Poetry Slam at the Cantab Lounge: 2005 Team Bios

The 2005 team is only the second 5-member team in Cantab history. Its members are all experienced National Poetry Slam participants and each brings unique style and experience to the team. The team will compete at the National Poetry Slam in Albuquerque, NM.

About the members of the team:

Simone Beaubien vacillates in identity between geek, jock, and slam poet. She has slammed as far north as Portland, Maine, as far west as Seattle, Washington, and as far south as Del Ray Beach, Florida. She was lucky enough to compete at the 2001 and 2004 National Poetry Slams as a member of the Boston/Cantab Slam Team, and received the 2002 Best Performance Poet (female) award from the Boston Poetry Awards. She currently hosts the open mic and slam at the Cantab Lounge in Cambridge, Mass. and is a member of Dr. Brown’s Traveling Poetry Show.

Eric Darby is a four-time participant in the National Poetry Slam. In 2004, he placed 15th out of over 300 competing poets, and his work has been included in both the 2002 and 2004 National Poetry Slam anthologies. He is a past host and organizer of the Detroit Poetry Slam, and has performed his writing in bars and churches from Minnesota to Maine.

Ryk McIntyre (aka Pope Noir 1st) is a two-time National Slam Team member and a biped. Also a member of Doc Brown's Travelling Poetry Show and lovely co-host to Simone's bitchin' Slam Masteryat The Cantab Lounge. He has been published in "Short Fuse-And Anthology Of New Fusion Poets", "The Worcester Review" and "Nth Position." He has performed his work all over this country and Canada. He fears squash but loves squid.

Caroline Harvey is a performance poet, dancer and teacher who melts authenticity, wordplay and body language together to redefine the craft of spoken word.
After earning a Masters Degree in Dance from UCLA, she entered the slam world in 2003 and quickly made a name for herself with her confessional, gritty verse and strong physical presence, winning her way onto the San Jose Slam Team in 2004, the Cantab's Boston Poetry Slam Team in 2005 and filming for HBO's Def Poetry the same year.
Her work has been described as both "playful, with bite" and "harrowing and haunted," detailing in unflinching honesty her journeys through addiction and mental illness to a place of strength and healing.
As an award-winning performance coach, she led the UC Berkeley Slam Team to win the championship at the College Unions Poetry Slam and coached the Bay Area Unified Team to victory at the West Coast Regionals. She's also taught performance poetry and theater for Kids Take the Stage and Youthspeaks, and is currently teaching yoga in Boston.

Dawn Gabriel's been performing her poetry in front of audiences for more than 10 years. She performed on Lollapalooza's Spoken Word stage in New England and New York, was a member of the 4th place Worcester slam team in 1997, the Providence team in 1998, and has been featured in The Seattle Poetry Festival, The Boston Globe Book Festival, and First Night. Dawn worked as an organizer for both the National Poetry Slam in 2000, and the Individual World Poetry Slam in 2005. She has lead performance poetry workshops for middle school students, and is currently working to start a Youth Slam in Cambridge for teens ages 13 to 19.

You can see the team onstage every Wednesday at the Cantab Lounge. To find out where else the team will be performing between now and Nationals, click here.

To book the team to perform at your venue or event, email cantab@slamnews.com.

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