Jo Hackett's Creative Life

Fall 2007 - He wrote his first short story named "The Ladder." It is in the midst of being transmogrified into a ten minute play within the collection The Ubiety.

Fall 2008 - He acted in his first production, wherein he played a farmer and quite likely a tree. He remembers wearing a oversized t-shirt in the rehearsals. He like standing over the air vent and letting his shirt balloon.

Spring 2009 - He started singing in various choirs.

Summer 2012 - He played keyboard in a band called Sacred Noize. They weren't very good.

Fall 2012 - He started singing in his men's chorus in high school. He would continue that through his Senior year.

Fall 2013 - He began playing bass in his youth group. He played the root notes. He wasn't very good.

Fall 2014 - He joined the Madrigal Singers and Symphonic Choir at his high school.

Spring 2015 - He started the J Quartet, a barbershop quartet that sang spirituals, uptunes, and holiday classics. They performed "The Longest Time" by Billy Joel at a Spring concert MC'd by some of the members.

Spring 2015 - He wrote his first poem, "Gravedigger." It was lost in the annals of some cemetery in Northeast Ohio. Some dead guy was buried with it. It was meant to be the masterpiece, the moneymaker, but again it's in a grave plot somewhere in Akron.

Spring 2015 - He wrote his first drafts of "Urbana" and "Rurala," which are in the collection Daily Prisms.

Spring 2015 - He performed as an ensemble member/the guy who says to call 911 in the musical, Ghost: The Musical.

Summer 2015 - He performed as an ensemble member/Mad Hatter in the musical, Shrek: The Musical.

Spring 2016 - He performed as an ensemble member in the musical, The Little Mermaid.

Spring 2016 - He joined the band, Los Muchachos, as the bassist and played "Bright Lights" by Gary Clark Jr. at his high school's talent show.

Spring 2018 - He recorded an EP with Los Muchachos to be unheard by the public unless you ask him to play it off his computer.

Fall 2018 - He started writing poetry again. Then he stopped quite suddenly.

Winter 2018 - He wrote his first play. It wasn't very good.

Spring 2019 - He performed as Robert in the musical, The Drowsy Chaperone.

Spring 2019 - He performed as Handsome Warren in the children's play, Junie B. Jones is Not a Crook.

Fall 2019 - He performed as Tuzenbach in the Chekov play, Three Sisters. 

Fall 2019 - He performed as John Willoughby and John Dashwood in the play, Sense and Sensibility. He gave up acting shortly after that.

Spring 2020 - He started writing poetry again. This time he continued.

Spring 2020 - He started on Kaleidoscopic Creatures.

Spring 2020 - He started on Tangible Colors.

Fall 2020 - He started on The Tree.

Spring 2021 - He started on Tinted Fires as a Senior thesis project for his B.A. in Music.

Spring 2021 - He was involved in an interview series called Bethel Creatives with Bethel University's publication, The Crossings. In the interview, he was asked about his creative life with writing, singing, acting, and more.

Spring 2021 - He published his first short story, "Ashland: The Loss of Innocence" in The Crossings.

Fall 2021 - He published his second short story, "Westlake: The Gain of Victimhood" in The Crossings.

Fall 2021 - He started his first poetry club, Young Moons Poetry Club.

Fall 2021 - He started on Fifth Night.

Fall 2021 - He started on Daily Prisms.

Spring 2022 - He started on Chromatic Reservoirs.

Fall 2022 - He gave up on writing.

Spring 2023 - He gave up on giving up on writing. He published Daily Prisms and Tangible Colors.

Spring 2023 - He started on Dyed Dwellings.

Spring 2023 - He published Dyed Dwellings and Tinted Fires.

Summer 2023 - He published Fifth Night and Kaleidoscopic Creatures.

Summer 2023 - He resurrected Chromatic Reservoirs. He killed it again.

Summer 2023 - He started on Everything Tones.

Summer 2023 - He played bass as a fill-in for the band, Joe Baughman and the Righteous Few. He stopped in the Fall.

Fall 2023 - He revived The Tree.

Fall 2023 - He started on Marbled Paint.

Winter 2023 - He published Everything Tones.

Winter 2023 - He read his poetry in front of a crowd for the first time. He loves reading at the Poetry Den.

Spring 2024 - He started his second poetry club, Half Suns Poetry Club.

Spring 2024 - He started on Sixth Day.

Spring 2024 - He was published by IUSB's publications, Analecta and Graduate Studies Journal. He published three poems in Analecta Vol. 54. They were named: "The Keys Sermon," "Big Brothers," and "Found: Eliot." He won an honorable mention for Graduate Poetry Student Writing Award for his poem, "Big Brothers." He published the short story, "The Bowling Story" in Analecta Vol. 54 as well. He won an honorable mention for Graduate Fiction Student Writing Award for it. He also published a non-fiction essay called "13 Reasons Why I Need to Live" in Analecta Vol. 54. Lastly, he published an essay called "Native Son and the Empire" in Indiana University South Bend Graduate Journal 2024.

Summer 2024 - He re-resurrected Chromatic Reservoirs.

Summer 2024 - Sixth Day is on its way.

Summer 2024 - Marbled Paint is on its way.

Summer 2024 - He started on Tie Dye Remixes.