Boston Poetry Slam Newsletter - NORTHBEAST THIS WEEKEND
Hello Poet!
Welcome back to the Boston Poetry Slam's monthly newsletter! Back on our monthly schedule, we are starting off these newsletters with a BANG! Because guess what? It’s that time of year! The 🎇NorthBeast Poetry Festival🎙 begins TOMORROW, 7/12!
For those unfamiliar, NorthBeast is the quintessential New England poetry slam event of the YEAR where teams from all over come together in an epic celebration of slam, and it will take place THIS WEEKEND at the Cambridge Foundry. We are delighted to host poets from SIXTEEN teams across New England and beyond as they compete in a series of slams, culminating in the crowning of this year’s winner🎖. There will also be workshops, open mics, and more! Follow the Instagram @northbeast_regional for the most recent updates.
NorthBeast is a fantastic display of inspiring, innovative, and incredible art incredibly dedicated artists. I’ll say it once and I’ll say it again - you do NOT want to miss this!
The Schedule:
The Tickets🎟: Tickets are available NOW at this link! (NOTE! Although Eventbrite doesn't have an option for sliding scale pricing, we want to give this option to people who are unable to pay for a full price ticket. You can use promo code "Beast2025Sliding5" to take $5 off your order or "Beast2025Sliding10" to take $10 off your order.)
The Venue🏨: The Foundry is located at 101 Rogers St in Cambridge, north of Kendall Square.
NOTE: The Red line is DOWN this weekend from Kendall Square to JFK/UMass. Please consider alternate forms of transportation and plan accordingly!!!
The Teams✍:
- Boston Poetry Slam (Cambridge, MA)
- Slam Free or Die (Manchester, NH)
- ProvSlam (Providence, RI)
- Mill City Speaks (Lowell, MA)
- Slam Euphoria (Troy, NY)
- Port Veritas (Portland, ME)
- The Dirty Gerund (Worcester, MA)
- Rockland Poets (Nyack, NY)
- (Not) BuckSlam (Minneapolis, MN)
- Land of Lakes (Minneapolis, MN)
- Charm City Slam (Baltimore, MD)
- Verbal Slap (Bridgeport, CT)
- Mic’d Up Mass (Boston, MA)
- Sonic Bloom (Pick Up Team)
- Team SLG [Silly Lil’ Guys] (Pick Up Team)
- Peaky Binders (Pick Up Team)
REQUEST FOR EQUIPMENT📽: In order to document this festival as best as possible, we are looking to borrow some VIDEO equipment for the weekend. If you have any aspect of video equipment that you are willing to lend out on 7/12-7/13, PLEASE reach out to northbeastpoetry@gmail.com with what you are willing to lend out. We will be eternally grateful if you do!
Curious on previous years’ NorthBeasts? Check out some testimonials from last year!
Monthly Recap:
We had an incredible month here at the Cantab, with last-minute location changes, raucous open mics, and hilarious and heartfelt memories.
Read on for the recaps of the last few Wednesdays, and a look ahead to the rest of the summer!
Open Mic Highlights
• Alex Kist’s ode to friendship / “you are who you surround yourself with” that not only invoked our feature Meg Ford but also many others in the audience!
• Otto Vock revisiting a poem they wrote when they were 16, which had the audience doing a call and response during the refrain of “You Are / Sexy” (it was better in practice than it might sound in print!)
• Sarah King told us about the small artistic island community of Halibut Cove, Alaska and the encouragement she’s received to remain an artist
• Cameron played a recording of himself reading a somber poem, which later included commentary of last week’s show, when Patricia Smith walked in on him reading
• Jarvis’ raucous “Welcome to Fantasy Boyfriend Island”
• The reliably nervous-and-raw Allie Burke, who discussed being a poet while travelling to the doctor, and the connection she has to wearing her mother’s clothes, specifically how it reminds her of how her mother used to be.
• Sue Savoy’s verbing-only poem, inspired by classic Cantab poet Shira Erlichman
• Brynna performed another piece from her in-the-works chapbook about plantations being burned
• We also had the return of the HAIKU SLAM, which featured rare haiku by both Myles Taylor and Kaitie D, but came down to a surprising final battle of former Haiku finalist Sarah King, and slam powerhouse Jarvis Subia. Jarvis won with a series of room-awakening pride month haiku, and claimed the $17 prize and a ticket to this Fall’s Haiku Tournament!
Feature
Our feature was the long-time Cantab open mic and slam veteran Meg Ford, who read from their long-awaited “Choose Your Own Adventure” themed book Wild/Hurt, which is out now on Button Poetry. Keeping that thematic spirit alive, the audience got two options to choose from after each poem (i.e. “If you want an old story, put up one finger, if you are not ready to tell, put up two fingers”), and their decision determined which poem Meg would read next! We got to hear both new and battle-tested poems from Meg throughout the set, touching on family trauma, self-transformation, and of course, their now-infamous Star Wars/Flute-playing/Queer-coming-of-age piece. Despite the intense subject matter, Meg themselves was surprised when we reached the last poem, stating “you guys actually made it to the happy ending of the book”, and then proceeded to end an adventure we would certainly choose again! Please purchase a copy of Meg’s book, and re-watch the feature on our Instagram if you missed it!
Highlights
• First-timer Lauren’s piece on the shifting idea of what being brave means as life goes on
• The unexpected return of former-regulars Kim and Maile B, and a rare two-poems-in-three-minutes from Kaitie D
• First-timer Alvaro read in Portuguese, with a beautiful cadence and rhythm that allowed you to hear all the turns in the poem even if you didn’t speak the language
• Diego, another first-timer, hit it out of the park with a poem about being a statistics teacher, and why he teaches his students about the darker origins of stats, including eugenics and profiling
• An explosive unpredictable / “Wait, did he just say that?” performance piece by Jack Chasse, who continues to keep us guessing where his poems will take us during each line/rhyme
• We also had 2 fantastic Juneteenth spotlight features from our own staff member Brynna Boyd, who shared pieces from their upcoming chapbook about the burning of plantations, and Yah Yah The Wordstress (@yahyahthewordstress), who did a long extended narrative piece with exquisite descriptive detail!
Feature
We had a rare triple feature this week for our Juneteenth celebration!
Marsha (@mizzymaz_) opened things up with a short set that invoked both the themes of “needing time” and coming to terms with the feeling that you are procrastinating.
Up second was Messi Amaru’Khan (@messagefrommessi), who had a relaxed and smooth flow that kept the audience in the groove throughout. The highlight was an excellent extended piece that was initially about papaw and mango trees, but later turned into an extended metaphor on what a tree will and won’t produce despite how it is treated, before arriving at the final question “What type of tree are you?”
Closing the night was M’shairi The God (@mshairithegod) who opened with a great newly-written portrait of their Jamaican father, and how tangible his heartache has become, and then ended up with a showstopping piece about kissing a white guy and reveling in the act of taking control of the power dynamic between them.
All of our features come up from a new poetry show in the Boston Area, Pull Up Poetry (@pulluppoetry), so give them a follow and check out their upcoming shows!
It was a hot one last Wednesday, and I’m not just talking about the fire poetry we heard. It was the middle of a heat wave, causing some unusual circumstances for our show. Due to The Cantab Lounge having a HVAC issue, we held the show at The Foundry instead (thank you to our friends there for accommodating us on such short notice). Despite having to reschedule the tag team slam to August, we still had a hell of an open mic – specifically, the Extended Remix Open Mic! Due to the lack of a feature or slam, a whopping 28 people read on the open mic (not including staff!), and it was a certified all-bangers, no-skips kind of night.
Highlights
• New staff member Kai made their hosting debut, delighting the audience with understated curiosity, entertaining quotes, and tidbits of fun.
• Kai and Kaitie D made a sign that said “Cantab Above Ground,” a dry-erase replica of the famous mural that Aparna’s haiku later referenced (btw Aparna did do a performance with the new make-shift mural!)
• Taking a page out of Just Bookish’s book, we wrote down our favorite lines of poetry on whiteboards, which Amy initially hid under the chairs as if we were in a 90s talk show, about to win a special prize.
• We had several newcomers and far-flung travelers on the mic, including first-timer Betsy who came all the way from Vermont, and Colin Killick, who returned from DC to perform a classic on disability activism.
• Jack Chasse and Cameron did fast-rapping poems back-to-back in homage to each other (and Spongebob).
• David F (occasionally affectionately known as “the rhyme slut”) performed a thoughtfully constructed poem about editing and his father, playing into the theme of “time” that was prevalent.
• Another major theme emerged in the poems shared by Jennifer, Ilse, and Aparna regarding writing about family, roots and the role of parents in one’s life.
• Aparna also gave us a prompt in honor of our change of venue: Write about a last-minute change and incorporate a quick turn.
• Finally, we enjoyed all the poems read in Spanish – always appreciative of multilingual work – keep it going, poets!!!
Memorable Lines Galore:
“Reality buckles under the weight of Spongebob” – Jack
“Pretending to know is so much easier than knowing” – Sue
“I let silence expand” – Abe
“Silence is complicity” – Danny, from a poem for Palestine
“I don’t fight depression when it comes, I surrender and surrender to something else” – Ed
“The loudest voice in my head is my mother” – Aparna, from a cover of Solmaz Sharif’s “Social Skills Training”
“I can’t picture a wedding in the middle of a wake” – Brynna, from the burning of the plantation series
“If vulnerability is so precious, why does it feel like lying?” – Amy
“Maybe I’m not meant to exist here right now” – newcomer Kayleen
Highlights
Donovan’s line about having met “plenty of the keepers of the light” seemed to represent the feeling on tonight’s open mic, which was beautiful and vulnerable. Thank you for the shout out to Myles Taylor, “the keeper of the light,” as we are so grateful for this chance to have community with each other. A big thank you as well to our workshop facilitator, Kes, who led us through a prompt about fear by animating our monsters. Kes also read on the open mic and blew our minds with lines like “Everyone is acting like conversation with predators is still conversation.”
Other memorable lines from the open mic:
“Affection feels like a dungeon.” – Kelsey
“My pain is currently on sale.” – Edie
“Even in a flop era, there are some slays.” – Brynna (hosting bit)
“You use your context clues against me.” – Hunter
“A candle is to an astronomer as an egg is to a rabbit.” – Charlie
“In this room filled with queer acceptance, I think I finally found home.” – Muggs
“Their breath is the only prayer we need.” – Isaiah
“Peace comes to the spirit painfully.” – Nick
“The meat of your matter is all baloney.” – Greg
“I left my hometown even though it was the only place I felt grounded.” – Brynna
“This email found me rabid, foaming at the mouth.” – Aparna
Feature
We also had an excellent feature from touring poet Bob Sykora, who graced us with work from his new book, Utopians in Love, out now on one of our favorite local presses, Game Over Books. Check out the entire feature on our instagram HERE!
Coming up at the Cantab:
7/16 – BPS Team Feature
7/23 – Community Night: First Inspirations
7/30 – Briana Crockett
8/6 – Tim Stafford ft. Workshop from Mary S.
REMINDER: 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.
August’s slam is especially interesting as it is the last of the season before the ultimate Champion of Champions face off on September 1st against the reigning Champion of Champions, Zeke Russell. All winners from the last 8 months (and the forthcoming winner of the August slam) will face off to crown a new champion (or will Zeke defend his title?).
The last chance to qualify for this season’s CHAMPION OF CHAMPIONS Slam Adams is taking place MONDAY, AUGUST 4TH! We hope to see you then.
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.
Website: https://bostonpoetryslam.com/
Instagram: @bostonpoetryslam
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bostonpoetryslam
The recently-released third issue of 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? Contact questions@bostonpoetryslam.com
Newsletter Credits: Written by Amy Argentar, edited by Michael F. Gill