The title for your prompted poem: “A Cure for Loneliness.”
Cantab Feature for Wednesday, August 19: Sam Mercer and the Champion of Champions Slam
Portland poet Sam Mercer. Photo by Chris Clauss.
Sam Mercer is a Portland-based poet who writes about complicated things like addiction, depression, and home in the simplest ways he can. He has competed with the Port Veritas slam three times, twice on their national team and once at the Individual World Poetry Slam, and once with Slam Free or Die on their national team. Sam believes that poetry has been a large part of his life and sobriety and hopes to continue giving back to his communities in any way that he can. His work can be found in Drunk in a Midnight Choir and the True Port Anthology. He likes bad movies, uranium, and smoking too many cigarettes for someone with a basically nervous disposition.
Tonight also marks the final night in our current 8×8 poetry slam series! Eight slam winners will slam off for the season championship and the opportunity to replace the outgoing Champion of Champions Sean Patrick Mulroy.
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 Champions of Champions Slam in the 8×8 speed slam series will follow. The show is 18+ (ID required) and the cover charge is $3.
Cantab Recap for Wednesday, August 12, 2015
What’s better: assuming that the Cantab-powers-that-be totally knew it was World Elephant Day upon booking Jess Rizkallah’s feature? Or imagining that it was just the wildest, sweetest, luckiest, most synchronicity-stuffed feature selection in the calendar? Holy ker-wow, the brilliant and vulnerable and ass-kicking and, yes, elephant-invoking Jess Riz brought the house down at the Cantab last night, hauling us through all the bittersweets of family and love and gynecology and death, then releasing us to the shooting stars of the mid-August night. So proud to call her part of our Cantab community!
After the feature: okay, after Jess sold approximately one million books, we squeezed in the very last slam in the current 8×8 series. After some powerful match-ups and some squeaky-tight victories, the final round was Brenda vs. Meaghan Ford, two women with nothing to prove but surely with ten dollars to gain. An unofficially-themed We-Love-Love-Except-When-We-Hate-Love finale ended up with Meaghan on top, earning her the cash, the champions callback, and a berth in the 2016 Team Selection Preliminaries.
(Meanwhile, across the country in Oakland… The 2015 Boston Poetry Slam team was battling their way to a hard-fought 2-spot in their prelim 4×4 vs. SNO, Omaha, and Swag. Word on the street is that everyone nailed their poems and they gave the two-time previous NPS champs a great run for their money! So: it’s a great start, but they’ll need to win their bout tonight against Fuze, Humboldt, and Vancouver for a chance of making semi-finals. Those invested may choose to obsessively refresh the scores here for the team’s bout at 9pm PST.)
Next week: Sam Mercer comes to town from Portland, high off the National Poetry Slam and also, Facebook assures us, a pretty cool new hairdo. Sam’s feature will be followed by the much-anticipated Champion of Champions Slam, hosted by reigning champ Sean Patrick Mulroy. See you there!
Cantab Feature for Wednesday, August 12, 2015: Jess Rizkallah
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.
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.
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.
Boston Poetry Slam Online