The Cantab Lounge closed in March due to coronavirus; it will never re-open

Simone Beaubien of the Boston Poetry Slam writes: Boston Poetry Slam Says Goodbye to the Cantab Lounge:

For those here for further details, or with heartache to process over missing the space, you already know: the Boston Poetry Slam is not a place. It’s not a loss of a person, or the way a poet you just met thinks about language: we’ll only be missing a half-dozen sticky barstools, a cold cement floor where pub glasses go to die, a certain slant of light that confounds would-be videographers and shakes that fourth stanza you thought you memorized right out of your pockets. Our bar is closed, and closing, but our community remains whole.

So, of course, the Boston Poetry Slam is not the Cantab Lounge: and yet, you know it also always will be. The bar hosted the weekly show longer than most of our current regulars have walked this earth, and the name is nationally synonymous with the scene, community, and sound that have come from the stage over the years. If you ever mentioned you were from Boston at a slam event, you were likely to hear (among other things): “Are you Cantab?” I hear from poets all the time (secretly, generously) who promise me there is no place in the world like the place. Regulars from five, ten, twenty years ago return on a whim, on a Wednesday, to re-introduce themselves to poetry in the same basement, under the same pounding blues and leaking pipes.

He writes:

Dear friends, Yes... it's sad but true... our home-away-from-home... our song-swapping soiree... our fiddle tune temple... that sweet little joint everybody knew... the mighty, ever-burning Cantab... is being sold. I know nothing about the new owners' plans, but think it highly unlikely that they include reopening the ancient and funky Cantab the way it is.

The virus will have to die down before we start up again in a new place, and that could take two or three more years. But do not be discouraged! My associates and I will be plunging valiantly ahead, scoping out potential venues and processing input and feedback from you.