Melissa Czarnik

Melissa Czarnik’s first forays with rap were freestyling at high school and college parties, where she’d sometimes do battle with unwitting male opponents when one of their boasts struck her as overly misogynistic, but these days Czarnik’s act is more introspective than confrontational. She now writes down almost all of her raps, which she delivers with the imperturbable flow and calm, unexaggerated confidence of a spoken-word poet (she spends her days working at the Woodland Pattern Bookstore, a poet’s haven, and it shows.) Supported by her five-piece backing band with boyfriend Eric Mire, Czarnik performs tonight at part of a $5 post-Thanksgiving bill at the Stonefly Brewery.