Joe Hakim

Poetry Arena

Poetry Arena

Joe Hakim is a writer, poet and spoken word performer from Hull. 
Although he had been writing for local website thisisull.com for a couple of years, he only began performing his work in 2007 after being asked to support bands at venues around Hull. 

In July 2007 he co-wrote the play 'Change', which was performed at Hull Truck theatre as part of their PlayWrite new writing festival.

Later that year, he began travelling down to London to perform at various open mics. His first break came when he was the joint winner of Poetry Idol 10, a spoken word competition held at Shortfuse at the Camden Head in Islington. Since then he has been performing around the country on a regular basis.

In early 2008 he was selected to take part in Apples and Snakes’ pioneering 'Incubate' scheme, a two year project designed to develop spoken word within a theatre setting. He has had residencies at Contact in Manchester, Birmingham REP and the Battersea Arts Centre in London. 

He performed at the Poetry Arena at Latitude Festival 2008, and performed his debut show 'Poetry is Dead' at the Camden Fringe Festival 2008 along with co-writer and performer Mike Watts. 

Most recently he has been commissioned by BAC to write and perform a show entitled 'Guerrilla Poetry Project', a collaboration with fellow performers Mike Watts, Patrizia Paolini and video artist Emma Hart. He is the co-organiser and host of 'Write to Speak', Yorkshire’s first regular theatre-based poetry/spoken word night at the new Hull Truck Theatre.