"A poet of uncommon energy, utterly alive to the here and now." Paula Meehan

 

Stephen James Smith is a Dublin poet and playwright central to the rise of the
vibrant spoken word scene in Ireland today.  To date, his poetry videos have
amassed over 3 million views online.

In 2017 he was commissioned by St. Patrick’s Festival to write a new poem as a
“celebratory narrative” of Ireland.  The resultant piece ‘My Ireland’ is
accompanied by a short film by Director Myles O’Reilly, arranged and mixed by
Conor O’Brien (Villagers), with music by Colm Mac Con Iomaire, Loah, Saint
Sister, Eithne Ní Chatháin (aka Inni-K) and Ye Vagabonds.  It has been viewed
over 300,000 times online and was screened at London Film Festival in Trafalgar
Square on March 17th. The poem was in many ways a follow on from Smith’s
previous poetry video Dublin You Are, which itself clocked up in excess of 250k
views.

Stephen has performed his poetry at high profile events and festivals around the
world and in 2012 he was invited to perform for the Irish Olympic team in
London. In October 2018 Stephen appeared on a special edition of The Late Late
Show (RTE Television) live from London, where he recited his poem This
Community to a TV audience of 1.1 million. Stephen has featured in several
documentaries for television such as RTÉ’s IFTA Award Winning documentary
WB Yeats: No Country for Old Men.  He has received numerous poetry video
commissions from Listowel Writer’s Week, Creative Ireland and the London Irish
Centre to name but a few.