Shield
These are arresting, heart-stopping poems lit with a rare intensity. Hale’s poems don’t pull any punches, they explore what it is to live in a body and on the way touch the centre of the fragility deep inside all of us. Humane poems that will make you ache
Mona Arshi
Jamie Hale writes the poetry of survival. They are bold in their naming and lyrical in their honouring.
-Raymond Antrobus
With its waves of fearlessness, and the speaker’s desperate attempt to be seen as themselves, the sonnet punches the reader to the ground
Hannah Hodgeson – Poetry Society
CRIPtic Pit Party 2021 (curated and directed by Jamie Hale)
★★★★☆
Charlie Callas, Plays to See
“The pieces themselves are uncompromising in their point of view: honest creations by d/Deaf or neurodiverse individuals inviting us into their world. They are made accessible TO able audiences, but they don’t make justifying their reality to them a goal […] For those with a taste for the experimental and the creative, the Pit Party is very worth it. I left having challenged many of my comfortable assumptions about who Art is for and what Art ought to be.
“Multi-talented writer and theatre maker Jamie Hale has very rightly been recognised for his work and contributions to the arts. The founder of CRIPtic Arts, an organisation established in 2019, dedicated to nurturing art made by d/Deaf and Disabled creatives, Jamie’s commitment to support fellow artists has been exemplary. A culmination of a year’s development programme, CRIPtic Arts present CRIPtic Pit Party, a powerful evening of sharing and performance.” –
Lucy Basaba – Theatre Full Stop
NOT DYING – film
Fantastic
Hannah Gadsby
When We Got Sick @ Graeae – Crips Without Constraints, April 2020
We need to be listening to poets like Jamie right now
Jack Thorne (writer), Twitter
Jamie is a poet, and a glorious poet, and I mean that he is literally a poet but he is also a poet in how he sees the world, and this is a beautiful, I think, piece, about how we look at death and how we look after each other and I really hope people enjoy it, Jamie’s a very special writer and a very special human being
Jack Thorne (writer), introduction to video
Hale manages to delicately travel the line between raising urgent social ills taking place during this crisis, particularly in relation to the treatment of disabled people, callously labelled “the vulnerable”, but whilst also reminding us of the hope and resilience that the human spirit is capable of under such duress. It’s a tender and heart-breaking few minutes which will resonate with all of us – be ready and armed with tissues for this watch
Kate Lovell, Disability Arts Online
NOT DYING @ Lyric Hammersmith, June 2019:
An acerbically funny and deeply thought-provoking monologue […] Hale is a compelling and witty performer who makes you laugh and reflect in equal measure.
Agnes Carrington-Windo, Plays to See
Unashamedly loud and proud, Hale comes alive – and is indeed at his best – when he’s making comedy […] he takes command of the stage […] He’s clearly on the ascendant with last years’ Spread the Word award under his belt. He comes across as confident and full of potential as a writer and performer.
Colin Hambrook, Disability Arts Online
Aseptic @ the Saboteur Awards, May 2018 (with Emily Robinson):
The most powerful poetry performance was Aseptic by Jamie Hale & Emily Robinson, […] their endless iterations of self-portraiture demonstrated an impressively rigorous process of scrutiny
Jade Cuttle, Write Out Loud
Transpose @ the Barbican Centre, December 2017:
… commanded our attention and found form in writing of exquisite delicacy and linguistic precision […] incisive verbal choices and elegant switches of rhythm in poetry and prose that followed. This is writing of the highest quality, finding fresh language and new approaches […] Above all it is their sensitivity to the use and abuse of language that stands out as exceptional in choice and treatment of theme
Tim Hochstrasser, Plays to See
Witty, tongue in cheek humour
Saskia Coomber, A Younger Theatre
They explore multiple themes in their work deftly and with real insight
Jay Donovan, LGBTQArts