by hard work: it’s time to extend your congratulations to the winner of the Champion of Champions slam! All eight of our previous speed slam winners showed up (HOT DAMN) to take a shot at reigning champ Mckendy Fils-Aimé… But only two of them made it to the one-minute doom-round-of-doom, where Nora Meiners defeated John Pinkham in a glorious tiebreaker in his first showing at the champs slam! Nora let her $50 ride and made a grand effort to take down Mckendy in the new poem round; unsurprisingly, Mckendy refused to roll over and came back with a brand-new memorized piece, polishing off the final round and walking away $100 richer and keeping his title. Holy crap, that makes FOUR WINS STRAIGHT for Mckendy as Champion! There are eight open slams between now and the next champs slam in August. Who will come at him next?
Wait, we said eight slams… But we meant nine. Next week, we offer the very last speed slam of the year: the Last Chance Slam to earn a berth in the 2016 World Qualifier Speed Slam. Dust off your two- and one-minute poems for the comp, and listen up for the Columbus powerhouse, the rarely-seen, rarely-touring Rose Smith, closing out National Poetry Month with the bestest Midwest bang.
Boston Poetry Slam Online