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Charlotte-based spoken word artist and poet Hannah Hasan is in high demand these days. She’s created and performed customized poetry for different organizations and people all over the city and across the country. For Hasan, telling people’s stories is a privilege — and what she does for a living.
“I have essentially built something from a space of not really knowing what I was doing. I know for sure what I can do, which is use my voice and I know that I can give power to words and I know that I can make an audience feel something,” she said.
People and organizations commission Hasan to write and perform customized poetry. Most of her work is rooted in themes of home, community, belonging, and racial and social justice.
“It's a combination of trying to find ways to say the things that need to be said while building community, while honoring the people [who] come through doors, through different spaces,” she said. “All of my poetry is rooted in story.”
And when people hear the stories of their neighbors, Hasan says that they often want to hear their own. A Black, Muslim woman, Hasan said that people from her communities also know that she’ll treat their stories with respect.
“I believe strongly that we operate at the speed of trust, and that anytime that someone lets us in to tell their story, we have a responsibility to it. And we honor that every step of the way, and every way that we can,” she said.
While she has always loved stories, Hasan said a career in the arts didn’t seem realistic growing up in Statesville.
“Folks, especially younger folks, don't believe that they can have a career in the arts for many different reasons, and one of them is that no one ever tells them that they can and invest in them and believes that it's a possibility,” she said.
Hasan got her start in college at North Carolina A&T State University, where she became obsessed with slam-style spoken word poetry. Eventually, she volunteered to perform and use her poems at events.
She began performing in Charlotte in 2008, first at protests and vigils to raise awareness for social justice issues and then for all different sorts of events and groups. She’s created pieces for the Ad Council, the Levine Museum of the New South, Verizon, UNC Charlotte and others.
Hasan said that a lot of trust goes into the work she does and that her commissioners understand that she puts her all into every piece.
“Anytime that I am asked to perform, or commissioned to write or share a piece, or even for speaking engagements, I have a personal mantra that is to leave everything on the stage,” she said.
In addition to poetry and spoken word commissions, Hasan and her sister in 2018 founded Epoch Tribe, a theater production company that grew out of wanting to tell real people’s stories — and her own stories — on stage.
“I am a person who exists within the margins. I’m Black. I’m Muslim. I live in the South,” she said. "I said to myself [...] one day I want to tell Muslim stories on stage."
Epoch Tribe’s productions have included shows such as “I Am Queen Charlotte,” which tells the stories of more than 50 Black women living in the city, and “Muddy Turtle Talks,” which tells the stories of Enderly Park, a historically Black neighborhood in west Charlotte. She recalled the way these events brought audiences together.
“There would be someone who, you know, has lived in Enderly Park for 30 years sitting beside someone who is a business owner in University, sitting beside a City Council person,” she said. “It was just like this really diverse group of folks who want to know and understand the stories of their neighbors and how that can be used to create change in our community.”
For now, you can only hear Hasan's work live but she is taking spoken word commissions and planning several Epoch Tribe productions for the rest of the year.
Hannah Hasan will be performing at Charlotte Talks’ 25th anniversary gala on Oct. 12 at the Booth Playhouse. Tickets are on sale now.
