Cantab Feature for Wednesday, July 8, 2015: Robert Lashley

Northwestern poet Robert Lashley.

Northwestern poet Robert Lashley.

Northwestern poet Robert Lashley has had poems published in journals including Feminete, No Regrets, and Your Hands, Your Mouth. His work was also featured in Many Trails To The Summit, an anthology of Northwest form and kyric poetry. He has featured at the Kerouac Institute for Performing Arts, Goddard, and Seattle Central College, read and was a guest lecture at The University of Washington-Tacoma and Western Washington University, and was invited to the IWPS page/stage panel and showcase in 2013. A semi-finalist for the PEN/Rosenthal fellowship, Robert Lashley also holds the 2014 Cascadia Poetry Festival’s beer slam title. His full length book, The Homeboy Songs, was published by Small Doggies press in April 2014.

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 Miles Walser on July 2, 2015

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

Brooklyn poet Miles Walser.

Brooklyn poet Miles Walser.

The featured reader for July 2, 2015 is Miles Walser. Miles Walser is the author of the full-length collection of poetry What the Night Demands, released on Write Bloody Press in 2013. He has represented New York City, Minneapolis, Minnesota and Madison, Wisconsin at the National Poetry Slam. His work has appeared in literary journals Muzzle, Vinyl, Used Furniture Review, Radius, and The Bakery as well as the audio podcast IndieFeed. He currently lives in Brooklyn, New York.

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 Recap for Wednesday, July 1, 2015

Remember January, Cantabbers? That whole month when you were waiting, begging the calendar to turn to July? You probably didn’t even know that Jason Bayani was going to be our kickoff feature for this month, but boy-o, was that worth waiting for: Jason swung by New England for a whirlwind four-venue tour with our Wednesday as centerpiece, and we’d welcome this west coaster back any time. If you missed him last night, you can still catch him at Slam Free or Die in Manchester tonight, or grab his book, Amulet, online at Write Bloody Publishing.

After Jason’s feature, our slam was a wild ride of rookies looking for their first wins of the season– or their first-ever slam cred! Much-missed bartender Melissa Newman-Evans was back in town from Denver to sacrifice for these knock-kneed first-timers, setting the bar high. The finals came down to two storyline-heavy readers, Norm and JR Mahung… A strong effort from Norm was just short of catching JR, though, who stepped off the page for his final poem and into the record books with the first slam win of the summer.

Next week: we’re back with another open slam to qualify the winner for the 2016 slam team. Oh, and our feature? None other than the nationally excellent Robert Lashley, in town from the Pacific Northwest. Mark your calendar for Wednesday!

Tips from the Bar: Meat Marketing

Your favorite restaurant is looking for a life partner. Write the personal ad that makes it happen.

Cantab Feature for Wednesday, July 1, 2015: Jason Bayani

Kundiman Fellow Jason Bayani.

Kundiman Fellow Jason Bayani.

Jason Bayani, Jason Bayani is a graduate of Saint Mary’s MFA program in Creative Writing. He is a Kundiman fellow whose publication credits include work in Fourteen Hills, Muzzle Magazine, Mascara Review, Rattapallax, and Write Bloody Publishing’s classroom anthology, Learn Then Burn. His first book, Amulet was published in 2013 through Write Bloody and has garnered acclaim in literary magazines such as Zyzzyva and Glint. As a member of seven National Poetry Slam teams, he’s been a National Poetry Slam finalist and also represented Oakland at the International World Poetry Slam.

Jason is one of the founding members of the Filipino American Spoken Word troupe, Proletariat Bronze, and he has been an organizer for the Asian and Pacific Islander Poetry and Spoken Word Summit. He is currently the program manager for Kearny Street Workshop, the longest-running multi-disciplinary Asian Pacific American arts organization in the country.

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, June 24, 2015

Hot dang, poetry people! We kicked off the 2015 Summer of Slam with a bang this week as FIVE teams slammed off at the Cantab Lounge in our first of two regional matches. The five-team format is actually precisely the show structure for the semi-final round at the National Poetry Slam, so audience members got a taste of some of the hottest competition slam has to offer right in our dirty little basement.

Special thanks to JR Mahung and Kylie Noelle, our two rockin’ sacrifices for the night, as well as our five intrepid judges: Graham, Deirdre, Brandon, elliot., and Imani. At the end of the night, the standings showed a hard-fought match among the fivesome:

  • Urbana Poetry Slam 109.9
  • Boston Poetry Slam 108.5
  • Lizard Lounge Poetry Jam 107.8
  • Providence Poetry Slam 98.7
  • Port Veritas 98.2

Our sincerest congratulations to the Urbana Poetry Slam from New York City! If you missed it, don’t sweat it: five more teams will get a shot at a second semi-finals-style bout on July 15. Fair warning to the rest of the country: NorthBEAST will be ready for semi-finals at Nationals in Oakland this year… Will you?

Next week: speaking of Oakland, we’ve got a tip-top California Bay Area poet coming to the house for a full feature! The excellent Jason Bayani will be swinging into town for the night, and then we’ll have an open slam after that. See you there!

Tips from the Bar: It’s Dark in Here

Try writing a persona poem from the perspective of someone who grew up under the shade tree.

Cantab Feature for Wednesday, June 24, 2015: NorthBEAST Regional 5×4

The National Poetry Slam is headed to Oakland, California, this August… But that doesn’t mean we can’t get our own Nationals action here on the east coast! Tonight, we’ll be featuring FIVE teams from the northeast in a massive poetry brawl using the Nationals semi-final format. That means five teams will go for four rounds, one of the riskiest, most whiplash-inducing formats in the book. If you’re wondering what slam looks like at its highest level, this is it, folks.

This first of two summertime 5x4s will pit the following Nationals-bound teams against one another:

This show will have a slightly shortened open mic and will sell out in exactly two hot seconds, people, so we advise arriving for door time at 7:15 if you want to get in to catch the show… Otherwise you’ll be waiting until July 15 to catch the other 5×4 we’ve booked this summer. Cover charge is $5 to help raise funds for our team to travel to Nationals in Oakland 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. The open mic begins at 8:00 and the slam begins at approximately 10:00. The show is 18+ (ID required) and the cover charge is $5.

Cantab Recap for Wednesday, June 17, 2015

Ahh, sticky summer in the sticky basement of the Cantab, folks. What more could a poet want? Actually, poets always want more: so it was a good thing we had the very excellent Emily Carroll in the house this week, laying down one perfectly crafted line at a time. This hard-working organizer and bar server showed off how the listening ear we’ve come to expect from her is also attached to a fantastic editor, thinker, and and lover of language… As if you needed more reasons to love whiskey and Moonlighting!

The night’s poetry slam was packed with first-name-only hopefuls before Emily even took the stage, including a phenomenal crop of rookies. In fact, two of them crushed everyone else in the show to make the head-to-head final round! Remember what we said about poets always wanting more: Brenda and Christian managed a photo finish in the third round, triggering a tie-breaker flashback to last week and bringing the audience two more poems! At the end of the night, Christian swept up the $10, but we are pretty sure Brenda will be back for… You know.

Next week: we know you’ll surely be back for the year’s first NorthBEAST Regional, featuring five teams from around the northeast. This week’s competition includes teams from Portland, Providence, Lizard Lounge, and New York City, all slamming off against the hometown heroes. Remember that it’s a $5 cover charge this week to help raise money to send our team to the National Poetry Slam in August!

Tips from the Bar: the Ed Wilkinson Prompt

See if you can provide a(n incomplete) list of things that Uptown Funk has promised to bring to you, but that you decline to receive.