Singular

After the passing of Kuypers’ mother on 08/31/06, Kuypers decided to dedicate a show to writings about her mother and her battle against leukemia, hoping to stir new emotions in her audience.
janet and her mom at her prom, 1988
Her mother (Lucille Ann Kuypers, 1930-2006) won battles against breast cancer and cervical cancer about ten years before being diagnosed with leukemia (cancer of the blood). And multiple rounds of chemo at University of Chicago hospital could not get the cancer into remission. This was a particularly emotional set of writings from Kuypers, and music from The DMJ Art Connection contributed with instrumentals to support her writings for this performance art show.
Selections from this show were pulled from the cc&d magazine supplement issues, mid-September 2006’s Singular Remembrances (v164.5) and October 27th (Lucille Kuypers’s birthday) 2006’s Singular Endings (v165.5). There is also a cc&d release of what was read (in what order, how poetry will be split and edited) at this show, called Singular (v166.5), and free copies of this cc&d supplement issue were available at the Cafe (5115 North Lincoln in Chicago, just south of Foster) during her live performance. At the Cafe, the evening started with a select few people reading at an open mic (starting around 8:30), followed by her feature.
On this page are links to tracks (in order) from the live show as well as studio recordings of this performance. Enjoy these free downloadable mp3 files, which will also be a part of a 2-CD release from Scars Publications... And (as an added Internet bonus) there is even a free download of the entire live performance available at the bottom of this page.

The CD Singular has both live & studio recordings with music from the DMJ Art Connection for this poetry performance art show on 11/21/06.

the CD Singular, based on the 11/21/06 Chicago poetry show

Order a copy today for only $6.22 (plus shipping & handling to anywhere in the continental United States), or enjoy listening to these clips below.

The CD set Chaos in Motion also contains practice tracks (11/19/06) from this performance.

Chaos in Motion

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Order a copy today for only $19.95 (plus shipping & handling to anywhere in the continental United States), or enjoy listening to these clips below.

studio performance image, 11/21/06
Story Telling
Janet Kuypers and the DMJ Art Connection - Singular - Story Telling
mp3 file sample of live version
most of the poem (8:46, 11/21/06)
Janet Kuypers and the DMJ Art Connection - Singular - Story Telling
mp3 file studio version
most of the poem (7:24, mixed 11/14/06)
Janet Kuypers - Chaos In Motion - Chaotic Radio - Story Telling
mp3 file sample from the
practice session (5:55, 11/19/06)
mp3 file vocals (8:03, recorded 10/08/06)
original poem (written 09/09/06)
Music by Andy Derryberry

Wither Away
Janet Kuypers and the DMJ Art Connection - Singular - Wither Away
mp3 file sample of live version
(2:30, 11/21/06)
Janet Kuypers and the DMJ Art Connection - Singular - Wither Away
mp3 file studio version
(2:48, 11/14/06)
Janet Kuypers and the DMJ Art Connection - Singular - Wither Away
mp3 file sample from the
practice session (2:07, 11/19/06)
mp3 file vocals
(2:01, recorded 10/07/06)
original poem (written 2006)
Music by DMJ

studio performance image, 11/21/06
a small part of
Story Telling
Janet Kuypers and the DMJ Art Connection - Singular - Story Telling - Part
mp3 file sample of live version
a small portion of the poem
(:58, 11/21/06)
Janet Kuypers and the DMJ Art Connection - Singular - Story Telling - Part
mp3 file studio version
a small portion of the poem
(:48, mixed 11/14/06)
Janet Kuypers and the DMJ Art Connection - Singular - Story Telling - Part
mp3 file sample from the
practice session (:48, 11/19/06)
mp3 file vocals
(8:03, recorded 10/08/06)
original poem
(written 09/09/06)
Music by Andy Derryberry

Selections from this show were pulled from the cc&d magazine supplement issues, mid-September 2006’s Singular Remembrances (v164.5) and October 27th (Lucille Kuypers’s birthday) 2006’s Singular Endings (v165.5). There is also a cc&d release of what will be read (in what order, how poetry will be split and edited) called Singular (v166.5), and free copies of this cc&d supplement issue were available at the Cafe (5115 North Lincoln in Chicago, just south of Foster) during her live performance. At the Cafe, the evening starts with a select few readers at an open mic (starting around 8:30), before the start of her feature.

studio performance image, 11/21/06

Your Soul Is Shaking
Janet Kuypers and the DMJ Art Connection - Singular - Your Soul Is Shaking
mp3 file sample of live version
(1:15, 11/21/06)
Janet Kuypers and the DMJ Art Connection - Singular - Your Soul Is Shaking
mp3 file studio version
(1:07, mixed 11/14/06)
Janet Kuypers and the DMJ Art Connection - Singular - Your Soul Is Shaking
mp3 file sample from the
practice session (1:02, 11/19/06)
mp3 file vocals
(1:02, recorded 10/01/06)
original poem
(written 08/29/06)
Music by DMJ

studio performance image, 11/21/06

In this part of the live show, Kuypers took a large simple vase (to represent the glass of water in the poem) and literally shook it at the appropriate points during the reading.

Seven Ten, Seven Twenty
Janet Kuypers and the DMJ Art Connection - Singular - Seven Ten, Seven Twenty
mp3 file sample of live version
(1:58, 11/21/06)
Janet Kuypers and the DMJ Art Connection - Singular - Seven Ten, Seven Twenty
mp3 file studio recording
(2:14, mixed 10/08/06)
Janet Kuypers and the DMJ Art Connection - Singular - Seven Ten, Seven Twenty
mp3 file sample from the
practice session (1:39, 11/19/06)
mp3 file instrumental
mp3 file vocals (recorded 10/01/06)
original text writing
(written 08/31/06)
musician: Andy Derryberry

studio performance image, 11/21/06
Knelt and Cried
Janet Kuypers and the DMJ Art Connection - Singular - Knelt and Cried
mp3 file sample of live version
(6:40, 11/21/06)
Janet Kuypers and the DMJ Art Connection - Singular - Knelt and Cried
mp3 file studio version
(7:36, 11/04/06)
Janet Kuypers - Chaos In Motion - Chaotic Radio - Knelt and Cried
mp3 file sample from the
practice session (6:26, 11/19/06)
mp3 file vocals
(7:13, recorded 10/07/05)
mp3 file 7:36
instrumental 11/04/06
original poem (written 09/03/06)
Andy Derryberry: Guitar
JY: Bass Guitar and sequencer

The Good Ones
Janet Kuypers and the DMJ Art Connection - Singular - The Good Ones
mp3 file sample of live version
(3:04, 11/21/06)
Janet Kuypers and the DMJ Art Connection - Singular - The Good Ones
mp3 file studio tracks
(3:55, 11/14/06)
Janet Kuypers and the DMJ Art Connection - Singular - The Good Ones
mp3 file sample from the
practice session (2:26, 11/19/06)
mp3 file vocals
(2:54, recorded 10/07/06)
(instrumental of a mix with
Strat Serenade and Pod2Beat)
original poem (written 09/02/06)
Music by DMJ

studio performance image, 11/21/06

the ending of
Story Telling
Janet Kuypers and the DMJ Art Connection - Singular - Story Telling - Part to End
mp3 file sample of live version
the end of the poem (:51, 11/21/06)
Janet Kuypers and the DMJ Art Connection - Singular - Story Telling - Part to End
mp3 file studio version
the end of the poem (0:55, mixed 11/14/06)
Janet Kuypers - Chaos In Motion - Chaotic Radio - Story Telling End
mp3 file sample from the
practice session (:51, 11/19/06)
mp3 file vocals (8:03, recorded 10/08/06)
original poem (written 09/09/06)
Music by Andy Derryberry

A Little Angel Inside
Janet Kuypers and the DMJ Art Connection - Singular - A Little Angel Inside
mp3 file sample of live version
(3:09, 11/21/06)
Janet Kuypers and the DMJ Art Connection - Singular - A Little Angel Inside
mp3 file studio version
(4:30, 11/14/06)
Janet Kuypers and the DMJ Art Connection - Singular - A Little Angel Inside
mp3 file sample from the
practice session (2:48, 11/19/06)
mp3 file vocals
(2:49, recorded 10/08/06)
mp3 file 3:45
instrumental: “Columbine
original poem (written 09/11/06)
Music by DMJ

studio performance image, 11/21/06
Just Let Her Rest
Janet Kuypers and the DMJ Art Connection - Singular - Just Let Her Rest
mp3 file sample of live version
(4:20, 11/21/06)
Janet Kuypers and the DMJ Art Connection - Singular - Just Let Her Rest
mp3 file studio version
(4:30, 11/14/06)
Janet Kuypers - Chaos In Motion - Chaotic Radio - Just Let Her Rest
mp3 file sample from the
practice session (4:06, 11/19/06)
mp3 file vocals
(3:29, recorded 10/08/06)
mp3 file (3:45, instrumental,
of the piece “Majestic”)
original poem
(written 09/11/06)
Music by DMJ

and finally... if yo’d like to hear a the entire performance, check out the entire live performance
mp3 file live show
(33 minutes, 11/21/06)

studio performance image, 11/21/06

live performance shows
For this performance, Kuypers wore black, like she did during her mother’s services. She wore a pair of earrings her mother gave her for Christmas one year, and she made a point to wear rings that were her mother’s for this show: a few of the rings were more expensive (an oval amethyst and a larger blue topaz stone were in two of the rings), and they were the rings her mother gave her when she was getting platelets in the hospital, the day after Kuypers found out her mother was stopping additional treatment. On her other fingers, she wore costume rings that were her mother’s, and she took those rings from her mother’s collection of jewelry after her mother passed.
Kuypers also wore a necklace of her mother’s, as she thought it was uncanny that her mother had a silver necklace of a rhinestone-outlined heart that had two sheets of glass sandwiching loose rhinestones that moved inside the outline of the charm. Kuypers saw this and remembered the silver ring she owned, which was a circle with two sheets of glass sandwiching loose rhinestones that moved inside the center of her ring.
The only other jewelry she added to her clothing for this performance show was a small pin (that was originally her husband’s) on her chest that said “Crashes aren’t Accidents.” She wore this pin because she mentions during the reading of her first poem, Story Telling, the car “accident” she was in, where she was stopped at an intersection and another car was speeding, and drove into the back of her car, knocking into oncoming traffic (where another car hit her; this “crash” — which seemed far too serious to call an “accident” — left her unconscious for 11 days, where she then had to relearn how to walk and talk and eat). So although this show was about her mother, bits of other parts of her live showed through.
The only other things Kuypers brought for the show (other than the vase for a water glass display in “Your Soul is Shaking”) was the chapbook copies of Singular... and a box of tissues. No matter how many time Kuypers would practice this show, it still made her cry.

From 2002 through 2006 Kuypers has had between 2 and 5 live shows a year in Chicago. Unlike past performance art shows (where she usually included a lot of images in one or two PowerPoint displays that were usually either displayed on a large screen or on televisions, or other shows — like Dreams — where she included video clips or used video cameras to record and project herself reading during the show), there was no image or video display for this show. Kuypers read these poems, much like how she did on her first recorded poetry reading feature (with Jason Pettus in 1997 for Live at Cafe Aloha, which later changed hosts and moved to its current location in Chicago at the Cafe). However, she did include music for this show, and used the music from The DMJ Art Connection. Just the adding of music to a show like this is more reflective of the first poetry performance show she ever did (which she has no recordings of), called Seeing Things Differently, which was held at the Red Lion Pub in Lincoln Park in Chicago in 1997. For that show she used her computer to generate music for the show; an expanded version of this live show was used for a CD release (and not only can you hear mp3 tracks from this CD at the web page, but you can also reder individual tracks from this CD via iTunes).