Regie Gibson, MFA in Poetry and National Poetry Slam Champion.

SCHEDULE CHANGE: Due to life circumstances, the poet originally scheduled to feature on this date will not be able to attend. Instead, we are proud to present National Poetry Slam Champion Regie Gibson.

Chicago-gone-local poet Regie Gibson is a former National Poetry Slam Individual Champion and was selected as one of the Chicago Tribune‘s Artists of the Year for his poetry. He has co-judged the Chicago Sun-Times Poetry Competition with Marc Smith and Mark Strand, has been regularly featured on NPR, and has appeared on HBO’s Def Poetry Jam.

Regie has toured with the Chicago Mask Ensemble, performing dramatic and poetic adaptations of common myths from around the world. He co-produced the play “The Mystery of Fire Bread” while performing in Europe with the Sharnier Theater in the cities of Hanover, Frankfurt, Berlin, and the Literature Haus in Hamburg, Germany. His original works of poetry have been dramatized and scored by classical flautist and Professor Janet Misurell-Mitchell and produced and directed by Eric Rosen for the Steppenwolf Theater’s Words on Fire production. In 1999 Regie performed for the award-winning Traffic Series at Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theater where he adapted the work of Kurt Vonnegut. Regie founded the LiteraryMusic Ensemble Neon JuJu: a literary and musical arts ensemble utilizing classic, contemporary and original literary text combined with Middle Eastern, Contemporary American and European classic music.

Regie is widely published in anthologies, magazines and journals such as The Iowa Review, Harvard Divinity Magazine, Poetry Magazine, Spoken Word Revolution (Source Books), and The Good Men Project. His full-length book of poetry, Storms Beneath The Skin (EM Press) was published in 2001 and received the Golden Pen Award. In 2005, Regie was a featured on the PBS Arts magazine Art Close-Up and was subsequently nominated for a Boston Grammy. In 2008, he won the “Big Boat” international poetry competition held in Monfalcone, Italy. Regie has received his MFA in Poetry from New England College, and continues to facilitate creative writing workshops, performances, and otherwise augmenting literary curricula for high schools and colleges across the United States. For more information, visit him at regiegibson.com.

Note that tonight’s open poetry slam is a speed slam 3-, 2-, and 1-minute rounds. Slam winners qualify for the 2015 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.