[the Writing of Kuypers]    [JanetKuypers.com]    [Bio]    [Poems]    [Prose]

Order the audio performance of this track from the studio recording from the CD for the 10/05/04 performance art show Questions in a World Without Answers

Order this iTunes track: from the poetry audio CDetc. ...Or order the entire CD set from iTunes CD:

Watch this YouTube video live at the show Questions in a World Without Answers 10/05/04, Chicago

watch the full Questions in a World Without Answers video live, including this poem in Chicago 10/05/04 (~21:56) through archive.org

Listen Live at the Cafe, now available in a 3 CD set (order the CD by clicking on the CD cover or title)

Listen: (4:49)   to this recording from Fusion (or order the CD by clicking on the CD cover)

Order this poem from iTunes (mixed 7/3/09, with “Bars Los - Break Free” from the HA!Man of South Africa) off the CD “Seeing a Psychiatrist” online.

See YouTube video of Janet Kuypers reading the poem People’s Lives were at Stake live 8/28/13 at the open mic the Café Gallery in Chicago (C)

See YouTube video 7/23/17 of Janet Kuypers reading her poem “People’s Lives were at Stake” at Austin TX’s “Kick Butt Poetry” (Sony).

See YouTube video 7/23/17 of Janet Kuypers reading her poem “People’s Lives were at Stake” at Austin TX’s “Kick Butt Poetry” (this video was filmed from a Panasonic Lumix camera).

See YouTube video 7/23/17 of Janet Kuypers reading her poems “Military Police”, “People’s Lives were at Stake” and “Lost in the Breeze” at Austin TX’s “Kick Butt Poetry” (video filmed from a Sony camera).

See YouTube video 7/23/17 of Janet Kuypers reading her poems “Military Police”, “People’s Lives were at Stake” and “Lost in the Breeze” at Austin TX’s “Kick Butt Poetry” (filmed from a Panasonic Lumix camera).

See YouTube video of Janet Kuypers, while hosting the Poetry Aloud open mic 4/28/18 in Georgetown TX, read her poem “I’m Not Sick, But I’m Not Well”, then sing her song “What We Need in Life” with John on acoustic guitar, then read her poem “People’s Lives Were at Stake”, all from her book “Chapter 38 v1” to a live audience for National poetry Month (Panasonic Lumix T56).

See YouTube video of Janet Kuypers, while hosting the Poetry Aloud open mic 4/28/18 in Georgetown TX, read her poem “I’m Not Sick, But I’m Not Well”, then sing her song “What We Need in Life” with John on acoustic guitar, then read her poem “People’s Lives Were at Stake”, all from her book “Chapter 38 v1” to a live audience for National poetry Month (L T56, Edge Detection).

See YouTube video of Janet Kuypers, while hosting the Poetry Aloud open mic 4/28/18 in Georgetown TX, read her poem “I’m Not Sick, But I’m Not Well”, then sing her song “What We Need in Life” with John on acoustic guitar, then read her poem “People’s Lives Were at Stake”, all from her book “Chapter 38 v1” to a live audience for National poetry Month (L T56; Sepia Tone).

See YouTube video of Janet Kuypers, while hosting the Poetry Aloud open mic 4/28/18 in Georgetown TX, read her poem “I’m Not Sick, But I’m Not Well”, then sing her song “What We Need in Life” with John on acoustic guitar, then read her poem “People’s Lives Were at Stake”, all from her book “Chapter 38 v1” to a live audience for National poetry Month (L T56, Threshold).

See YouTube video of Janet Kuypers reading her poems “Content with Inferior Men” and “People’s Lives were at Stake” from her poetry show “Questions in a World Without Answers”, then her poem “Tall Man” from her poetry show “How Do I Get There?”, all from her performance art poetry collection book “Chapter 38 v1” live at Recycled Reads 7/21/18 (PL T56).

See YouTube video of Janet Kuypers reading her poems “Content with Inferior Men” and “People’s Lives were at Stake” from her poetry show “Questions in a World Without Answers”, then her poem “Tall Man” from her poetry show “How Do I Get There?”, all from her performance art poetry collection book “Chapter 38 v1” live at Recycled Reads 7/21/18 (PL2500).

See YouTube video of Janet Kuypers reading her poems “Quartermaster General, Burying Bodies” in honor of the April 12th date the U.S. Civil War begins, “Quarrel over the Constitution” on Thomas Jefferson’s birthday April 13th, “from Other Souls” for the April 14th date the Titanic hit an iceberg, 3 poems in honor of Arbor Day on April 24th: “nature I”, “Climbing Trees”, and “I’m Sure We Killed It”, the poem “Zouk or Xibelani” for the April 29th International Dance Day, and “People’s Lives Were at Stake” representing the April 29th Los Angeles riots, April event poems read from her poetry book “Every Event of the Year (Volume one: January-June)” during her “Poetic License open mic 4/5/20 home edition” she hosted in Austin, but globally through a Facebook event page (video filmed from a Panasonic Lumix 2500 camera; posted on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram and Tumblr).

See YouTube video of Janet Kuypers reading her poems “Quartermaster General, Burying Bodies” in honor of the April 12th date the U.S. Civil War begins, “Quarrel over the Constitution” on Thomas Jefferson’s birthday April 13th, “from Other Souls” for the April 14th date the Titanic hit an iceberg, 3 poems in honor of Arbor Day on April 24th: “nature I”, “Climbing Trees”, and “I’m Sure We Killed It”, the poem “Zouk or Xibelani” for the April 29th International Dance Day, and “People’s Lives Were at Stake” representing the April 29th Los Angeles riots, April event poems read from her poetry book “Every Event of the Year (Volume one: January-June)” during her “Poetic License open mic 4/5/20 home edition” she hosted in Austin, but globally through a Facebook event page (Panasonic Lumix 2500 camera with a Sepia Tone filter; posted on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram and Tumblr).

People’s Lives Were at Stake Janet Kuypers 1/13/00 I know everyone was talking about it and after the fact you’d hear the reports on the news about the damage done and you’d think that we were in a war zone and that all of this was done for religious purposes and people’s lives were at stake and maybe they were and I just don’t know it. I don’t know. I know what it’s like to have a cause but I never tried to close people out to it, I tried to include them, to open them up to it, but I remember deciding once to walk to a woman’s parade called “take back the night,” so that people knew that women should feel safe walking alone in the streets at night without worrying about being mugged or raped or killed because they were female. Well anyway, I was walking to the parade to take photographs because I’m a photographer, and a group of women were walking in a group to the parade, so I walked down the street and started walking with them, and they were chanting and singing and I thought, wow, this is unity, people together for a cause. and one of the women told me while we were walking that some women there didn’t like me walking with them because I was white and they were African American. and I looked around and noticed that there wasn’t a racial mix, and I said, well, we’re all going to the same place, and the woman replied, well, some people don’t like you walking with us anyway. so I turned my head and let them walk and I crossed the street and took another block and got there before them. and this is how we define how we should be separated, I suppose, though I still don’t understand it. and during that parade I heard about a trial case where a black man was convicted of a police brutality crime, and the black community was outraged, saying that the white man was holding them down, and maybe in a way they are right and I just don’t understand it. a large group of people started their own rally that night which seemed to take center stage from women’s rights, i mean, they’re just women, what are they going to do, bitch a little louder, or complain a little more, but then again, maybe it is just a matter of deciding who has the loudest voice, or who has the most recent problem to complain about, I don’t know. we went out that night, and I heard the next day that in light of the trial 23 fires were started on school property, and most of them were of books in libraries and I thought, this isn’t nonresistant violence, this is out and out violent and what they’re destroying are opportunities for learning and not ideas. “yeah, but do these books hold what the white man wants you to learn? if this how he alters our perceptions?” i don’t know, but this doesn’t solve anything and this isn’t the answer... then I heard about one of my best friends, a white man, hit once by a black man in the street while they were out that night, and the doctor said that they had to have a roll of quarters in their hand or brass knuckles because this was a clean break of their jaw and for six weeks his jaw was wired shut and he had to throw pizza or meat loaf in the blender so he could eat something instead of ice cream while he tried to recover. and I thought, is this all getting anything done? are we coming any closer to racial harmony? what are we learning from this? Copyright Janet Kuypers. All rights reserved. No material may be reprinted without express permission.