Tuesday 27th October 09 - Write To Speak Featuring Kate Tempest and Matt Panesh at Hull Truck By Dick Spring

The consistency in stunning quality of acts brought to perform at this night (which is Yorkshire's only theatre based spoken word / poetry night) by Hull poet Joe Hakim is simply phenomenal. With another fantastic and packed house, it was a thoroughly enjoyable event. Opened as usual by Hull's flag bearing poet in residence Joe Hakim and his stage partner Mike Watts, their competence and stagecraft is second to one, with lots of good interaction with the audience.

There are even some moments of stand up comedy which definitely adds to the flavour. Following on from a solid opening was London born and based 'Rap Poet' Kate Tempest, who I found quite sweet and endearing, with her rap style delivery of poetry with some biting and intense subject matter. I was very touched by a particular poem about four friends who were named as four emotions, it struck quite a chord, and I found myself getting lost inside the words.

I have to say I find that these London types tend to sound a bit contrived and clichéd, but I found myself warming to her as she settled. There was remarkable self awareness and articulacy which also impressed. I could try eulogising but best that you take my recommendation to get along to check her work out if and when you get the chance. Following the interval the final act this evening was mancunian poet Matt Panesh.

The first thing that you notice is how tall this guy is. Another somewhat brittle example of modern spoken word that was definitely of a more adult nature, though it was offset by the injection of stand up comedy within his poetry, which was equally political, emotional and risqué, which seems to provide good subject matter for many good, emotive poets.

With politics back on the agenda it seemed to create a common bond between audience and artist, though Matt did appear to be losing the audience slightly at one point in his near hour long set, when he appeared to be pushing the audience's tolerance with some very near the knuckle sex material, but it was tempered with some great humour, and he did pull it back and had a rapturous finale.

Write To Speak is rapidly becoming something of Hull's best kept secret, despite being constantly ignored by the powers that be, among others. Joe Hakim has quietly gone on to represent Hull in poetry circles, as Bands like The Talks and The Paddingtons do in the world of Rock 'n' Roll, and has set up a night that many rival cities would kill for, I'm sure. A feat to be acknowledged and celebrated. I have so thoroughly enjoyed all but one (which I missed) of the Write To Speak shows to date and it is a show that you really must get along to see.

www.myspace.com/mattpaneshpoetry www.monkeypoet.co.uk www.myspace.com/katetempestwords www.katetempest.com www.myspace.com/joehakimrecordings www.myspace.com/soundslikemikewatts

Reviews, Theatre - Tuesday 27th October 09 - Write To Speak Featuring Kate Tempest and Matt Panesh at Hull Truck By Michelle Dee
	Just had to write something about Tuesday's Write To Speak at Hull Truck Theatre. The regular event showcases the best poetry and spoken word from around the country. Tonight we have the incredible vocal dexterity of Kate Tempest (London) and the poems, ponderings and profane humour of Matt Panesh (Manchester) on his Welcome to the U.K. tour. Read more...

Reviews, Theatre - Write to Speak featuring Kate Fox and Scarlet Lights at Hull Truck - Wednesday 16th September 09 By Mark Walmsley
	The first performance of the new season of Write to Speak came round pretty quickly and most definitely replicated the first gig a year ago with regards to support and talent. On a personal level, I fully understood what was on offer and although the event didn't seem very well advertised, I was notified by thisisUll the day before and without a hesitation changed my appointments for the big day in order that I made sure I was there for the kick off, in fact I was Read more...

Reviews, Theatre - Wednesday 16th September 2009 - Scarlet lights Theatre Company Performs Retail is Detail at Write to Speak at Hull Truck Theatre By Danielle Rhodes
	Retail Is Detail is undoubtedly a 'maverick' production of contemporary comedy, embodying a highly versatile and compatible cast as rare as rocking horse shit. From start to finish the audience is inflamed by the radiance from the performer's energy and fast pace scenes. The play displays a young educated girl facing unemployment, regrettably a conventional product of the current recession. In her despairing attempt to find employment Read more...

Reviews, Theatre - Write to Speak featuring Tony Walsh and Dennis Just Dennis at Hull Truck - Wednesday 15th June 09 By Mark Walmsley
	The third and final Write to Speak event of this season at the Hull Truck Theatre on Wednesday 15th July, was headlined by two nationally acclaimed performance poets, Dennis Just Dennis and Tony Walsh, who both hail from Manchester. The nights entertainment was introduced by local poet Joe Hakim who was, in effect 'on the subs bench' as far as performing on these occasions go. Joe has a bigger challenge and I dare say a bigger audience to present himself to at the fourth Latitude Festival in Suffolk where he is performing in the poetry arena on Sat 18th and Sun 19th July.Read more...

Reviews, Theatre - Write to Speak featuring Luke Wright at Hull Truck - Monday 29th June 09 By Mark Walmsley
	After attending the first Write to Speak session back in May featuring Mike Watts, Joe Hakim and Mandi Lowe, I certainly wasn't going to pass up the opportunity to attend the second instalment with Luke Wright on Monday night. I arrived at pretty much the same time as the last Write to Speak performance at about 7.20 pm for an 8.00 Read more...

Reviews, Films - Emma Rugg's Directions Tour By Steve Rudd
	It's fair to say that it has been relatively quiet on the Emma Rugg front over the past couple of years. I, for one, thought she'd relocated to the United States in the wake of the Directions Tour she undertook there with Henry Doss in 2007. Having first made contact through the BBC radio show Raw Talent in 2003, Emma had visited Henry in the states on a couple of occasions prior to heading over to hit the Read more...

Reviews, Arts - Adrian Johnson: All Wound Up - Red Gallery exhibition, March-April 2009 By Philip Wincolmlee-Barnes
	I am currently re-reading John Carey's The Intellectuals and The Masses, a fascinating (and sometimes troubling) survey of how the former regarded the latter from the late 19th Century until the 1930's. He charts a course via Nietzsche's theories of 'the Superman vs. the common people' (guess his preference Read more...

Reviews, Theatre - Write to Speak at Hull Truck - Wednesday 27th May 09 By Mark Walmsley
	Having found the thisisUll website by accident while looking for an outlet for my hobby and passion, Writing, I was welcomed by Cilla after an initial contact who took a page of my work I submitted and pasted it on the World Wide Web as seen, titled as The Right Hand of God. In addition to this, she asked me if I would be interested in attending the Write to Speak gig at the Hull Truck on Wednesday 27th May. Read more...

Reviews, Theatre - Funny Turns and the Opening of The New Hull Truck Theatre By Gary Clark
	I was fortunate enough to get an invite to the opening gala night of the very impressive Hull Truck Theatre to get a first hand look at the new venue and to see the opening night of the latest John Godber play, Funny Turns. The company went to great expense to make all the invited guests welcome with vats of free champagne and a choice of wines already poured out for the 440 guests to gorge Read more...

Reviews, Films - AWAYDAYS at The Bradford Film Festival By Margaret J Shillingford
	When Carty meets Elvis at a Bunnymen gig, they fall headlong into a volatile friendship that each of them aches for but neither can control. Violent, sexy and funny, Awaydays is a blade-sharp rites-of-passage that buzzes with the post-punk energy of its late-70s Liverpool setting. Based on the classic novel by Kevin Sampson, and pulsating to a soundtrack of Joy Division, The Cure, Read more...

Reviews, Films - The Confession By Steve Rudd
	Expertly directed by Dave Kebo and Rudi Liden, The Confession is an extraordinary movie for many and varied reasons, not least because it was shot all in one take. Another major reason why the movie is so unique comes down to the fact that it is 'interactive' and features three and a half addictive hours of multi-angle footage. Having been shot via a multitude of strategically placed CCTV Read more...

Reviews, Films - Slumdog Millionaire By Ruth
	I don't go to the movies, and I don't usually enjoy love stories. My idea of a good love story is Thelma and Louise, Crash, or possibly Monster (with Charlize Theron). The darker element of humanity is what I find appealing. I went with my family to view this film and was utterly blown away. We left the cinema feeling as though we'd been slapped hard across the face and somehow enjoyed it. Read more...

Reviews, Books - The Dance of the Pheasodile by Tim Roux (Upfront Publishing) Reviewed by Nick Quantrill
	With his sixth novel, Hull native Tim Roux, is certainly one of the city's most prolific writers. A committed champion of all things East Yorkshire, the publication of his crime story, The Dance of The Pheasodile is his well deserved opportunity to take the limelight. With a fulfilling job, a successful wife and two beautiful children, Keith McGuire leads an idyllic middle-class life in the south of England. Read more...

Reviews, Books - How Not To Manage by Adam Kirkman and Daniel Mayhew (Quick Brown Fox Publications) Reviewed by Nick Quantrill
	Think you're a great manager? Think you know how to get the best out of people whilst increasing your personal performance and worth? Think again - you can be better - it's simply a matter of attitude. If this all sounds a bit too much like hard word, fear not, this new spoof management manual from York's Adam Kirkman and Daniel Mayhew is here to Read more...

Reviews, Books - What Do I Know Anyway? by Jamie Mcgarry Reviewed By Steve Rudd
	Writing poetry is a painstaking craft, and it's clear from the outset that Scarborough-based Jamie McGarry spends a lot of time in perfecting his poems. An award-winning poet at a young age, Jamie recently unleashed What Do I Know Anyway? - a wry look at life in the twenty-first century. Consisting of twenty-nine superb poems which are spread over seventy-five pages, there really is something for everybody in this, Read more...

Reviews, Films - The Wave (Germany, 2008) and Hunger (UK/Ireland, 2008): Fascism & Faeces By Philip Wincolmlee Barnes
	European cinema has a substantial post-war tradition of coming to terms with, exploring or challenging 20th Century fascism and, in particular, Germany's uneasy goose-stepping heritage, its subsequent national 'identity crisis', and its more recent spasms of political unrest. For example, the flirtatious - and some might say notorious - excesses of Night Porter (Dirk Bogarde Read more...

Reviews, Books - Mosaic by Clive Ashman Reviewed by Tim Roux
	Officially launched last September at Brough's Petuaria Centre, the town where it happened, on the 60th anniversary of the worst unsolved crime in British archaeology, Mosaic is the novel based by writer Clive Ashman on its known facts. If you have ever read Marguerite Yourcenar's The Abyss, a classic and intensely haunting reconstruction of daily life in sixteenth century Europe Read more...

Reviews, Books - The Mermaid Chair by Tony Flynn Reviewed by Tim Roux
	In 1980, Tony Flynn published A Strange Routine, a compelling map to his terrain of loss - the loss of his mother, of his wife, of his child, of his past. Twelve years later, his Body Politic came out, another outright masterpiece, this time including an extended mourning for the victims of state repression. It has been sixteen years since then, Read more...

Reviews, Arts - November 08 - All Systems Go: Red Gallery Group Show By Philip Wincolmlee-Barnes
	According to their publicity (and not counting numerous one-off live events and screenings) this is the gallery's 108th exhibition. This certainly shows my age, as I've been involved with the space in one capacity or another for over ten years now. Not that there appears to be much in the way of personal wear and tear over this time: I still get asked for ID in public houses and in off licences. Read more...

Reviews, Arts - From The Postmodern To The Pastoral: Two Recent Exhibitions in Hull By Philip Wincolmlee-Barnes PortEst Exhibition Photographs by Andrew Quinn
	PortEst (Red Gallery, Sept/Oct) was an exhibition by three Estonian artists - Jane Remm, Piret Peil and Minna Hint - in which the theme of portraiture was subjected to a variety of treatments in different media, making for a diverse and captivating presentation. Francis Bacon used to say (usually whilst somewhat addled) that he was trying to Read more...