By Gail Waterhouse
Some may view poetry as an older form of expression that is only studied in the classroom, but some Boston poets, backed by venues like the Cantab Lounge and the Lizard Lounge, are modernizing the art form and even making it competitive.
The Cantab Lounge, located at 738 Massachusetts Ave. in Cambridge’s Central Square, hosts a poetry night every Wednesday from 8 p.m. to midnight, although Simone Beaubien, the evening’s host, said the night has been known to stretch longer.
“We run an open mic for about two hours, and after a short break, we have a featured poet who performs for about a half an hour,” she said. “People bring sonnets, erotic poetry, political statements, beautiful romantic poetry, and the list goes on.”
At 11:30 p.m., slam poetry begins at the Cantab Lounge. Beaubien, who began reading poetry at the Cantab Lounge in 1999, describes slam poetry as “the art of competitive poetry.” Each competitor has three minutes to perform poetry, without musical accompaniment, props or costumes, she said.
Beaubien said in 2002 she made the Cantab Lounge Slam Team, which competes in regional tournaments and tries to make it to the National Poetry Slam to represent Boston ever year. In 2004, she started as SlamMaster for the team and became an organizer for the weekly event.
At regional and national slam events, the judges are pre-selected. But Beaubien said the judges at the Cantab Lounge are always different.
“The judges are people from the bar, chosen randomly,” she said. “The idea behind the judging is that it could be different every time, and the point is not to quantify art.”
Beaubien described the scene as a “circus bar atmosphere” that allowed poetry to be “raucous and proletariat,” adjectives some students said they did not originally associate with poetry.
But other students, like freshman English major Kirsten Anderson, said they appreciate all kinds of the art form.
“I think if people were aware of the modern side of poetry instead of just classical poetry, they’d find poetry more enjoyable than they originally thought it could be,”Anderson said.
Near Harvard Square, another evening of poetry occurs Sunday nights. The Lizard Lounge, located at 1667 Massachusetts Ave. in Cambridge, hosts a poetry jam of its own, starting at 7:30 p.m.
Jeff Robinson, who co-hosts the evenings, said the night begins with a poetry slam from the Poetry Jam’s slam team, which also competes in regional and national events. After the slam, a featured poet performs and the evening ends with an open mic session. Both the featured poet and open mic portions are accompanied by jazz music from the Jeff Robinson Trio, he said.
Robinson plays saxophone for the trio and said he has been part of the poetry jam since 1996.
“I’m an actor as well as a musician,” he said. “I was looking for a vehicle that would be a bridge between theatre and music. It seemed like a natural progression for me to perform with poets.”
Robinson said he believes the music adds another dimension to the experience.
“We’ve built a community of people who are sharing in this coming together of music and words, so it can feel communal and spiritual even at times,” he said. “To [perform poetry] in front of an audience, makes the band … almost like a choir.”
Both Robinson and Beaubien said college students make up an important part of their audience.
“The Poetry Jam is a 21-plus crowd, but we get a lot of the older college students coming in,” Robinson said of the Lizard Lounge.
Beaubien said the Cantab poetry night has been an attraction for college students for a long time.
“College kids are interested in the poetry night,” she said. “But they always have been.”
Stephanie Antonellis, a sophomore English major, said she thought having an understanding and appreciation of poetry is important.
“Poetry is really relevant to our lives,” she said. “Being able to read it and understand it is a very important skill.”
Anderson said that although poetry in class may not always be modern, it is still a valuable part of education.
“Epic poems were the base of modern literature, [so] it’s important to study poetry,” she said.