Boston Poetry Slam - ⛄December Newsletter⛄
Hello Poet!
Welcome back to another (very packed) installment of the Boston Poetry Slam's monthly(ish) newsletter! This holiday season, we are celebrating the conclusion of a fabulous fall. We always get a ton of new regulars this time of year, and if you are one of the many newcomers who walked through our basement doors these past few months, on behalf of all of us at Boston Poetry Slam, a huge “PLEASE COME BACK” to you! Additionally, we also had a couple regulars announce they were moving elsewhere - thank you for your art, and once again, PLEASE COME BACK! Keep reading for the best highlights of the past month, plus some key details on upcoming events and information on team selection for the 2026 Slam Team.
Winter Schedule!❄️
So you know how we’re “every Wednesday”? Well, there are, albeit very rarely, sometimes exceptions to that statute.
Both Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve are on Wednesdays this year, so we will 🚫NOT🚫 be having shows those days.
BUT HARK! We will STILL HAVE TWO SHOWS IN THE NEXT TWO WEEKS!
On Tuesday, December 30th, we are hosting a 🃏WILD CARD SLAM🃏!
Aka, the “second-chance slam.” Sign up is first-come first-serve, and there will be a cash prize! The top two poets in this slam will also qualify to the out for the 2026 slam team this year (more on that below)
It's a four round slam, with all poems 2 minutes or less, and everyone gets to read at least twice.
Round 1 - 8 poets (top 4 move to Round 2, bottom 4 go to wild card round).
Wild Card round - 4 poets (top 2 move to Round 2)
Round 2 - 6 poets (top 3 move to Round 3)
Round 3 - 3 poets
Then, on New Year’s Day, we will be hosting a 📝Write-a-thon📝!
Join the Boston Poetry Slam to kickstart the New Year with our Write-a-thon! The 2026 Boston Poetry Slam Write-a-thon is a new event where members of the local community come together both virtually and/or in person to create all formats of poetry, writing, and art together. January 1, 2026 from 3pm-7pm: Meet on Zoom or Michael F Gill’s house (address and further details to be emailed after RSVP sign up is submitted). Jotform submission link here.
Programming includes writing prompts, workshops, collaborative writing projects, tarot readings, and a private blog (known as the 365 blog) where work created during the Write-a-thon can be posted.
You don’t have to attend the virtual/in person programming to participate! There’s also an option to just post your work on the private 365 blog, which will be available all day long. Go to bostonpoetryslam.com for future updates on our full schedule of activities!
Team Selection Details!
It’s already that time… team selection is upon us! We have already had several qualifying slams, and there are only FOUR MORE SLAMS LEFT for a chance to qualify to try out for the team. What am I talking about, you ask? Let me explain:
Annually, we select 5 poets to be part of a slam team who will represent Boston Poetry Slam at several regional and local slams throughout the spring and summer. To select the team, we put qualified slammers through a series of tournament-style slams (two preliminary slams, and one final slam). For 2026, team selection will take place in late February/Early March.
In order to participate in the team selection process, you must be qualified for the team. To qualify, you must place in 1st or 2nd in a qualifying slam.
There are just FOUR MORE QUALIFYING SLAMS LEFT, meaning just FOUR MORE CHANCES to qualify for team selection. These slams are…
12/30 (WILD CARD SLAM)
1/14
1/28
2/18
Questions? Email myles@bostonpoetryslam.com
We want your feedback and ideas! Take our community survey now!
CALLING ALL BOSTON POETRY SLAM ATTENDEES! Do you have suggestions to improve the show? Features you’d like to see? Themed slam ideas? Perhaps something you’d been looking to share with our staff? We heavily encourage you to participate in our COMMUNITY SURVEY! We want to hear from you to help our show be the best it can be, and who better to provide that feedback than our community? The form can be found HERE or our website bostonpoetryslam.com. Still unsure? Talk to a staff member at our Wednesday night shows for more details.
DETAILS (and a surprise) TO COME!
SLAM ADAMS is Monday, January 5th.
The next Slam Adams will have a SURPRISE 🌀TWIST🌀, and a SURPRISE 🏆PRIZE🏆! More details to come later this week - stay tuned, but all I’ll say is mark your calendars for a Slam Adams like you’ve never seen before.
Let’s let the community know! If you live in the Jamaica Plain area, we encourage you to SPREAD THE WORD to your neighbors - here is a link to a flyer which you can print out and put up at your favorite local cafe/bar/bookstore/etc.
General info about Slam Adams:
Looking for another poetry show? Looking to try out slamming in a low-stakes, highly-supportive environment? Do you like beer of the alcoholic or non-alcoholic varieties? Is "every Wednesday" simply not enough for you? Behold! Boston Poetry Slam has a monthly slam series at the Sam Adams Brewery in Jamaica Plain, appropriately named "Slam Adams."
Slam Adams is every first Monday of the month, from 6-8pm. It is slam-only, meaning no open mic. Cover is $4, but if you volunteer to judge you may get in free! Sign ups for the slam take place IN ADVANCE - if you would like to sign up, email myles@bostonpoetryslam.com.
Monthly Recap (10/29-12/10)
Read on for the recaps of several weeks of Wednesdays, and a look ahead to the next few!
Open Mic Highlights
• Back-to-back FIRST POEMS EVER by Yoyo and Kamran, who read about “The pizza I can’t eat” and the voice of a river travelling through Iceland
• Former open mic regulars returning back-to-Boston: Dani’s “The God I don’t believe in has office hours from 2 to 4 am” and Kaitie’s riff on Gilmore Girls’ Season 5, Episode 22 (insert yacht emoji here)
• In honor of our beloved staff member Kai’s birthday, we had our 2nd KAIPHER, where many poets on the open mic covered poems by Kai! Special mention to TJ Jones, who lovingly matched Kai’s pacing, intonation, and mannerisms perfectly!
• First-timer Ruby made sure we didn’t go too long without a wrestling-themed poem on the open, where watching said theme provided a kind of therapeutic resolve that seems elusive in real life
• Long time favorite Donovan Beck bid farewell to us this week, as he moves to NYC. Donovan will be firmly missed, and after participating in the Kaipher, he read a poem that references many of our regular readers on the open mic!
• Shenanigans prevailed as yours truly unexpectedly opened the open mic (as part of a new experiment where we have 1 member of the staff start the show) with a poem referencing itself often as the first poem of the open mic!
Feature
For our monthly community night, Brynna-Boyd-in-a-dinosaur-costume hosted the very chill and fun TRICK OR TREAT SLAM, where a dozen poets signed up to compete in costume for fabulous mystery prize bags! Highlights include Jen’s rabbit poem vs the contrapuntal machine that is Kaitie D, a newcomers-only battle between Cece and Dyre, and Shawn dressing up as Kai for their poem! Cake and cookies were served in the back while the slam was going on, so everyone left the night both figuratively and literally fed. Thanks to all who slammed for such a fun night!
Open Mic Highlights
• In our new “staff sacrifice” that now begins our open mic, Amy spontaneously wrote a golden shovel about a comment in Myles opening spiel regarding “America’s next great top talent”
• River’s “Poem In Which I Remove Myself”
• Jake’s wild piece about how chewing is a form of late-stage capitalism, and how you should eat strawberries without chewing them for the good of mankind
• Kamran read “3 minutes of prose” about the different collective nouns around birds that absolutely delighted the crowd and was, in fact, a poem!
• Fred-Yaah returns the mic after a nearly 20 year absence, with a poem about how he can sense black people walking with him when he’s confronted by racism
•John Lee’s very wry haiku, Edie’s riff on Bailey reoccurring “Queer” poem, and great imagery from first timer Adia
Feature
This week we had another open qualifier poetry slam! Props to open mic-ers Auden, Will, and Jamie who all slammed for the first time! While we had solid work from Kyle and Logan, Kelsey and Brynna stormed their way to the final round, with Brynna taking the win!
Open Mic Highlights
• Bailey’s list/will poem based on the line “To my ____, I leave these things” which also included a rare paradiddle reference (shout out to drummers!)
• Mary’s “What do Oedipus and Taylor Swift Have In Common?” that revolved around Choice vs Fate vs Luck
• Ash covering former Cantabber torin a. greathouse and Kamran covering Persian poet Hafiz
• John’s ridiculously wry “I wish people would stop thinking I am flirting because I am not except when I am”
• “My name is built by braking, K-a-i-t-i-e should keep it’s I’s so it can always see itself” – Kaitie D
• Natalie’s poem analyzing and bemoaning how much time they’ve spend thinking and writing about their breakup, including the actual measured time and statistics
• Amy’s epic and cathartic “I wrote a short poem” that had a lot of empty spaces that were slowly and then urgently filled up as the poem went on, and has us all looking forward to next week’s “I wrote a long poem” (which should be the length of a haiku)
Feature
On short notice we had a surprise fill-in feature from Cantab slam team / slam coach veteran ZEKE RUSSELL! Although Zeke has deep pockets of poems, he performed mostly new work from his upcoming manuscript, and touched upon themes that have run through his work: recovery, sobriety, elegies for the departed, self portraits, and a love of baseball and wrestling. We heard odes to late Cantab poets Jeff Taylor and Omoizele “Oz” Okoawo, as well Red Sox pitcher Tim Wakefield, plus a very “Masshole” flavored take on the people in Lowell who helped Zeke get clean. He ended up on a lighter note, reading poems about his chosen wedding song and the joys of filling-in to distribute lunch to those in need. Thanks for the last minute feature Zeke!
Michael: We are jamming two recaps into one during this Thanksgiving holiday season!
Open Mic Highlights 11/19
• Kamran surprised his wife (who was in the audience) by covering “Wedding Song” by Bob Dylan. (“Straight men take notes!” – Myles, who was hosting after Kamran left the stage)
• “The Large Hadron Collider has no date tonight…neither does God” – Tyrone
• “The bouncer at the bar tells me I am smaller each time he sees me” – from Jennifer Martinez’s showstopping new body image/perception poem
• “Masculinity peaks in the sword you never draw” – Frank M
• “Writing is lying and editing is making it true” – Bobby Crawford
• Will S’s wild vision of riding the 4:30 bus to Saugus and meeting Jesus, and then accompanying Jesus as he trashes a Trump supporters’ house
• “My love language is…language” – Jenna B on how difficult it is to put things in words sometimes
• Amy’s “What if I died with a Diva cup in”
Open Mic Recap 11/26
Myles: T’was the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, and all through the basement poetry rang and food abounded! Our community donated two bags of non-perishable food to the Harvard Square Community Fridge and gathered for a very sweet extended open mic. We got to hear the full, uncut version of Bailey Magpie’s therapist poem, regular TJ and host Myles danced on thin ice with some prose, and new regular Tyrone Walden coined the phrase “getting Waldenized” after another rhythmic stand-up-inspired off-the-dome piece. The most interesting part of the night, though, was how many new faces we saw on what is usually a slow night of predominantly regulars. We hope this wasn’t just a holiday season tryst and that these new readers come back soon!
Feature 11/19
Michael: Local Boston poetry legend Cole Rodriguez was our feature on 11/19! Cole performed a powerful set of almost all-memorized poems, with incredible flow and charisma that you may have not noticed the subtle and clever rhymes in nearly every line (until they performed a piece entitled “This poem will not rhyme”!) In honor of Patricia Smith, Cole performed an incredible cover of Patricia’s “Medusa”, and ended the night with a great sexy/naughty piece, despite being a little bit embarrassed that some of their students were in the audience! A great time was had by all!
Open Mic Highlights
• “I grew up / the world begged for more observation” – Alex Kist reflecting on watching television and coming of age
•Newcomer Erica’s startling poem where they wrote a letter to their former self, after having lost a good amount of their personal memories after an accident
• Liza’s poem on ripped jeans and how they are “just like me”
• “Writing about anger is making me angry” – Sue Savoy
• March’s “body horror” poem inspired by all the graffiti and text written in the Cantab bathroom
• David and Ryan returning to the mic for the first time in years, and Tim’s homage to the person who helped them come out
Feature
Our feature was the very intriguing Sarah Kersey who read both new work and from their book Residence Time. “Residence Time” is a term for how long an object stays suspended in water (for example sugar can last as little as 2 seconds in water, where salt can last up to 55 million years in the ocean), which led to a striking opening poem “The People From The Middle Passage Are Still Suspended In The Water.” Another big theme was Sarah’s journey as a self-described “recovering cult member”, and what it’s like to leave a religion behind and find your own life and sexuality (she facetiously called these poems “The Tinder Chronicles.”) Her wry description of the mindset of depression (“Shit is just reliably terrible”) resonated with a lot of members in the audience, but she did end with a hopeful poem about the man who helped her when she was stranded on the side of the road with no gas in her motorcycle. Thank you Sarah!
Open Mic Highlights
• Tyrone’s delightful memorized (or are they improvised?) miniature pieces continue! No one else could shout out “Enjoy your daily suffering!” with such perverse glee.
• Wholesome vibes: Brandon not onl read a poem to their best friend who was in the audience, but also gave them a copy of the poem in a plaque! And Greg M wrote another heartmelting poem to his wife of over 40 years.
• Harold’s surprising cover of Earth, Wind, Fire and Em’s response to Bailey’s “I am queer” poem
• River’s sonnet “Ars Poetica of aTrans Body” and poem detailing sex…by turtles!
• The return of Alison Truj to the mic, Sue Savoy’s telling “What my poems are about”, and Will S’s “New York Jets / New Jersey Mall Experience” rounded off a particularly great open mic in front of a packed basement.
Feature
Our feature Jenny Mulberg gave us a short but memorable feature featuring both new and old work. Early set highlights include “Grape Jelly” (“No one wanted to marry me on ring pop day”) and a tribute to radical/experimental artist Carolee Schneemann, specifically the time she pulled a scroll out of her crotch. We also heard a series of charming and self-described “Bitch” poems. with titles like “Bitch interrupts a Wedding” and “Bitch under a Tree Eating Wendys” that came with accompanying buttons that Jenny was giving out for free. Another section of her feature came from her book, The Court of No Record, which details the process of her abuser appealing the case against him, and turns the complete transcript of the court sessions into cathartic poetry. Thank you Jenny!
Coming up at the Cantab:
12/24 - 🎄NO SHOW🎄
12/30 - Wild Card Slam
12/31 - 🌟NO SHOW🌟
1/1 - New Year’s Day Write-a-thon!
1/5 - Slam Adams!
1/7 - Erica Miriam Fabri
About Boston Poetry Slam:
The core Boston Poetry Slam show runs at the Cantab Lounge in Cambridge, Mass. every Wednesday night, giving poets a chance to share their work in the open mic or slam and featuring a headlining poet or theme slam. Doors @7:15, show starts at 8pm. 21+. $4 cover (cash preferred, Venmo available). Follow our Instagram (below) for the most up-to-date info.
The show and its community are curated entirely by unpaid volunteers. Boston Poetry Slam Inc is a registered 501c3 non-profit organization in the United States. Donations (https://bostonpoetryslam.com/donate) are tax deductible to the full extent provided by the law.
Website: https://bostonpoetryslam.com/
Instagram: @bostonpoetryslam
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bostonpoetryslam
Our official zine, The Cantabernacle, is available online and at our Wednesday night shows! Submissions are also now open for the next issue, so please send us your work at michael@bostonpoetryslam.com
Questions? Comments? Concerns? Fill out our anonymous feedback form and/or contact questions@bostonpoetryslam.com
Newsletter Credits: Written by Amy Argentar, edited by Michael F. Gill