December 10th, 2009

From left:  Chris O’Carroll, Tom Rubenoff, and Fred Solari

Located at 738 Mass. Ave., the Cantab Lounge offers open mic, a featured poet, and a poetry slam to the Cambridge poetry community every Wednesday night.  This Wednesday featured a semi-final slam, Joshua Bennet as the featured poet, and yours truly, Tom Rubenoff, participating in open mic night. 

Sign up for open mic starts at 7:45 and poets start lining up a few minutes before that.  The 20 or so participating poets ranged in age from probably 21 through at least (I know for sure) 53, were white, African American, Asian or Latino, male or female, gay or not gay.  I heard no bad poetry and some very good poetry.  I thoroughly enjoyed participating and anticipate becoming a regular there. 

The two poems recited by Chis O’Carroll at open mic appear on this web site.  Fred Solari recited a single moving and thought provoking long poem of consistant intensity, entitled, “Love Conquers Nothing.” 

Joshua Bennett, the featured poet, blew me away.  This young man recites from the heart and the gut, fully present, fully revealed.  The impact of his performance is spectacular.  

Joshua read his poems, “Derrick,” “Kite,” “J Dilla as my DeLorean,” “Black Boy Blues,” “Carbon Copy,” and “Tamara’s Opus.”  Joshua is a senior at the University of Pennsylvania and a world class competitor in the arena of slam poetry.  His poems are compelling and driven, delivered from the heart withenergy and impact, like this excerpt from “Carbon Copy,”

“…I pick up a pen
allowing my words to rocket through the air
like I was on a first name basis with the wind…”

His work is filled with vivid images delivered crisp and hard into the listener’s consciousness.  As I listened, I felt as if I was soaring along with the rocket-words of this talented young man, visualizing “Derrick” the at-risk youth or Joshua’s father in “Carbon Copy” almost as if I had seen these people with my own eyes. 

I found “Tamara’s Opus,” sections of which were recited simultaneously audibly and in American Sign Language, to be particularly moving.  The poem was made so much more engaging by Joshua’s honest expression of conflicting emotions about growing up with his elder sister who lives with a hearing impairment.

I will wait eagerly for the chance to hear him read again. 

Regrettably I could not stay for the slam.  I will report on a slam event in the near future.