Central Square’s world-famous Cantab Lounge at 738 Mass Ave. presents weekly Wednesday performances from local and national poets, as well as a chance to present your own work in the 8:00 p.m. open mic or 11:00 p.m. poetry slam. Upcoming headliners include:
• Wednesday, August 29
Tatyana Brown is currently ranked fourth in the world of competitive performance poetry after participating in the 2011 Individual World Poetry Slam. She is also the founding Captain of The Lit Slam, a monthly live-audience curated literary journal, and a co-host of San Jose’s Oversocial Mofo Revue. She has toured both coasts as a poet, read poems to teenagers on the mountaintops of British Columbia, and told tales to captivated Bay Area audiences and on NPR’s hot new true-life narrative storytelling show, Snap Judgment. Open poetry slam in the 8x8 series.
• Wednesday, September 5
Michael F. Gill writes at the intersection of performance and experimentation, stating that the vivacity of his work owes a great debt to the New England poetry community. His work is published or forthcoming in Amethyst Arsenic and Spoonful. He runs the Brighton Word Factory, a bi-weekly writing group in Boston, and helps co-host the Stone Soup poetry reading in Cambridge. Open poetry slam in the 8x8 series.
• Wednesday, September 12
Ellie White has been trying to teach people how to hallucinate since 1986. She recently completed her BA in English at Ohio State University, and in the past year has competed in the College Unions Poetry Slam Invitational, the Rustbelt Regional Poetry Slam, the Individual World Poetry Slam, and the Women of the World Poetry Slam. She self-published her first book of poems, Save Your Echoes, in October 2011. Open poetry slam in the 8x8 series.
• Wednesday, September 19
Omar Holmon is a Rutgers graduate, a four-time New-York-region Grand Slam Champion (2008, 2009 at Jersey’s Loserslam, 2009 at the Nuyorican Poets’ Cafe, and 2010 at Urbana GrandSlam) and the only man alive to punch the planet Jupiter in the face. A self-professed nerd poet, Omar moves effortlessly through the comic and the tragic with a disarmingly sweet stage presence and a whole lotta smarts to boot. Open poetry slam in the 8x8 series.
Doors for the show open at 7:15. The open mic begins at 8:00 and the feature performs at approximately 10:00. When indicated (most nights), an open poetry slam follows the feature. The show is 18+ (ID required) and the cover charge is $3 unless otherwise noted.
