Encyclopedia Show: Somerville for Thursday, March 10, 2016 — S3V4: THE PERIODIC TABLE OF ELEMENTS

Encyclopedia Show: Somerville — THE PERIODIC TABLE OF ELEMENTS on March 10, 2016! Art by Melissa Newman-Evans.

Encyclopedia Show: Somerville — THE PERIODIC TABLE OF ELEMENTS on March 10, 2016! Art by Melissa Newman-Evans.

Thursday, March 10, 2016
The Davis Square Theatre
255 Elm St. in Somerville
7pm doors, 8pm-10pm show
all ages, $10/$7 sliding scale
click for Facebook event

The Boston Poetry Slam and Catherine Martin return from a frigid winter break to present the next installment in a slightly educational monthly series!

Our theme for this month’s show will be THE PERIODIC TABLE OF ELEMENTS! A satisfying number of local artists have been invited to try their hand at putting their uncategorizable work into little scientific boxes.

The Encyclopedia Show Somerville is a franchise event, wherein invited artists from a variety of performance disciplines present all-new, original works on sub-topics of a single theme. A recurring cast of hosts and characters welcomes the artists with open arms and minds, while the resident Fact Checker is charged with maintaining the integrity of the Encyclopedic Truth of the show. Presenting all-original guest performances from local artists, plus work from our recurring cast members:

  • Rob Crean and Chloé Cunha provide clever banter and funny accents appropriate for CO-HOSTING
  • The Michael J. Epstein Memorial Library offers MUSICAL SUPPORT
  • Wes Hazard dispenses QUESTIONABLE EXPERTISE with panache and aplomb
  • and The Intern has offered to obtain some experiment-grade sodium.

Live Fact Checking is reluctantly provided by Jack van Sly from the Institute of Human Knowledge and Hygiene. The personal assistant to Mr. van Sly is Jade Sylvan.

This show in our monthly Encylopedia Show: Somerville series takes place at the Davis Square Theatre, 255 Elm St. in Somerville. Doors and the theatre bar open for a pre-show welcome party at 7:00. The show begins promptly at 8:00 and finishes at 10:00, including a short intermission. This is an all ages show! Admission is $10, or $7 for students, teachers, or guests in Prohibition-era dress.

Cantab Feature for Wednesday, March 9, 2016: SCHEDULE CHANGE, AGAIN: Rushelle Frazier

Due to the vagaries of life, travel, and art, our re-scheduled feature, Raven McGill, will also not be able to attend this week. In great news, the following formidable and excellent local will (definitely, definitely) fill the spot:

Rushelle Frazier, Worcester superstar.

Rushelle Frazier, Worcester superstar.

Rushelle Frazier is a queer black feminist writer, permaculture educator, urban farmer, herbalist, and organizer. She was a member of the 2002 and 2015 Worcester Slam Teams and co-coach of the 2004 Worcester Youth Slam Team and the 2010 Savannah Youth Slam Team. She has been the founder and coordinator a handful of well-loved readings, most recently the Hot Spot at Nine Dot Poetry Series. She was voted Best Female Poet at the 2006 Savannah Spoken Word Festival.

You can visit her at rushellefrazier.com, or check out recent video of her poem “Ah, Merica” on YouTube. Order her newest book, Heavy Honey, from DoubleBunny Press (or pick it up at the show)!

Note that tonight’s open poetry slam is a speed slam with 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.

Bio of the canceled feature:

The dramatic and whimsical Raven Skye McGill.

The dramatic and whimsical Raven Skye McGill.

Raven McGill is a soft angel/visual artist and poet hailing from New Hampshire (currently living in Oakland, Calif.) who has somehow convinced thousands of people that she is a somewhat regularly socialized human. Raven is a visual artist and performance poet whose competition credits include the Northbeast Underground Team Slam (N.U.T.S) with The Losers Club team, the National Poetry Slam as part of the 2015 Slam Free or Die team, and the National Underground Poetry Invitational Competition, for which she was a semi-finalist in 2015.

Her poetry can be found via Radius Lit and Youtube via Slamfind and Button Poetry. Her poems have been on Everyday Feminism and Huffington Post Black Voices. Her visual works can be found on tumblr (for now). You can also find her pretty much everywhere on the internet because it’s spooky like that.

Due to circumstances of scheduling, Timothy DuWhite will not be able to feature this week; we are actively looking to re-book the poet for an August 2016 date.

Bio of the original canceled feature (we look forward to re-booking Tim for August):

Humble and mind-bending artist Timothy DuWhite.

Humble and mind-bending artist Timothy DuWhite.

Through mistakes, short-comings, and failures Timothy DuWhite has been able to fashion himself a body of work that speaks directly to the value of transparency as well as self-accountability. Timothy has dedicated his journey of both artist-hood as well as person-hood to the preservation of stories, all of our stories, and all of the purpose they bear. As a spoken word artist, Timothy enlists his audience members in arratives spanning the pain of love, the insurmountable teeth of joy, the importance of forgiveness, the realities of living with a disease, the struggles of a man of color, the struggles of a queer man, the interconnections of the human experience, and every bit of beauty that can be found in the small and seemingly insignificant.

Timothy’s work has been featured at venues such as the United Nations/UNICEF, Apollo Theater, San Diego State University, Nuyorican Poet’s cafe, La Mama Theatre and many more. Timothy believes that by sharing our individual experiences and maintaining a dialogue of honesty amongst ourselves we can better navigate this behemoth we call life.

Cantab Recap for Wednesday, March 2, 2016

It was a cozy poetry night hidden from the wind in the Cantab yesterday, where feature Janaka Stucky arrived complete with polish, drama, and a wry and loving self-awareness that no Boston Poetry Slam feature should be without. As you know, Janaka took no payment for this feature, instead choosing to donate his honorarium to Black Lives Matter Boston; you can learn more about how to support the artist at janakastucky.com.

After Janaka’s feature, the seven-poet slam breathed an air of irreverence back into the room, as some very funny work (and a few gentle heckles) hit the stage. The top spot was a tug-of-war between newly minted BPS team finalist Bobby Crawford and Women-of-the-World-Poetry-Slam-bound Jess Rizkallah: on a vector for the big slam in NYC next week, Jess took the win in the one-minute round and earned herself the ten-dollar prize.

Next week: wait, what is this? Is Raven McGill really going to make a stop to feature for us on her return visit to New Hampshire from sunny Oakland? You betcha! (No worries, we’ll be rescheduling Timothy DuWhite for later in the year.) Come see this Manchester poet you might have missed on her first return visit home from the Bay.

Tips from the Bar: Apocalypse Payday

Adam Stone's tip from the bar (standard format).

Adam Stone’s tip from the bar (standard format).

You are the last person in your industry alive and qualified to do your job. How does this affect your approach and work ethic?

Cantab Feature for March 2, 2016: Janaka Stucky

Boston poet Janaka Stucky. Photo by Adrianne Mathiowetz.

Boston poet Janaka Stucky. Photo by Adrianne Mathiowetz.

Janaka Stucky is the author of The Truth Is We Are Perfect and the publisher of Black Ocean, as well as the annual poetry journal Handsome. He is also the author of two chapbooks: Your Name Is The Only Freedom and The World Will Deny It For You. His poems have appeared in such journals as Denver Quarterly, Fence and North American Review, and his articles have been published by The Huffington Post and The Poetry Foundation. He is a two-time National Haiku Champion and in 2010 he was voted “Boston’s Best Poet” in the Boston Phoenix.

Per Janaka’s request, proceeds from his show will be donated to a local organization. Together we have decided to donate to the Boston group of Black Lives Matter, a cause close to the hearts and lives of poets in the nationwide slam community.

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, February 24, 2016

We weren’t ready! Sure, we were warned, but the Cantab was learned it is impossible to prepare for the awesome power of Siaara Freeman, mistress of craft, presence, and the very realest of all real talk. Siaara’s feature was an ideal combination of everything the room has come to love, including delicate metaphor and uncompromising narrative, all balanced out with with whip-smart banter that had audience members lining up for hugs and every last book in her suitcase. Huge thanks to Siaara for bringing her words and work to close out Black History Month at the Boston Poetry Slam, and at nearly every other slam in the NorthBEAST region!

Our third speed slam of the series saw six untentative performers take the stage to try their hand at the 3-minute, 2-minute, and 1-minute lightning format. The final sixty-second round came down to the speedy stylings of Kylie Noelle vs. Nora Meiners: WOWPS-bound Nora took the win and the ten dollars to get on the list for this year’s World Qualifier series.

Next week: it’s been a long time since we’ve seen one-time Guerrilla Poet Janaka Stucky on the Cantab stage… Long enough for the guy to rack up a fabulous set of non-slam credentials, including a bucket of publications, a national tour, two National Haiku Championship titles (yup), and a probably-new-to-you book, The Truth Is We Are Perfect. Come early to introduce yourself to this busy local; stay late to get yourself into the fourth open speed slam in this 8×8 series.

Tips from the Bar: Killing Your Darling

You may have written a poem before with a “ghost line” as a prompt: beginning with a line (perhaps from another source), then erasing it to complete your poem at the end…

This time, try editing an already complete poem of yours by removing the final lines or stanza. What now?

Cantab Feature for Wednesday, February 24, 2016: Siaara Freeman

Cleveland poet Siaara Freeman.

Cleveland poet Siaara Freeman.

Siaara Freeman was born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio. She’s very proud of this even when others assume she’d feel otherwise. She began writing at 7 years old and actively slamming at 15 for the National Brave New Voices Competition until she was 19. She then entered the adult scene slamming for both Columbus and Cleveland. Siaara’s poems offer an actual face to the urban experience instead of a caricature, insisting that you see the people she sees, the stories she knows, whether you find them respectable or not. She has traveled the country and she does not make fans– she makes friends.

She met Maya Angelo and has a selfie for proof. She has been the grand slam champ in both cities she slammed for. (She’s never done an individual competition, but she’d like to.) Her team made it to final stage their first year at BNV in 2008, which was pretty lit. Enough about slam doe: “Siaara is attempting to grow her afro so tall, God mistakes it for a microphone and decides to speak into her.”

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, February 17, 2016

The 2016 Boston Poetry Slam Team Selection Semi-Finals have come and gone, poetry fans, laying waste to many beers and three very talented poets. Here are the results from last night’s epic slam:

1. Zeke Russell 53.2
2. Marshall Gillson 53.1
3. Simone Beaubien 52.6
4. Mckendy Fils-Aimé 52.5
5. JR Mahung 51.6
6. Neiel Israel 51.0
7. Joshua Elbaum 50.2
8. Manvir Singh 50.1
9. Meaghan Ford 49.9
10. Nora Meiners
11. Bobby Crawford
12. Emily O’Neill
Poets in bold have qualified to advance to Finals on March 16.

After room-flaming sacrifices from WOWPS-bound Jess Rizkallah and double-plus Last-Chance champ Colin Killick, last-minute add to the slam Emily kicked in the door with Rappelling, a heartrending family poem in the key of social media. Manvir followed up with a both surprisingly and unsurprisingly surreal tale of a chimpanzee and a town matriarch, with Joshua hot on his heels, breaking hearts with the dirtiest refrigerator in town (and the only time penalty of the night). All three poets held score until Marshall pumped up the judges with a little Stunting, breaking open the funny and setting up Mckendy for what would turn out to be the high score of the night with Via Negativa.

Now barely halfway through the round, the judges had settled into a terrifying groove, throwing sevens with the same frequency as nines, and with an occasional five thrown in for spice. Simone rode the score bump to safety, but the wave had passed as Nora’s newer, WOWPS-ready two-minute work on the threat of leaving left the judges split down the middle. Neiel surprised the crowd as the first to bring rhyme to the crowd in a powerfully voiced poem to a girl of the street, bringing snaps from the back corners of the room. JR held score with an understated family dynamics poem, then Zeke risked a brand-new-written-today poem for his niece that had the room wiping their eyes and the judges paying out the second-highest score of the round! The end of the round brought strange surprises, as Meaghan, a usual crowd favorite, couldn’t engage the judges with her hearing loss poem, and the night’s top seed Bobby brought some of the crowd to their feet for almost hitting Junot Diaz with his car, but didn’t see any reward in the scores.

At the end of one round of poems, Mckendy was sitting pretty with a 27.5 and more than a point ahead of Zeke, who led Marshall, Simone, and Neiel in the low 26.x range. Joshua was close behind, but JR, Emily, Bobby, Nora, Manvir, and Meaghan would all have to put forth a solid effort to make the top nine cut. Fortunately, with a remarkable average 2.48 point spread from the five judges (for reference, heats 1 and 2 of the prelims showed first-round spreads of 1.58 and 2.02, respectively), and a lot of room above the highest score, the second round was still anybody’s game.

Host Tom Slavin transitioned the show seamlessly into the second round, where Emily “Snake Eyes” O’Neill had drawn first in the round to kick in the door yet again, this time with a new essay-form food-and-body-image poem. Neiel rolled out Chad: The Invisible White Boy to a receptive audience, followed by Mckendy’s new-to-the-stage rendition of Half-Life (see his link above for the text). Looking to make up lost ground, Bobby flashed back to Guitar Hero, and Joshua took a stab at corralling his father’s boundless grief. And for all of this, the judges were willing to go no higher than a 25.0, putting Emily and Bobby on the brink of likely elimination and leaving Neiel and Joshua to wring their hands for the next seven performers.

The poet to take the stage next was Manvir, taking a page from Bobby’s book and bringing up a venue favorite: his ode to pants(!) shook the judges’ generosity awake for a full one-point score bump. Had they joined Mckendy at the bar in his quiet mathed-in celebration? Whatever it was, something had shifted, and JR’s Unsent Messages to a High School Crush and Simone’s Pour One out were rewarded in kind, and capped by the second-round top score for Marshall’s poem Instructions in the Event of My Death. Zeke Russell didn’t need to best his score from the previous round, but a solid performance on the topic of Maine ruggedness earned him the second highest score of round two, and bested Marshall’s total by just enough to take the top spot of the night.

However, with only Nora and Meaghan as the last remaining poets, the slam was far from over; both poets would have to stretch to defeat Bobby and Emily, and unless the judges suddenly started handing out nines like the Cantab bartenders do whiskey, there would be only one spot left for the four to fight for. Nora came to the stage with a fresh re-write of a poem on Avarice, inspired by last year’s Erotic Poetry Night; a suddenly sober set of judges remained impassive, paying out only enough points to bring Nora up to ninth place and cement Emily and Bobby’s fates. In a final and determined effort to beat the math, Meaghan brought her poem Trauma Game to the stage, taking the mic by storm and achieving the biggest comeback in the show to defeat Nora and punch her own ticket for Finals. Hot damn!

Special thanks to all our staff who made this show possible, including host Tom Slavin, bout manager Ed Wilkinson, scorekeeper/timekeeper Kieran Collier (gratefully borrowed from the Emerson Poetry Project), and our intrepid door staff, Michael Quigg and Michael F. Gill.

Next week: our schedule returns to glorious normality with all-but-predictable Columbus brilliance from Siaara Freeman, a regular-strength open mic, and an open speed slam to close out Black History Month. Poems on poems on poems! See you there!

Tips from the Bar: The Noel Fielding Prompt

Write about an inanimate object that has ceased to fulfill its purpose, so goes back to tell the other objects what awaits them.

Bonus MacKenzie family prompt: “The Future.”