Sign up for Book Club
Stay up to date on local books news, events, and recommendations from Boston.com.
A look inside Boston’s vibrant slam poetry scene
Every Wednesday night, Boston Poetry Slam takes over the Cantab Lounge in Cambridge — and it's a packed house.
You’re reading Book Club, Boston.com’s guide to the Greater Boston literary scene. Sign up to get book recommendations, author Q&As, deep dives on trends in the industry, and more in your inbox.
Dear readers,
April is National Poetry Month in the United States, a time to celebrate and bring to light the poets and poetry that have shaped our nation. In honor of the month, I took a peek at Boston’s poetry scene.
📚 Plus, read on for indie bookstore deals you won’t want to miss. Looking for one near you? Check out our ultimate guide to local bookstores.
A night at Boston’s beating heart of slam poetry
The Cantab Lounge, basked in the glow of twinkle lights and a Coors Light neon sign, feels like a relic of a gritty Cambridge. It’s the kind of grungy dive bar that beckons artists and misfits, students and sages, and those of us caught somewhere in between – all pulled toward its magnetic energy.
Advertisement:
But this isn’t just a bar. This is holy ground for Boston’s slam poetry scene.
Every Wednesday night, the Boston Poetry Slam takes over Cantab’s basement for its flagship event: a show entirely devoted to the craft, performance, and sheer joy of poetry. The Poetry Slam was born in May of 1991, igniting a fire that would burn through Boston’s creative core for decades.
Finger snaps and verse
Doors open at 7:15pm and a queue of people snake through the bar waiting for the open mic to start. Down the heavily stickered stairs into the low-lit, low-ceilinged room, I find a packed crowd. The air is thick with anticipation and the scent of cheap beer. I pay the $4 cover, grab an icy Downeast Cider, and find an empty folding chair next to Portia, a giddy poet. Behind me, the featured poet of the night, Donovan Beck, chats about his new book, “Sunbreak: Notes On Hope” with another mic-goer.
Advertisement:
Myles Taylor, the Slam’s director, takes the mic and lays out the ground rules for old-timers and first-timers alike. “If you hear something you like,” they say, “Let the poet know with an ‘I love this poet!’” The room erupts in finger snaps and cheers.
Then, the open mic begins. The crowd goes quiet, leans in closer. That’s the thing about this room – it doesn’t punish imperfection; it worships honesty.
One after another, poets take the stage to deliver their work. One poet performs an ode to their mother’s sunshine. Another spits sharp-edged verses about systemic injustice that make the room go silent and still, before exploding in shouts and applause. And another presented the latest installment in their Great Pagliacci series, essentially a riff on an Internet meme about a sad clown and a doctor, to the roaring laughter of the crowd.
‘Spaces like this don’t exist everywhere’
After a short intermission (Myles tells the crowd to set an eight-minute timer on their phones if they want to grab food at the 7/11 around the corner and come back in time), weekly regular and featured poet Donovan Beck takes the stage to read from his new book, “Sunbreak: Notes On Hope.” Beck has been reading at Cantab for a year, and while it won’t replace the love he has for his native Los Angeles, the lounge has become something of home for him.
Advertisement:
“Spaces like this don’t exist everywhere,” Beck said to the crowd, before reading excerpts from his book about finding hope in the wake of despair.
There’s something about the Cantab and the gritty basement that seems to pull people in. Myles, the Slam’s director, told me too that the lounge became a place for them to find their voice and community when they came to Boston to study at Emerson College.
“I was 19 and terrified of everything, but the people here just took me under their wing,” they said. “I started performing and I just became obsessed with this place. It’s just so special.”
If you’ve never been, here’s your sign. Every Wednesday night at the Cantab Lounge, doors open at 7:15pm. Bring $4, an open mind, and read if you’re brave. Listen if you’re not. Either way, you’ll leave a little bit different.
📚 Your literary lineup
Discover your next great read with these curated recommendations:
“Sunbreak: Notes on Hope” by Donovan Beck
“Sunbreak” is Donovan Beck’s second book, and offers poetic reflections on the glimmers of hope that can – and must be – found even in our challenging world.
Advertisement:
“Just for the Summer” by Abby Jimenez
This slow-burn, contemporary rom-com is the perfect book to read as spring and summer approach. It manages to balance humor (i.e. the love story centers around an “AmITheAsshole” thread on Reddit, for example) alongside more serious topics like dealing with the impact of trauma in a smart and sensitive way I really appreciated.
“Mercury Pictures Presents” by Anthony Marra
I’m currently reading this literary/historical fiction novel which takes place in 1940s Hollywood. It centers around Maria Lagana, an Italian immigrant who escapes Mussolini’s Fascist Italy and later finds work at the fictional Mercury Pictures studio. I’m loving the family saga and lush world Marra has created as the backdrop to more serious topics like xenophobia and identity, and I can’t wait to finish it!
📖 Reading anything good lately? Share your last great read with us.
✏️ Pencil these in
Here are some cool events to look out for:
- Free Comic Book Day at many stores (May 3)
- A roundtable for book lovers and foodies (May 7)
- Learn from women booksellers about the publishing industry (May 7)
- Beach Reads Book Fair (May 14)
- The Greater Roxbury Book Fair (May 20)
💡 Answer me this
If you answered “Jimmy Carter” to last month’s trivia question about the U.S. president who declared the first National Women’s History Week in March 1980, you were right! Shout out to Book Club reader Carol D., who was the first to respond with the correct answer. Now, onto our new question:
Who was the first African-American woman to publish a book of poetry?
Hint: She is one of three women statues at the Boston Women’s Memorial on Commonwealth Avenue Mall.
Advertisement:
Email me your answer at [email protected]. The first reader who responds with the correct answer will get a personalized book recommendation from me or a local bookseller.
To comment, please create a screen name in your profile
To comment, please verify your email address
Conversation
This discussion has ended. Please join elsewhere on Boston.com