Janet Kuypers was the featured reader at Beach Poets at Loyola Beach in Chicago (Greenleaf and the lake, just east of Sheridan Road and 4 blocks north of the Loyola el stop, near Heartland Cafe — look for the “Beach Poets” tent just South of the Heartland’s Stand in the Sand and North of the restrooms).

    Beach Poets was created by award-winning poet and playwright, Cathleen Schandelmeier and was originally held at North Ave. Beach and earned Schandelmeier the title “Poet Laureate of North Ave. Beach” by the Chicago Tribune in 1996.The Beach Poets has been hosted by founder Cathleen Schandelmeier since 1990 when the venue where she was hosting a poetry reading was being rehabbed and she wasn’t told - so, the poets hit the beach... North Avenue Beach! Presently located at Loyola Beach, on Greenleaf and the lake (two blocks south of Touhy), Beach Poets took place starting at 12:30 pm on Sunday afternoon, and when usually this open mic has two features on the beach, Janet Kuypers was the only feature (because of her upcoming departure from Chicago), where she read (in two parts, so there could be more round-robin open “mic” readers performing who arrived late) a series of poems she had never read before in Chicago.

    When going to the Beach Poets open mic (though there isn’t a mic on the beach...) and features event (when attending this performance space), look for the Beach Poets tent South of the Heartland’s “Stand in the Sand” and bring poetry (your own or someone else’s) for the round-robin open mic. Children and pets are always welcome on the beach too!

    Because Kuypers has been writing many poems over the years (and many have not been read before at open mics or n poetry features), Janet Kuypers chose to collect only some of her more recent poems that she opted to not previously read, and put them together into two readings of poems. The first part of her reading event was in a 10 minute set of poems performed while John ramdomply played notes on a small guitar, and her second reading set was longer (and without an accompanying guitar), with the host even asking for additional readings.

    There are also additional web page listings for the videos from this show, from Scars Video (at www.artvilla.com/scars), and from the main listing at artvilla. (This artvilla page was also listed/linked in The Secrets of a Poet Daily.)

    Kuypers had a great time at this event on the beach (and a few people even got together under the beach tent for a picture), and Kuypers even had a vegetarian Chicago-style hot dog at Heartland Café on the beach (since (because this day may have been one of her last opportunities to enjoy a Chicago-style hot dog outdoors in Chicago like this again...