Cantab Feature for Wednesday, April 6, 2016: Emily Rose & Ben Clark

Chicago Thoughtcrime duo Emily Rose and Ben Clark.

Chicago Thoughtcrime duo Emily Rose and Ben Clark.

Emily Rose and Ben Clark are a powerhouse poetry duo touring in support of their latest releases from Thoughtcrime press. Starting in Chicago and hitting both the east and west costs in 2016, Emily and Ben’s collections are Mouthy and if you turn around I will turn around, respectively.

Emily Rose Kahn-Sheahan lives in Chicago where she has hosted and curated shows for ten years, including operating as the SlamMaster for Mental Graffiti and host/curator for Real Talk Live. She competed with 5 Chicago teams at the National Poetry Slam as a poet and coach as well as placing 14th at the 2011 Individual World Poetry Slam. Other
things she has done: Founding board member for Chicago Slam Works, former Chair of Poetry for the Bucktown Arts Festival, original cast of The Encyclopedia Show Chicago. Her work has recently appeared in Columbia Poetry Review, TriQuarterly, Muzzle Magazine, decomP, After Hours, and TimeOut Chicago. Her first chapbook, Cigarette Love Songs
and Nicotine Kisses, was published by Cross+Roads Press. Her new chapbook, Mouthy, was released on Thoughtcrime Press.

Ben Clark grew up in rural Nebraska and now lives in Chicago, where he writes and works as an editor for Muzzle Magazine. His first book, Reasons To Leave The Slaughter, was released by Write Bloody Publishing in 2011, for which he toured the Midwest extensively. He’s been widely published in both online and print journals including:
Pank Online, Sundog Lit, Birdfeast Journal, Leveler Poetry, Salt Hill Journal, Atticus Review, Everyday Genius, Radius Lit, Word Riot, and Decomp. He has also been included in several print anthologies including: Bestiary: the best of the inaugural demi-decade of A Cappella Zoo, and in Write Bloody Publishing’s classroom collection Learn Then Burn 2: This Time It’s Personal. He’s been featured online at Verse Daily, and in 2015 was nominated by Mount Island for a Best of the Net award. This summer he was selected for the second time to the Art Farm, a multi-disciplinary artist/writer residency in Nebraska, where he completed a chapbook entitled Dear Fox, Dear Barn with GennaRose Nethercott.

Note that tonight’s open poetry slam is a speed slam 3-, 2-, and 1-minute rounds. Slam winners qualify 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. An open speed slam in the 8×8 series will follow. The show is 18+ (ID required) and the cover charge is $3.

Cantab Recap for Wednesday, March 30, 2016

Oh, you think CUPSI’s thinks it’s ready for New England? We know it: YOU’RE NOT READY, CUPSI! Five local teams slammed off in a mock semi-final bout at the Cantab this week, and although the venue was full of love and cross-team support, poets pulled no punches when it came time to hit the stage. The slam was graciously and energetically hosted by our spotlight feature, Tariq Luthun, who’s only just begun to ease into post-CUPSI life himself. You can catch up with Tariq on Twitter or Instagram, or visit his personal website for more details about the work he did for us in the spotlight feature.

Oh, you want slam results? Okay, fine, we got slam results:
1. Emerson College 106.1
2. Simmons College 106.0
3. Berklee College of Music 104.7
4. Northeastern University 102.4
5. University of Massachusetts Boston 99.7

Of course, as you know, the final scores never tell the story. Just looking at the numbers, you wouldn’t know enough to congratulate UMass Boston for their work in their first! regional! ever! leading up to their first trip to the collegiate national slam. This brandy-new team with four very individually developed voices showed poise and great spirit at their first Cantab showing; let’s hope we see these poets back again soon!

You might also not know this, but Northeastern will be making their first trip to CUPSI as a team this year, too. Already with at least one group poem in their pocket (shhhhh), this confident group is ready to turn some heads and shake up some scores in Austin next week.

Smack in the middle at third place in the slam was the always-solid group from Berklee. Coached by a one-time Boston Poetry Slam Team member who also slammed in the Bay, the team’s east-west sound always catches the Cantab ear. Bringing multiple polished duets to the stage, and, uh, one national champion already on their team, Berklee is guaranteed to storm into their prelim bouts coming up at CUPSI.

Oh, and “second place?” What is that, even, by 0.1? Simmons College, rocking a divide between polished performance work and new poems still. on. page, actually tied for top honors with Emerson in rounds one and two. This engaging group of thoughtful and powerful voices will be a force to be reckoned with at the upcoming tournament.

Lastly, and mathematically mostly, in first place, by it-doesn’t-matter-how-much-because-a-win-is-a-win, the team with perhaps the closest ties to the Cantab: Emerson College. Co-coached by one of the venue’s current team members, Emerson brought solid and unapologetic solo work to the stage, remarkable for both energy and well-executed emotional transition. Congratulations, Emerson!

We wish everyone a fabulous tournament next week in Austin: if you’re keen to follow along, start by checking up for the schedule and bout draw at the College Unions Poetry Slam Invitational website.

Of course, you can be watching CUPSI scores on April 6, but it’ll have to be in between poems: we’ve got a duo from Thoughtcrime Press in the house! Chicago’s Emily Rose and Ben Clark are touring to support their latest releases, Mouthy and if you turn around I will turn around. We’ll also have the penultimate slam in the 8×8 speed slam series.

Tips from the Bar: A Learning Experience

This week’s prompt comes from fill-in/head/heavy-handed bartender Emily Carroll:

Write about something that you had to be taught.

Cantab Feature for Wednesday, March 30, 2016: CUPSI Warm-Up and Tariq Luthun Spotlight

Official logo for CUPSI '16 in Austin, Texas.

Official logo for CUPSI ’16 in Austin, Texas.

The annual collegiate national poetry slam tournament is the driving performative force behind a large number of the Cantab’s regular readers and listeners. This year, our local students (and some local familiar coaches as well) will be headed to Austin, Texas for the College Unions Poetry Slam Invitational. To help our locals gear up for the national competition, we’ll be offering the CUPSI Warm-Up, a team slam featuring Emerson College, Berklee College of Music, Northeastern University, UMass Boston, and Simmons College. This nationals-style 5×4 will incorporate all the collegiate regulations, poetry, and intensity of competition we’ve come to expect from CUPSI.

But wait… That’s not all! We’ll also present a spotlight feature from a well-timed touring poet.

Detroit poet Tariq Luthun. Photo by Michelle Tessier.

Detroit poet Tariq Luthun. Photo by Michelle Tessier.

Tariq Luthun is a Palestinian-American writer & strategist from Detroit, MI. He is currently an MFA candidate for poetry at Warren Wilson College. Among other things, Luthun is the Director of the Ann Arbor Poetry Slam, the Social Media Director of Organic Weapon Arts, and an advisory board member of the nonprofit Write A House. His work has appeared or is forthcoming in The Offing, Winter Tangerine Review, and Button Poetry. Among other things, some of Luthun’s most recent accomplishments include being named a finalist for the first iteration of the Winter Tangerine Awards, representing the city of Ann Arbor at the 2014 National Poetry slam & 2015 Individual World Poetry Slam, and serving as a Future Corps mentor for the youth poetry festival Brave New Voices.

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 slam begins at approximately 10:00. The show is 18+ (ID required) and the cover charge is $3.

Cantab Recap for Wednesday, March 23, 2016

Happy spring, Cantabbers! This year, we were pleased to celebrate the much-awaited return of the warm weather with a much-awaited feature from a local favorite: Jonah Comstock! Jonah brought a new chapbook, a finely tuned feature, and a really brave face to his unexpected roasting on the open mic. It’s a great treat to hear a full body of work from a poet who’s been working in three-minute increments in the Cantab for so long; if you missed his set, you can construct your own from his new chapbook, Sailing Off the Map.

The speed slam that night was a rather competitive affair, featuring a rush to fill the competition after the feature and bringing us under-time gems in every round. The rapid-fire finals was a match-up between Grudge Match team staple Chloé Cunha and a hard-driving Meaghan Ford. Meaghan took the win, and the momentum, as she heads to semi-finals at the House Slam this Friday. Go get ’em, Meaghan!

Next week: we’re back with the first team slam of the year, as five CUPSI-bound local college teams go head-to-head-to-head-to-head-to-head (phew) to prepare for their national tournament! Special treat: this slam will be hosted by, and feature a spotlight from, the incomparable Tariq Luthun of Detroit. This will be a high-energy night and a great preview to our summer of slam.

Tips from the Bar: Last-Minute Eulogy

Someone has died, but no one had anything to say.

Take only fifteen to thirty minutes to eulogize a person whose memorial service you might be asked to speak at.

Cantab Feature for Wednesday, March 23, 2016: Jonah Comstock

Poet, singer-songwriter, and journalist Jonah Comstock.

Poet, singer-songwriter, and journalist Jonah Comstock.

Jonah Comstock is a poet, singer-songwriter, and journalist operating out of Boston, Massachusetts. In his poetry, he strives to inject the mundane with a sense of whimsy, using both formal and free verse means to do so. He’s a regular contributor to the Brighton Word Factory, has been a member of the Cantab scene for more than three years and has featured at the Encyclopedia Show Somerville, Stone Soup, It Just Got Weirdo, and Grandma’s Basement Mixtape. His band, Pirate Not Included— consisting of Jonah and wombmate/fellow Cantab regular Nathan Comstock— performs occasional shows around Boston.

Note that tonight’s open poetry slam is a speed slam 3-, 2-, and 1-minute rounds. Slam winners qualify 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. An open speed slam in the 8×8 series will follow. The show is 18+ (ID required) and the cover charge is $3.

Cantab Recap for Wednesday, March 16, 2016

The Boston Poetry Slam at the Cantab Lounge is proud to announce the 2016 Boston Poetry Slam Team:

The 2016 Boston Poetry Slam Team, together for the first time: Zeke, Neiel, Bobby, Mckendy, and Simone. Photo by Marshall Goff.

The 2016 Boston Poetry Slam Team, together for the first time: Zeke, Neiel, Bobby, Mckendy, and Simone. Photo by Marshall Goff.

1. Neiel Israel 83.3
2. Zeke Russell 80.3
3. Simone Beaubien 79.7
4. Mckendy Fils-Aimé 79.1
5. Bobby Crawford 78.9
6. JR Mahung
7. Meaghan Ford
8. Joshua Elbaum
9. Manvir Singh
Poets in bold finished in the top five at Finals to make the team.

It was a windy and wicked Wednesday last night as a determined crowd lined up for the venue’s highest-stakes slam: the 2016 Boston Poetry Slam Team Selection Finals! Nine poets entered, but only five could leave as the official 2016 Boston Poetry Slam Team, and tensions were high in the dank little basement.

Wasting little time, 2015 slam team member and 2016 host Sean Patrick Mulroy launched into the slam, taking the stage as though it were his home (which it is: we don’t care what MFA program he’s a resident for) and shepherding bout manager (and 1994 slam team member) Tom Slavin’s hard-won judges smoothly into a well-lubricated team of five people who share no opinions or values and each want to control the outcome of the show. Welcome to poetry slam!

The night started with the judges terrifyingly panning strong work from two poets who had dropped from the series: Nora Meiners and Marshall Gillson, each taking the stage to warm up the already blisteringly hot room. That left Bobby to try to pump up the scores: invoking a high-energy performance of Dave of Liquor Basement got him a three-point jump, but still left the early-round slammers to wallow in the 24.x range, with no idea when or if the judges would show more generosity. Toploading was the name of the game as poets brought the tried-and-true to the stage: Meaghan with the wrong Matt, Manvir with last week’s open mic poem On Forgetting How to Be Happy and Make Friends, and Joshua with last year’s Grudge Match poem on the prompt of “back in the day.” Scores held until Neiel hit the stage fifth with a rollicking poem, complete with ribald hand gestures, about the dick, skyrocketing totals another 3 points and winning the hearts of the judges.

The hearts of the crowd, though, belonged to JR, who followed with his required new poem in the series, on the subject of skin, earning just enough to top the poets from early in the round… After which Mckendy, unshy about letting the room know that he intended to make this team, lent the full force of his performance chops to a rendition of Whistling Vivaldi for a 28.7 that would mark the highest score of the night. As the waters receded, Simone held on with another Grudge Match callback on the subject of a Boston sports “hero,” and Zeke finished up the round with a strong and solidly planted narrative on summering in junkietown.

At the end of the round one, Mckendy held a commanding lead with Neiel the only poet within striking distance; Zeke was 1.7 behind, leading the middle of the pack over a tightly grouped Simone, JR, and Manvir; and Josh, Bobby, and Meaghan trailed less than a point behind. Unlike round one, rounds two and three were unseeded, random draw, offering a mix in the rhythm, but no break, as Sean rolled right into the next ninesome.

Rocking a tough draw (first in the second round, and last in the third), Neiel performed a haunting, short form piece about watching a church burn, nearly doubling her score and looking good for a mathematical lock for the team. Joshua brought the first love poem of the night with his piece referencing the end of the Mayan calendar, satisfying the judges’ itch for sweetness (or, okay, apocalypse) and earning a 26.9, just a few tenths behind Neiel. Wait, was this a new baseline for these so-far-consistent judges? Nope: one of Manvir’s strongest crowd favorites, Eduardo dancing inside the alien machine, failed to engage the gatekeepers of the scores, and the rest of the round was a motocross course of ups and downs: Zeke drawing the judges in with his brother Ethan, only to have them draw back into their slimy low-score shells for an on-page poem from Mckendy, his second brand-new piece of the series.

Simone followed suit with another extra-credit brand-new page piece, somehow earning a score bump for informing the crowd that bartender Judy probably wouldn’t have liked them anyway… But the round’s winningest poem came from Bobby, kicking the mic aside and dropping to his knees for a dramatic new edit of Church, and topping Neiel’s early score by 0.6. JR and Meaghan both managed to hold score afterwards, JR with a well-received ode to Space Jam, and Meaghan with a newer, second-person piece on staying and leaving.

At the end of round two: Neiel was still on top of the world with a full point lead over Mckendy; Zeke hung 1.3 points back that with Bobby a scant 0.4 behind him. Simone, Josh, and JR were another point back, tightly grouped at the fifth spot, with Meaghan and Manvir on the ropes and needing a few extra things to go right in round three.

Looking to seal his place on the team from the one-spot, Mckendy brought Scrambled Eggs to the stage, earning a middling score. Would it be enough? Bobby followed with a high energy bang-bang(-bang), setting the tone for the third round and putting himself in solid striking distance with most of the round yet to play out. Manvir brought a joyous call-and-response poem to follow, earning his highest score of the night and dozens of loyal followers in the crowd. Having saved the most nerve-wrackingly best for last, Joshua finally ticked his new poem requirement for the season with a wrenching and personal narrative based on family card games. With five poets left to go, Mckendy and Bobby were looking strong, and the rest of the show was left to be anybody’s game.

Here’s where the slam got a little crazy: Simone elected to make the first and only crowdwalk of the evening, laying out a response poem about high school gymnastics old enough to enroll in second grade, and earning (a tie for) the second highest score for the night. Knowing a good setup when he sees one, Zeke took this opportunity to reclaim his less energetic performance from last year in a top-notch presentation of (yell it with him) HIGH SCHOOL IS BULLSHIT! In a shocking development, terrific crowd response pushed Zeke over the time limit for the slam’s only time penalty, but his consistency over all three rounds still earned him a lock for the team, leaving Simone and Bobby to bite their nails for the last third of the round. Meaghan came strong with an exceptional performance of Match Heads, but couldn’t make up for earlier math, pushing Simone up to the roster and leaving two more spots for Bobby, JR, and Neiel. Having made a strong strategy decision to save a well-known poem for late in the round, JR put forth a solid performance of his grandmother’s entreaty for him to eat, but fell just half a point short of Bobby.

With Neiel last to go, and with a commanding lead that only required her to score a 23.4 to make the team, poets in the know were wondering less how she would score and more how she would decide to finish out the slam. She chose a strong standby and the night’s first and only persona piece, Unborn, which earned her a tie for second individual score and a definitive win at the end of the night. Hot damn!

The team, confirmed and excited: Neiel Israel and Zeke Russell will enjoy their first year as BPS team members, with player-coach Simone Beaubien earning her first spot on a roster since 2010, and Mckendy Fils-Aimé and Bobby Crawford returning from the 2015 squad.

As always: heartfelt thanks and applause to our eliminated poets, JR Mahung, Joshua Elbaum, Meaghan Ford, and Manvir Singh. Special thanks to our hosting and management staff, including the long-suffering Kieran Collier, flawless score-and-timekeeper and leaver of lovingly snarky notes in the score spreadsheet. (Also, Sophia Holtz, we see you, back from New York for a night to round out the in-house reunion of the 2015 slam team.) What a good night.

Next week: OH YES, THERE WILL BE A NEXT WEEK. And it will feature Jonah Comstock, long-time regular, first-time feature, and philosopher, musician, and poet to boot. We’ll also continue our series of speed slams with the sixth in the series. See you there!

Tips from the Bar: Daylight Saves No One

What happens in the lost hour?

Cantab Feature for Wednesday, March 16, 2016: Team Selection Finals

The Cantab’s Team Selection Slams are the venue’s biggest, wildest poetry slams of the year. The venue’s late-winter selection is one of the earliest in the country, which gives them extra time to prepare for this year’s National Poetry Slam in Decatur, Georgia this August.

The top nine poets from semi-finals qualified to advance to the show. The following poets have decided to continue to finals, slamming in the following order in the first round (and drawing randomly for second and third round order):
1. Bobby Crawford
2. Meaghan Ford
3. Manvir Singh
4. Joshua Elbaum
5. Neiel Israel
6. JR Mahung
7. Mckendy Fils-Aimé
8. Simone Beaubien
9. Zeke Russell
Sacrifices: 1. Nora Meiners, 2. Marshall Gillson

The slam will be hosted by special guest Sean Patrick Mulroy and bout managed by venue favorite Tom Slavin.

After three previous slams in the last two months, already requiring four pieces to slam plus a brand new poem, you can expect hot competition, tense strategic moves, and the most finely-polished performance work of the slam season. The top five poets at the end of the evening will comprise the 2016 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 9:00. The show is 18+ (ID required) and the cover charge is $5; proceeds will go toward funding the team’s trip to the National Poetry Slam in Georgia this August.