Tips from the Bar: The Sochi 2015 Prompt

Write about the worst place you’ve ever slept, and how it affects your dreams.

Cantab Feature for Wednesday, August 12, 2015: Jess Rizkallah

Jess Rizkallah, local favorite. Photo by Katlyn Benson.

Jess Rizkallah, local favorite. Photo by Katlyn Benson.

Jess Rizkallah is a Lebanese-American writer, illustrator, and coffee slinger living in Boston. She graduated from Lesley University, edits Maps For Teeth magazine, and publishes zines and chapbooks at pizza pi press. Her work has recently been published by Word Riot, Electric Cereal, Drunk in a Midnight Choir, Spoken & Sung, and her mother’s fridge. Talk to her about whales.

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, August 5, 2015

You wanted hit slam favorites? You wanted new surprises? You wanted a surreal group piece, heartstring twang after heartstring twang, and a surprise cover to finish the night? You got it, Cantab! Our team brought the fire and the craft to their one-hour set last Wednesday, and we are so proud to have them representing us at this year’s National Poetry Slam. Good luck in Oakland, Mckendy, Marshall, Bobby, Sophia, & Sean!

(Looking to see how the team is doing at Nationals, or to follow your other NorthBEAST favorites? Check out scores.poetryslam.com: the Boston Poetry Slam team bouts in #18 at 7pm PST on Wednesday and in #36 at 9pm PST on Thursday.)

This week, while the team’s away: we’ll hear from the sometimes-playful, sometimes-seriously, always densely thoughtful Jess Rizkallah! And, yes: the night will finish with an open poetry slam, just in time to qualify the winner for the Atlanta-bound 2016 Boston Poetry Slam team.

Tips from the Bar: The Scott Woods Prompt

Make a list poem of ten ways two things absolutely cannot by compared.

Hat-tip to Scott Woods Makes Lists.

Moonlighting: A Queer Open Mic and Reading Series Featuring Sean Patrick Mulroy on August 6, 2015

This reading is part of our monthly LGBTQ series, Moonlighting. Click here for more information about this recurring show.

The featured reader for August 6, 2015 is a farewell event for Sean Patrick Mulroy.

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.

Cantab Feature for August 5, 2015: Boston Poetry Slam Team

The 2015 Boston Poetry Slam Team. Sean is making the same face he made last year. Photo by Marshall Goff.

The 2015 Boston Poetry Slam Team. Sean is making the same face he made last year. Photo by Marshall Goff.

This night will mark the Cantab’s last show before the 2015 National Poetry Slam, when we send off the 2015 Boston Poetry Slam team to compete for a week in Oakland, California! Mckendy Fils-Aimé, Marshall Gillson, Bobby Crawford, Sophia Holtz, and Sean Patrick Mulroy will present an extended feature full of all the hits, future favorites, un-slammable group pieces, and rare-for-a-reason B-sides before hopping a plane to the other side of the country.

To learn more about the 2015 Boston Poetry Slam Team, click here. We’ll also keep you updated here with the team’s upcoming bout schedule at the National Poetry Slam, and links to help you follow along: the bout draw was announced in early July and you can see the team’s Wednesday and Thursday NPS bout schedule here.

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 slightly shortened open mic begins at 8:00 and the extended feature begins at approximately 10:00. (No open poetry slam tonight.) The show is 18+ (ID required) and the cover charge is $5.

Cantab Recap for Wednesday, July 29, 2015

This past Wednesday was one awesome night at the Cantab– and we aren’t just saying that because the air conditioner was back in commission. NYC poet Aziza Barnes absolutely rocked the house with an all on-page, all super-smart, all all-powerful set of beautifully crafted work touching on the familial, the sacred, and the mundane. Although many of her pieces were relatively new to the world and not yet available in a chapbook, you can get me Aunt Jemima and the nailgun (2013, Button Poetry) online any time.

The slam that followed the feature was, to quote one of the participants, “a bloodbath” –although this is surely a figurative assessment, you can only imagine how raucous an event must have come to the stage to finish up with a final pairing of two 2015 Boston Poetry Slam Team members: Bobby Crawford vs. Mckendy Fils-Aimé! In a tight finish, Mckendy took the $10 home and becomes the second current BPS team member to qualify for next year’s slam team.

Next week: we’re back with more air conditioning and so, so, so many poets! Our feature next Wednesday will be the 2015 Boston Poetry Slam Team in their last appearance before departing for the 2015 National Poetry Slam in Oakland, California! Start rolling your pennies this weekend, folks, because it’ll be a special $5 show to see 5 incredible poets in an hour-long set. Mckendy Fils-Aimé, Marshall Gillson, Bobby Crawford, Sophia Holtz, and Sean Patrick Mulroy will also have their team chapbook, Nothing Left Unholy, available for purchase and autographs.

Tips from the Bar: Cover-Up

Write about an undercover job that is not meant to be undercover, i.e.: Undercover Accountant, Undercover Entomologist, etc.

Cantab Feature for Wednesday, July 29, 2015: Aziza Barnes

Breakbeat poet Aziza Barnes from Bedstuy.

Breakbeat poet Aziza Barnes from Bedstuy.

Aziza Barnes is blk & alive. Born in Los Angeles, she currently lives in Bedstuy, New York. You can find her work currently or forthcoming in PANK, pluck!, Muzzle, Callaloo, Union Station, Phantom Limb, The Rumpus and The Breakbeat Poets, among other journals and collections. Her first chapbook, me Aunt Jemima and the nailgun, was the first winner of the Exploding Pinecone Prize and is published and available for purchase from Button Poetry. She is a poetry and non-fiction editor at Kinfolks Quarterly, a Callaloo fellow, a graduate from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, and a current candidate for her MFA in Poetry at University of Mississippi. She is a member of The Dance Cartel and the divine fabrics collective.

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, July 22, 2015

Okay, so we can agree that poets don’t need tragic things to happen to create great work… But, in the case of Ariel Baker-Gibbs’ farewell feature last night, both the open mic and the feature herself rose to the occasion with sweetness, sadness, and the snark we’ve come to love and expect from Ariel’s presence. This very smart soon-to-be-no-longer-local only has two Wednesdays left in town, so if you missed picking up So Far, her chapbook, catch her before she flies west in early August, possibly to a venue that has working air conditioning.

After Ariel’s feature, eight slammers took the stage in the hopes of riding the bittersweetly humid wave to the ten-dollar prize… Josh Elbaum and Zeke Russell both started strong from opposite sides of the 8×8 bracket, but when the smoke cleared, Josh was left standing victorious! Josh is the sixth winner of eight who earns an invite to the Champion of Champions Slam, scheduled for August 19.

Next week: MOAR POEMS!!!1!!111!!! The excellent Aziza Barnes is scheduled to visit us from NYC, and we’ll have the seventh poetry open slam in the 8×8. Come early! Stay late! Bring a fan!