Try out a poem wherein you have a conversation with inanimate objects.
Bonus MacKenzie family prompt: see if you can be inspired by “water.”
Cantab Feature for Wednesday, January 27, 2016: Eve Ewing
Boston poet Eve Ewing. Photo by Ricky Orng.
Eve Ewing is a Chicago-born poet and essayist whose work has been published in Poetry Magazine, The New Yorker, Union Station, Bird’s Thumb, joINT, and Blackberry, and the anthology The Breakbeat Poets: New American Poetry in the Age of Hip-Hop (Haymarket Books). She has been a Pushcart Prize nominee, a finalist for the Pamet River Prize, and a scholarship recipient for the New Harmony Writers Workshop. She is the former managing editor of Kinfolks: a journal of black expression and a current editor and staff writer for the website Seven Scribes. She is also one of the organizers of MassLEAP, which is home of the Louder Than A Bomb Massachusetts youth poetry slam, and a doctoral candidate at Harvard University, where she studies race, education, and inequality.
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, January 20, 2016
Official results from the second of our two heats of Team Selection Preliminaries have been tabulated!
The top six poets have qualified to move on to Semi-Finals on February 17:
1. Meaghan Ford 52.2
2. Zeke Russell 50.4
3. Quentin Lucas 49.3
4. Nora Meiners 48.7
5. Mckendy Fils-Aimé 48.6
6. Manvir Singh 48.3
7. Emily O’Neill
8. Jess Rizkallah
9. Ed Wilkinson
Congratulations to our finishers, and special thanks to our guest host, all the way from Worcester: Eirean Bradley!
Next Wednesday: let’s give our competitors a break, shall we? We’ll be back to our regular $3 cover, two-hour open mic, and excellent local feature Eve Ewing. And for those who want to try their hand at this little slam thing, we’ll offer the first in our series of open SPEED slams: bring a 3-minute, a 2-minute, and a 1-minute poem if you want a chance at the $10 prize.
Cantab Feature for Wednesday, January 20, 2016: Team Selection Preliminaries (Second Heat)
The Cantab’s Team Selection Slams have always been the venue’s biggest, wildest poetry slams of the season. For 2016, the venue will split the rowdy preliminary slam into two separate sessions, with this event being the second prelim pool of two; the rest of the field will have already competed at the January 13 event. The top six poets after two poems each will meet the top poets from the second heat at the Semi-Finals on February 17.
The following poets will compete tonight (order TBD):
- Mckendy Fils-Aimé
- Quentin Lucas
- Meaghan Ford
- Ed Wilkinson
- Nora Meiners
- Zeke Russell
- Jess Riz
- Emily O’Neill
- Manvir Singh
- Sacrifice poets: 1. Tom Slavin, 2. Cassandra de Alba
Host: Eirean Bradley
Bout Manager: Tom Slavin, Scorekeeper: Jamei Bauer
Team Selection Slams are a three-session affair for Cantab poets, with the top five poets after seven rounds comprising the venue’s National Poetry Slam Team. The 2016 Boston Poetry Slam Team will travel to the National Poetry Slam in Decateur, Georgia this August.
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 9:30. The show is 18+ (ID required) and the cover charge is $5; proceeds will go toward funding the National Poetry Slam in August.
Cantab Recap for Wednesday, January 13, 2016
Official results from last night’s Team Selection Preliminaries are in, folks!
The top six poets have qualified to move on to Semi-Finals on February 17:
1. Bobby Crawford 58.1
2. JR Mahung 57.4
3. Neiel Israel 56.6
4. Simone Beaubien 56.2
5. Marshall Gillson 55.9
6. Joshua Elbaum 55.8
7. Colin Killick
8. Adam Stone
Congratulations to our finishers! Special thanks go to our intrepid judges: Ron, Nina, Chanell, Caitlin, and Andrew, as well as our very excellent host, Porsha Olayiwola.
Next Wednesday, six more poets will qualify for Semi-Finals in the second heat of the Team Selection Slam Preliminaries. Click the link to see the roster and don’t forget to pack a $5-spot: it’ll be another fundraiser to help send the eventual 2016 team to the National Poetry Slam in Georgia.
Cantab Feature for Wednesday, January 13, 2016: Team Selection Preliminaries (First Heat)
The Cantab’s Team Selection Slams have always been the venue’s biggest, wildest poetry slams of the season. For 2016, the venue will split the rowdy preliminary slam into two separate sessions, with this event being the first prelim pool of two: the rest of the field will compete at the January 20 event. The top six poets after two poems each will meet the top poets from the second heat at the Semi-Finals on February 17.
The following poets will compete tonight (order TBD):
- Simone Beaubien
- Neiel Israel
- JR Mahung
- Adam Stone
- Joshua Elbaum
- Marshall Gillson
- Bobby Crawford
- Colin Killick
- Sacrifice poets: 1. Anna Binkovitz, 2. RebeccaLynn Gualtieri
Host: Porsha Olayiwola
Bout Manager: Tom Slavin, Scorekeeper: Jamei Bauer
Team Selection Slams are a three-session affair for Cantab poets, with the top five poets after seven rounds comprising the venue’s National Poetry Slam Team. The 2016 Boston Poetry Slam Team will travel to the National Poetry Slam in Decateur, Georgia this August.
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 9:30. The show is 18+ (ID required) and the cover charge is $5; proceeds will go toward funding the National Poetry Slam in August.
Cantab Recap for Wednesday, January 6, 2016
Is it 2016 already? Have we already said goodbye to 2015, including our beloved 2015 Boston Poetry Slam Team? Okay, very well, time marches on… But first: for our last show with the reigning team, we were extra-proud to present long-time Cantab regular, team favorite, and *temporary* New York City resident Sophia Holtz! Sophia’s set was an intense, poetry-packed half-hour of nearly all new work from her program, including a selection of beautiful new hand-made, hand-numbered chapbooks. The house was packed, so if you’re reading this, chances are you were there– and can hold this in your heart as a “remember when” for later years when Sophia’s too big to hope to fit all her fans in our bar.
The night finished up with the Last Chance Slam, a last chance (obvs) for eight poets to try to sneak into tryouts for the 2016 Boston Poetry Slam Team. Poets came from far and wide to compete, with the finals coming down to the uncasual personal work of Angelica Aguilera vs. the performative political poems of Colin Killick. Colin took the top score in the final pairing, making him the two! time! back-to-back! champion! of the Last Chance Slam.
Colin’s invited back to slam NEXT WEEK, by the way: that’ll be the first heat of the Team Selection Slams, where we winnow the field to see who survives to Semi-Finals in February. Our Last Chance Slam winner joins Adam Stone, Bobby Crawford, Josh Elbaum, JR Mahung, Marshall Gillson, Neiel Israel, and Simone Beaubien in a two-round elimination slam hosted by 2015 IWPS champ Porsha Olayiwola. Remember that we’ll have a special $5 cover that night to raise funds to send the team to the 2016 National Poetry Slam in Decatur, Georgia!
Cantab Feature for Wednesday, January 6, 2016: Sophia Holtz and the Last Chance Slam
2015 BPS team member and NYU MFA candidate Sophia Holtz.
Sophia Holtz is a writer, performer, and sometimes-illustrator. She has featured in bars, colleges, and the occasional basement throughout the United States, and was a member of the 2015 Boston Poetry Slam team. Her work has appeared glitterMOB, decomP, H_NGM_N, and other journals. She received her BA from Hampshire College, and is a current MFA candidate at NYU. Find her at sophiaholtz.com.
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 poetry slam to qualify for the 2016 Team Selection Slams, will follow. The show is 18+ (ID required) and the cover charge is $3.
Boston Poetry Slam Online