The Poetry Community of Chicago and Me
By C. Schandelmeier
In 1988, I had the world at my feet. I was a college student, who was in love and pregnant. I was working full-time at the commercial film production company Freese and Friends while also having my first play The Adventures of Barney the Cat produced at The Playwright’s Center in Chicago. The Adventures of Barney The Cat was given the first extension to a play since the Chicago Playwrights Center had produced Grease, and was also solicited by Disney Studios. Then, it all came tumbling down. I had gone through tremendous loss: the loss of my love, and the loss of my first child. As a writer, I couldn’t stop writing. All that came out was poetry. In this way, poetry was my son’s gift to me. It healed me, it helped me and gave me hope, as I hope it does you.
I began by going to the Green Mill Lounge where I attended my first-ever poetry reading at the Uptown Poetry Slam hosted by Marc Kelly Smith. From there, I went on to take over as host of the poetry reading at Sheffield’s School Street Cafe in 1989. One July day in 1990, I had 30 poets show up for the reading and nowhere to go because Sheffield’s was rehabbing the place and hadn’t told me. In a pinch, I took the poets and the poetry reading to North Avenue Beach where I hosted the reading for the rest of that summer in the Chess Pavilion. From there, I went on as the founder and host of The Beach Poets every summer since, (except for the summer of 2020, which was the year of the Covid-19 lockdown).
In the years that I’ve hosted The Beach Poets, I’ve been privileged to host some of the best poets in the world, including:
It was an honor to have such a fine journalist as Anne Keegan write about my work with the Beach Poets. It was published in 1996. She said it was the first time she’d ever complained about photographs. My sister Tanya, is setting in front of me, next to Dan Pearson. The multi-talented poet and podcaster responsible for Magneto Funky, Larry Winfield, is in the foreground. I was performing in a dress I had made myself. 
I always like to tell people that the photo in the lower right hand cover is really me. Somehow, the photo editor got our pictures mixed up. Don’t I look like I’m saying “Get rid of your unwanted hair problems NOW?!”
Carol Anderson, Eduardo Arocho, Beatriz Badikian-Gartler, Vince Balestri (my mentor when I first started hosting at Sheffield’s, who encouraged me to do the Beach Poets), John Biederman, Jose Bono, Tim Brown, Lisa Buscani, Richard Cambridge, Vittorio Carli, Mars Caulton, Andrea Change, Daniel Cleary, Esteban Colon, Carlos Cortez, Dr. Maureen Connolly, Carlos Cumpian, Dado, Kris Darlington, Shelley Davis, John Dickson, Sheila Donovan, Robin Fine, Lynn Fitzgerald, Cynthia Gallaher, David Gecic, Steve Glabman, Dan Godston, Gregorio Gomez, Dave, GPA (aka James Gordon), Dan Godston, David Buddah-Hargarten, Will Harter, Winifred Hahn, Mary Hawley, Wes Heine, Lisa Hemminger, (Lisa is the only poet to have been featured when I hosted Beach Poets one time only at the South Shore Cultural Center in 2006), Batya Hernandez, Susan Hernandez, David Hernandez, Flabby Hoffman, Esther Jones, KPilla (Kris Gordon), Richard Kalisch, Nambi Kelley, William Oba King, Lonna Kingsbury, Janet Kuypers, Gari Lait, CJ Laity, Quraysh Ali Lansana, Bob Lawrence, Tekki Lomnicki, Serena Love, Tom Luplow, Elizabeth Marino, Maria McCrae, Effie Mihopolous, Nicole Mitchell, Daniel X. O’Neil, Paul Peditto, Michael Dean Odin Pollack, Bob Rashkow, Jenene Ravesloot, Faith Rice, Charlie Rossiter, Tom Roby, Joe Roarty, Lew Rosenbaum, Paul Ryan, Dina Sibray, Adrienne Sunshine Nadeau, Cin Salach, Susana Sandoval, Marc Kelly Smith, Patricia Smith (Patricia was one of my first features at Sheffield’s just before we transformed into the Beach Poets) Marvin Tate, Tony Trigilio, Billy Tuggle, E. Donald Two-Rivers, Larry Winfield, Eric Allen Yankee, Sid Yiddish and the Candy Store Henchmen, and many, many more!
I am honored to have included each of them in our sacred circle of community at The Beach Poets. I look forward to welcoming you there, too!
Here I am in my classroom. With the permission of my awesome principal, Mrs. Sharpe, I painted the classroom a bright yellow, with help from my daughter. Yellow is a happy color. I really want my students to feel happy and safe while they learn. 
Paris is a marginalized character in Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet.” Here he is in green, far left, behind Juliette, and her Romeo. This was during the hybrid portion of lthe Covid-19 ockdown for Chicago Public Schools. 
As the sponsor of The Collins Academy STEAM Magnet High School’s Anime Club, we have had great artists like Emcee Monte present to us on how to create cosplay and use 3D printers (the Black Panther mask, for example) is evidence of his amazing artistry in cosplay. 
Originally commissioned for production in 1993 for the Holiday series at Claudia Cassidy Theatre by the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs, (thanks to Sue Fastwolf) this scene from “Santa Girl” was written by C. Schandelmeier and produced with student actors at The Collins Academy High School where mischievous elves were hard at work writing a Declaration of Independence from Santa Claus.
My first book of poetry titled Suck on My Toes and I’ll Follow You Anywhere was self-published in 1989. My second book, Scream and I’ll Believe You was published by Cuchetto Publishing in 1994. In 1994, I earned two awards for my work as a poet and playwright that I still identify as today: the first was an award titled Outstanding Leader in Peace, from Peace Museum, in Chicago. The next was a Certificate of Leadership in Racial Justice, from the YWCA in DuPage County. In 1998, (the year I met my future husband, Peter C. Bartels, a world-class jazz musician), I became One of the 100 Women Making a Difference in Chicago, Today’s Chicago Woman Foundation, 1998. My third book of poetry, Chicago Phoenix was published by Puddin’head Press in 2005.
I have also been written about by some of the best writers known in the city, such as Jon Anderson (The Chicago Tribune), Celeste Busk (Chicago Sun-Times), Anne Keegan, (The Chicago Tribune), Effie Mihopoulos, (This Week Backstage), and Stephanie Shaw, (The Chicago Reader). I have also authored articles for Chicago Parent, Screen Magazine, and Women in Film. When I was in graduate school at NEIU, I wrote 42 articles for the Independent.
Films I have worked on include How U Like Me Now? Which was the first black film to come out of Chicago with no racial stereotypes. I was really honored to be the costume designer for that production. I also was the production designer for Emma’s Garden, a film which featured cinematography by Janusz Kaminski, who later won an Oscar for his work on Spielberg’s Schindler’s List.
I am a playwright whose play Santa Girl: She’s Black! She’s Good! She’s comin’ to your ‘hood! (1992) was commissioned by the City of Chicago Cultural Affair Department and produced at the Chicago Cultural Center. I toured my play Sandy and the Circus to street festivals and fairs from 1992-1999. I wrote and produced a play about my experience losing my son titled Mmm…Tattoo Screams of Love in 1994. The play has been published by Happy Tapir Press in Jacksonville Florida in 2022.
I love the city of Chicago and our diverse, vibrant poetry community from the Southside to the Northside and beyond. I am the mother of three children, and a teacher for Chicago Public Schools at The Collins Academy STEAM Magnet High School on the Westside – the best side. My hope is to connect all of our communities with one website to find information on poetry readings across the city.
So far, with this goal in mind, I have had the privilege of interviewing great artists, people and writers. I am tremendously grateful for my professors at Full Sail University, where I am pursuing my Master of Arts in New Media Journalism. I plan to graduate in September, 2024.
My ultimate dream is that you will find something to soothe your soul, too.
By Cathleen Schandelmeier
As the sponsor of the Anime Club at The Collins Academy High School where I have been teaching since 2019, I brought a group of talented young students to C2E2. Our students worked with a professional choreographer (far left), Katrina Bartels, from Ensemble Espanol Spanish Dance Theater. Funding was gratefully obtained from My Block My Hood My City, (with help from Lady Sanders and Jahmal Cole) who walk their talk of helping inner city youth. 
Find me through my Linktr.ee url at linktr.ee/BeachPoet
Poetry in Chicago 