Features

Myles Taylor recites their piece in front of an attentive audience at the 2025 Team Selection Preliminary Slam. The Cantab Lounge hosts the event every Wednesday from 8 to 11 p.m. Photo courtesy Jarvis Subia.  Just a foot from the audience stands a mic and Myles Taylor, the host and president of the Boston Poetry Slam, welcoming new and old artists to the dimly lit Cantab Lounge basement. Wasting not a second more, Taylor booms, “Welcome to the Boston Poetry Slam! We are here

Live music will always feel different from the radio or headphones. Every pore in your body fills with the movement of the bass, the beat of the drums, and the passion of the singer. Regardless of what is playing, you feel it. At a bar, these sensations are deepened by the enhancement of alcohol and the feeling of strangers united through friendship. For most people, going out to a bar isn’t for the music. But during many live performances, the sonic ambiance of bars is just

The things we read have a way of creeping into our subconscious and blooming into our realities without us even knowing. For artists, books and stories can bleed into their music in more ways than not. Catching literary references in music is like watching a movie with 3D glasses: your understanding of the story exponentially increases. By drawing on existing characters and stories, musicians create a listening experience filled with easter eggs for the well-read listener. Wh