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July 6, 2009 (07/06/09)
On July 6th 2009, Janet Kuypers performed her first feature at Waiting 4 the Bus (W4tB is an energetic, eclectic, electric poetry powerhouse that fires up on the 1st and 3rd Mondays of the month, hosted by Buddah309... Right by the Loop in downtown Chicago at Jaks Tap — the back room, 901 W. Jackson, Chicago IL 60035). This 7:30-10pm evening (starting late because of poet-time) had Kuypers as the only feature for the evening (when there are usually two features at Waiting 4 the Bus). After seeing one acts of play performances in Chicago 05/17/09 (where one was of a single man saying a story, like a prose poem), Kuypers realized that this show is exactly that — a series of “one acts”.
For this performance, Kuypers not only pulled a number of older never-read-before pieces of poetry and prose (including poetry and prose from 1991), but she also re-worked poetry to incorporate either “waiting”, or, more usually, “buses”. In addition to this altering of classic writings of hers (including poetry from the “He Told Me His Dreams” series), Kuypers wrote a number of brand new pieces of poetry and prose poetry for this show, including an extensive prose poem about conflicts with the United States and Russia (originally stylized while considering the Carolyn Forché poem “the Colonel”) for this show.
Not only is there brand-new written material for this show, but she also opted for using not only a new projection screen and the projector for showing off her artwork in this performance, but she even opted to “meditate” at a bus stop for this show (video from her meditating was also shown in this performance).
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Kuypers also released a chapbook of the poems
and prose “one acts” (sorted in the order read).
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During the live performance at Waiting 4 the Bus, Kuypers had two computer screens and two photo image frames with rotating images in them (along with The Key To Believing Bear), displayed below the large projector screen of images related to the performance. While wearing her husband’s Marine Corps dog tags, Kuypers performed both poems and prose oems while both iamges and video clips were displayed on the projected screen. Also included in the live show were backgrouns noises of buses running. Each piece also started with the sampling of the words “Get on to the bus” from “Bus to Beelzebub” by Soul Coughing (off thealbum Irresistable Bliss)... and during the second part of the last piece in the show (Hurry Up and Wait), meditation music ( “Sante Dei,” sampled from a Meditation Music CD) played.
Underneath the projector in this photo, the small images left to right are of: (1) water going up stairs in Venice, (2) Gettysburg PA mass graves with unknown names, (3) the Hollywood sign in California, and (4) columns imbedded in a building side in Rome, all underneath the video playing of Kuypers talking (originally from the video Anything for the Liquor Fix) for the poem In the Projects.
Although lighting was dark for the performer to be well viewed on film, you can see samples of images (and hear the full performanceas well) with the links below.
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...on to the show:
| A Select few images appearing in the laptops and digital picture fames below the projector include: a Pyramid in Rome, a 1976 Anniversary Edition mgb convertible, the Eiffel Tower in Paris, the Oscar Meyer Weiner Car on display at the Milwaukee Art Museum, a statue of painters on a side street in Georgetown, Giant Tortoises at the Highlands at Santa Cruz Island in the Galapagos Islands, a finch in flight leaving a cactua at the Charles Darwin Research Station at Santa Cruz Island in the Galapagos Islands, one of many houses after Katrina in New Orleans 12/31/06, Old Faithful erupting at Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming, the front of the Milwaukee Art Museum, a diorama of the moon landing at Cape Canaveral, lamps along a building at the Jade Buddha Temple in Shanghai (China), and an image of a basketball net (used in a project to show terms for women and sex with them, as “score”).
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| A Select few images appearing in the laptops and digital picture fames below the projector include: a globe statue in front of a church in Omaha (Nebraska), and graves at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific (Punchbowl Cemetery, Omaha, Hawaii).
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| A Select few images appearing in the laptops and digital picture fames below the projector include: Joe walking on a tower along a Pasadena California mountainside, part of a statue in Salzburg Austria, Michael Stipe (of REM) in Urbana Illinois, an urn at Summer Palace in Beijing China 03/11/04, and a train station welcome sign in Munich Germany.
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| A Select few images appearing in the laptops and digital picture fames below the projector include a “teenage dreams” drawing and a mural painted on the side of a building on Montreal.
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| A Select few images appearing in the laptops and digital picture fames below the projector include: the pyramid of the Louvre in Paris France, Greek Ruins in Agrigento (Cicily, Italy), a 1976 Anniversary Edition mgb convertible, Bamboo in Oaho Hawaii, many red flags in Tiananmen Square 03/10/04 in China, a boat in Venice Italy, a diorama of the moon landing at Cape Canaveral, the Seattle Space Needle (Seattle Washington), the statue of Iwo Jima in Washington D.C., a journalism photo of the Take Back the Night Rally in Urbana Illinois, spanish moss hanging from trees at Louisiana (near Florida), a Frigate bird in flight at Darwin Bay on Genovesa Island in the Galapagos Islands, a statue of a man near the Loop in downtown Chicago, a motorcycle at the Highland House (in Highland Park Illinois), and an inverted church on Wright Street in Champaign Illinois.
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| A Select few images appearing in the laptops and digital picture fames below the projector include: a stop sign in Mexico (reading “alto”), a female lion in front of the Forbidden City 03/10/04 in China, a building in Amsterdam (the Netherlands), a statue of Jesus Christ behind a church in Jackson Square (New Orleans) with a light shining up on it for everyone in the French Quarter to see, the Aurora Borealis in Fairbanks Alaska, the Seattle Space Needle (Seattle Washington), Bamboo in Oahu Hawaii, a statue of a man near the Loop in downtown Chicago, the Reichstag in Berlin, Gettysburg PA mass graves with unknown names, an airplane photographed in Naples Florida, the top of a building at the Forbidden City 03/10/04 in China, a Mozart statue in Salzburg Austria, a boat in Venice Italy, Sequoia (the cat) in a bowl, a motorcycle image, a marine iguana at the Charles Darwin Research Station on Santa Cruz Island in the Galapagos Islands, a Chicago Bulls and Baseball mural painted on a building you could see in the I94 (Kennedy Expressway) commute toward downtown Chicago in the 1990s, some of the ceiling at the Forbidden City 03/10/04 in China, bamboo at el Yunque Tropical Rain Forest in el Yonque Puerto Rico, a car at the Highland House (in Highland Park Illinois), and trees on Paradise Island.
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| A Select few images appearing in the laptops and digital picture fames below the projector include: Greek ruins in Agrigento (Cicily, Italy), an inverted church on Wright Street in Champaign Illinois, a set of red doors to an entranceway in the Forbidden City 03/10/04 in China, a Giant Tortoise at the Highlands at Santa Cruz Island in the Galapagos Islands, New Orleans doors, a copula in old San Juan (Puerto Rico) 12/16/03, church spires in Montreal, leaves at one of the Puerto Rico (Guernica, Boqueron, and San Juan) 12/17/03 Dry Rain Forests, a stop sign in Mexico (reading “alto”), an Asian setting of tea and dishware (with bamboo in the foreground), Eugene in an arch in Arches National Park in Utah, the Statue of Liberty in New Jersey, and the Colosseum of Rome
As the first round of applause started, additional images appeared on the screens, including a modern building in Bruxelles (Belgium), and a distance view of the Great Wall of China (plus others).
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(poem)
Vittorio Carli
