Janet Kuypers Poems

Janet Kuypers’ “Thoughts on Peace” 8/6/16 peace (and vegetarian) themed poetry feature/show

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    Below are text links and video links from a August 6th 2016 (8/6/16, or 20160706) poetry performance (with background rain forest noises to accompany the readings) of Janet Kuypers’ Austin poetry feature through Expressions (of Peace)! at Austin’s the Bahá’í Center in Austin, Texas hat incorporated poetry about peace into a show. Kuypers opted to sit in the lotus position on stage for the performance (and sat o a raised platform so audience members could see her during the live show).

    Because this was a peace-themed performance, Kuypers started the show talking about the Egyptian Goddess ISIS in comparison to what we now know as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, but transitioned into talk about peace to all living creatures (like animals, and being a vegetarian) with portions of her editorial from cc&d’s v249 21 year anniversary book Invisible Ink, until she ended with two poems on being a vegetarian. Kuypers also thought a appropriate title for her show would be “Thoughts on Peace”, especially because she ended the show with a poem that ends cutting in mid-sentence with “and I thought:” — where she sat for a moment in the lotus position like she was going to continue, then she closed her eyes and bowed her head as the entire center remained in silence until the rain forest music started to fade and she opened her eyes and said “thank you”.

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    Before the show started she also released copies to most some of the audience there of a chapbook of the writings she was performing in her show (in the order they were performed). All of the pieces from this reading were also released electronically in a “Thoughts on Peace” chapbook, which you can download as a PDF file for free any time.

Here is a listing with links to all of the writings performed in this live show:

“Queen ISIS (battling for peace)”
“Choices We Make”
“Everything was Alive and Dying (2016 cruelty to animals edition)”
“On a High Horse Like This”

Janet Kuypers’ “Voting for Change” 7/2/16 politically themed poetry feature

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    Below are video links from a July 2nd 2016 (7/2/16, or 20160702) poetry performance (with accompanying guitar music by John) of Janet Kuypers’ Austin poetry feature through Expressions 2016: Poets Parliament! at Austin’s the Bahá’í Center (at 2215 E M Franklin Ave, Austin, TX 78723) that incorporated poetry into politics (and potentially solve political problems poetically). Because political pundits and talking heads are on many 24-hour news channels, Kuypers opted to “show” herself in tis show as a “talking head”, by not only remaining seated (like an anchorperson) but also filming herself on stage and simultaneously broadcasting her “performance” on a television right on stage next to her… Because in the past, when she has done this in Chicago shows, she learned that most audience members, like the average American, are often more fascinated with watching a television screen than watching a person live on stage.

    Because this was a politics-themed performance, and because the usually give away stickers to p[eople after voting to show the world they voted that day, Kuypers thought a appropriate title for her show would be “Voting for Change” (since a third party never can make enough money to spend their way into position in this country, there are usually only two viable candidates for any position, which usually forces the voter to chose between the lesser of two evils whenever they enter a polling booth).

    Before the show started she also released copies to most everyone there of a chapbook of the writings she was performing in her show (in the order they were performed), and all of the pieces from this reading were also released electronically in a “Voting for Change” chapbook, which you can download as a PDF file for free any time.

    Below are video links to the live performance of “Voting for Change” at Expressions 2016: Poets Parliament! in Austin.

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Here is a listing with links to all of the writings performed in this liveshow:

True Happiness in the New Millennium (2016 edit)
Orders
The State of the Nation (2016 edit)
Everything was Alive and Dying (2016 political edit)
a Great American (2016 edit)


Janet Kuypers’ “Obey” 6/4/16 female-themed poetry feature

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Below are video links from a June 4th 2016 (6/4/16, or 20160604) poetry performance of Janet Kuypers’ Austin poetry feature through Expressions 2016: June is a Woman! at Austin’s the Bahá’í Center about being a woman, and about what women go through. Because she happened to see this spray-painted word on the side of the road this spring (when construction workers often write single words down to indicate things like where power lines are under ground), she had to take pictures with the word she saw, and she therefore decided to title this show “Obey”. In this show she also ran repeating images projected on the screen behind her of her drawings of woman alternating with her edited “Obey” images, and sampled in the background during her readings were instrumentals from 3 tracks from the Laurie Anderson album release, “the Ugly One with the Jewels”. She even explained to the live audience after the show that she even chose to wear a flapper dress for this show, because (A) that time period reflected the time just after women gained the right to vote in the United States, and (B) this clothing was the irst obvious sign of women wanted to stand on their own (and enjoy themselves too). It didn’t hurt that in Kuypers’ animation in her show (like doing the twist or jumping on a hotel bed, or even with her animated gestures during all of her performance), the fringe one her dress would exaggerate her movements as well.

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Before the show started she also released copies to most everyone there of a chapbook of the writings she was performing in her show (in the order they were performed), and all of the pieces from this reading were also released electronically in a “Obey” chapbook, which you can download as a PDF file for free any time.

Read her haiku poems
progress,
extend,
falling,
civil,
and greatest,
then read her poems
Earth is a Topiary (her 1st of 2 poems where she used a voice modulator to reads parts of her poem in a male voice),
On Becoming a Woman (an editing and expansion of her 1999 poem Becoming a Woman),
Viewing the Woman in a 19th Century Photograph (an editing of her 1991 poem Photograph, Nineteenth Century and her 2nd of 2 poems where she used a voice modulator to reads parts of her poem in a male voice),
Content With Inferior Men, portions of her poem
In The Air with slightly altered wording, and
Oh, She Was a Woman (an editing of her 1997 poem She Was a Woman).

(Thanks to Thom for some photos from the event.)

Janet Kuypers’ “Love in the Universe” 5/7/16 poetry feature

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May 7th 2016 (5/7/16, or 20160507) poetry performance (with accompanying guitar music by John) of Janet Kuypers’ first scheduled Austin poetry feature through Expressions 2016: Reasons to be Cheerful at Austin’s the Bahá’í Center (at 2215 E M Franklin Ave, Austin, TX 78723) after her move, and because this was also her wedding anniversary, they started the evening with her and John singing the song friends performed at their wedding — Depeche Mode’s “The Bottom Line” (with altered chorus lyrics for their wedding). So enjoy this set os poems (set to music in the show) about not only astronomy but also love, in “Love in the Universe”.

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    All of the pieces from this reading were also released in a “Love in the Universe” chapbook, which you can download as a PDF file for free any time.

Watch video, or read Janet Kuypers in her 5/7/16 show “Love in the Universe” in her first scheduled feature at Expressions 2016: Reasons to be Cheerful in Austin first singing (with John singing and on guitar) the Depeche Mode song The Bottom Line (with altered chorus lyrics for heir wedding), then with her poems Pluto, Plutonium & Death (a bonus Periodic Table poem), her haiku universe, observer’s love poem (2016 edit), everything is my home, Wanted To Play, and electricity.

(And thanks to Thom for the photos from this live event!)

Bagdad Cemetery, Janet Kuypers’ poetry in the 2016 Poetry Bomb 4/24/16

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Located at Bagdad Cemetery in Leander Texas (since Janet Kuypers moved from Chicago Illinois since the past Poetry Bomb) Janet Kuypers read poetry with two different themes (because of two different weather patterns), because the annual Poetry Bomb is an effort to get poetry out in public — too often writers read their work at poetry open mics and features, but things poetic can be seen everywhere in the world… This is why in this repeating annual venture, poets go out somewhere where people usually don’ read poetry, to perform it for people that are otherwise going about other business).

After making the decision to read poetry at a place where some of the movie The Texas Chainsaw Massacre was filmed (and yes, people did come the cemetery while she was there), Janet Kuypers read two sets of different styles of poems (in honor of the weather change during the 2016 Poetry Bomb). In the first part of the readings (while the weather was still sunny), she read only a few pieces relating to death, but then switched it up to shorter more novel pieces of never-before-read poetry. In the second (longer) set of readings (once the weather turned overcast, how fitting for hanging out at a cemetery), she read mostly never-before-read poems about her mother’s death, and ended the longer set with a poem or two she wrote just after she was almost killed.

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After the reading (because no one knew with the weather how much poetry could be performed), Kuypers also released (via Scars Publications, as a supplement release to cc&d magazine) a chapbook of an online PDF file of the poems she performed (in the order of their performance) the day of the event of the 2016 Poetry Bomb at Bagdad Cemetery (available as a free download any time).
Writings included in this show (in the order performed):
Dreams 1/28/07 (Seeing mom)
There Are Too Many Poems About You, David
Why Am I Infected
Koi Ponds and Concrete
Golfing with George Eastman
Suing NASA For Comet Play
Jog Hurt
on a bike
untitled 6/11/15
Superficial
The Sky Is Always Blue
hard of hearing
probably not
Saving Myself
a Happy Ending to Everything
I’ll Push the Cart
My Memorials to You
Rings like Gravestones
This is What you Leave Me
We’re Trying
Letting Time Tick By
Ingrained in Your Head
Wanting to Touch a Corpse
More Painful to Experience
Mother’s Day Flowers Forever
It’s Just Not Right
Janet Spinoto, Mother of 3
No Place
Princess Diana, One Year Later<
Driving Car Into Ditch
Take It All Away
Think About It Much
existence