Consider the smallest, most local, most personal cultural appropriation you can describe and own.
Cantab Feature for Wednesday, September 23, 2015: Princess Moon
Poet and teaching artist Princess Moon. (Photo by Paul Tran, edited by Jess X. Chen.)
Princess Moon is a second-generation Cambodian-American poet, teaching artist, and award-winning community organizer. She has graced the Finals stage at the 2011 Brave New Voices, as well as at the 2012 and 2013 Louder Than A Bomb Massachusetts. In 2014, she coached the winning team of the Louder Than A Bomb Massachusetts competition and received the Charmaine Santiago Galdon award for her tireless community building. Shortly thereafter, she took a hiatus to focus on new projects. Princess Moon ended her hiatus with the debut of her shadow theatre play Bedtime Stories at the much-anticipated BLASTFEST8 multimedia festival.
Princess’ most current work explores the lives of Cambodians during the 1960s-1980s: from the birth of swooning, psychedelic rock to the death of seven million singing souls caused by the infamous Khmer Rouge communist genocide. As the daughter of two Khmer Rouge genocide refugees, Princess Moon strives to educate others about the past and the present suffering state of Cambodia with stories of love, trauma, death, and survival.
Claudia Wilson, Ohio transplant and recent grad.
Tonight’s show will also feature a spotlight from local south-of-the-river favorite Claudia Wilson. Claudia loves poetry, is from Cleveland/Columbus, Ohio, and recently graduated from Boston College where they studied Social Work. They love building community, listening to music, and watching Buffy The Vampire Slayer.
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, September 26, 2015
This past Wednesday, Nora Meiners brought a quirky, thoughtful, vellum-wrapped set to the Cantab stage, performing a few well-loved favorites and putting some polish on a few more that hadn’t seen the light of the basement since their open mic debut. What a fun journey and show! The slam was a five-poet affair that came down to newly refreshed slammer Quentin Lucas vs. an up-and-coming Jess Riz. After two round-robins, these top two poets emerged as the top scorers, with Jess defeating Quentin for the big $10.
Next week: poet, teaching artist, and birthday girl Princess Moon features, with a spotlight from yet another local badass, Claudia Wilson! The night will finish up with the fifth open slam in our current 8×8 series.
SCHEDULE CHANGE: Cantab Feature for Wednesday, September 16, 2015: Nora Meiners (was Venessa Marco)
Due to circumstances beyond her control, Venessa Marco will not be able to attend the Cantab show this week. We are working to re-book the artist at her earliest convenience. In the meantime, the Boston Poetry Slam is pleased to substitute an excellent last-minute local of the utmost quality:
Boston-via-Portland poet Nora Meiners. Photo by Christopher Clauss.
Nora Meiners started writing poems in 2011 after multiple decades of not writing poems. She began attending the Cantab at that time and discovered that apparently her heart has a secret knock and Cantab was a room of poets who knew it. Since then, Nora has competed in the National Poetry Slam for the Boston Poetry Slam (2013) and the Lizard Lounge Poetry Jam (2014).
Nora lives in Cambridge and is raising a six-year-old son as a single mom. She spends her Wednesday nights hosting for the Boston Poetry Slam and her days working as the “missing pieces person for a jigsaw puzzle company.” Yes, that is the real job title. You can follow her on Instagram and Twitter, or tumblr.
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.
Biography of the postponed feature:
NYC poet Venessa Marco.
Venessa Marco is an African-Caribbean writer by way of Cuba and Puerto Rico and is currently pursuing her PhD in English. She was a member of the 2012 Da Poetry Lounge slam team from Hollywood, California and a member of the third-place 2013 Nuyorican Poets Cafe slam team. She placed sixth at the 2014 Women of the World Poetry Slam. She currently resides in Harlem, loves jazz and is a self-proclaimed Wu Tang Clan member.
Encyclopedia Show: Somerville for Thursday, September 10, 2015 — S3V1: INSECTS
Encyclopedia Show: Somerville — INSECTS on September 10, 2015! Art by Melissa Newman-Evans.
Thursday, September 10, 2015
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 present the SEASON OPENER REBOOT in a slightly educational monthly series!
Our theme for this month’s show will be INSECTS! After a full year on break, we’ll kick off our third season with some creepy-crawly fun! (And there will be art about insects, too.)
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 Intern Steve Subrizi is almost certainly scared of bees.
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 Recap for Wednesday, September 9, 2015
The illimitable Franny Choi, outgoing Providence Poetry SlamMaster and one of our favorite locals, was the most excellent headliner at the Cantab last night. If you are still hungry for more of her powerful imagery, you can of course order her book online— but you can also check out her blog for the new poem she premiered with us to kick off her feature. Timely, intense, correct: Franny Choi, everybody.
The night’s slam was full of great surprises from start to finish, with a threesome of wildly opinionated judges and just a few audience members with ideas about poetry, too. The final round was a nailbiter with Bull-City-transplant-to-Harvard Dasan Ahanu (welcome north, Dasan!) and mostly-New-England-local Zeke Russell. After an intense slam, Zeke chose to bring the funny for the final poem of the night and won the hearts of the judges and the room.
Next Boston Poetry Slam shows: we’re back in the Cantab next week with NYC powerhouse poet Venessa Marco! But surely you can’t be expected to wait six whole days for more poetry… So we are proud to remind you that the Encyclopedia Show Somerville returns to the Davis Square Theater this very Thursday evening for the season’s debut show, all about INSECTS. See you there!
Cantab Feature for Wednesday, September 9, 2015: Franny Choi
Providence poet Franny Choi. Photo by Alex Kime.
Franny Choi is the author of Floating, Brilliant, Gone (Write Bloody Publishing, 2014) and a recipient of the Poetry Foundation’s Frederick Bock Prize. Her work has been featured by the Huffington Post and appeared in journals including Poetry magazine, The Journal, PANK, and Redivider. She is a VONA Fellow, a Project VOICE teaching artist, and a member of the Dark Noise Collective. She lives in the biggest city in the smallest state.
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.
Moonlighting: A Queer Open Mic and Reading Series Featuring Jasmin Roberts on September 3, 2015
This reading is part of our monthly LGBTQ series, Moonlighting. Click here for more information about this recurring show.
The featured reader for September 3, 2015 is Jasmin Roberts.
Jasmin Roberts, Pioneer Valley poet.
Jasmin Roberts hails from Brooklyn, NY, and has lived in the Pioneer Valley for the last 7 years. She is a graduate of Oberlin College, where she majored in Creative Writing and Psychology. She joined the local poetry scene in 2013, and competed in the 2015 National Poetry Slam as a member of the Northampton Poetry team. She not only prides herself on creating new poetry weekly, but also new words. Some of her favorites include “fuckability” and “homotastic.” In the span of three minutes, she will make you laugh your ass off and question your place in the world, and she’ll do it all sporting 4-inch heels.
This show in our monthly Thursday LGBTQ series takes place at Fazenda Coffee Roasters, 3710 Washington St. in the Jamaica Plain area of Boston. An open mic begins at approximately 7:00 p.m. and the headliner follows the open mic. The show is all-ages and a $3 donation is requested.
Boston Poetry Slam Online