Stephen James Smith
| Stephen James Smith | |
|---|---|
| Born | Dublin, Ireland |
| 💼 Occupation | Poet, playwright, spoken word artist, voice-over artist, master of ceremonies |
| 🌐 Website | stephenjamessmith.com |
Stephen James Smith is a Dublin poet and playwright. He is most famous for two poems in particular: Dublin You Are which he wrote for the city’s Capital of Culture bid and My Ireland which he was commissioned to write for the St. Patrick’s festival.
Career
In 2017, St. Patrick's Festival commissioned Smith to produce a poem in honour of the Irish national holiday. An 11-minute piece he entitled My Ireland is a tribute to modern Irish culture. The video narrated by himself, filmed and edited by Myles O’Reilly (Arbutus Yarns), with original music produced and recorded by Conor O'Brien (Villagers) and Colm Mac Con Iomaire (The Frames), featuring Loah, Saint Sister, Ye Vagabonds and an original song Guí from Eithne Ní Chatháin (Inni-K), has amassed over 400,000 views online.
Smith has performed at Electric Picnic, Other Voices, The National Concert Hall, The Abbey Theatre (Noble Call), Vicar Street and The London Palladium (alongside Oscar winner Glen Hansard), The Oscar Wilde Awards (LA), Glastonbury, George Town Literary Festival (ML) and many more. In 2012, he was invited to perform at the Irish Olympic House in London as part of the Irish celebrations during the Olympic Games. In October 2018, Stephen made a contribution to Friday's Late Late Show, broadcast live from London, with a performance of his poem This Community.
From 2008 to 2017, Stephen had been a member of the Dublin music collective The Lazy Band, playing bodhran. He’s featured on their debut album In My Garden which was released in October 2016.
In September 2018, Stephen launched his debut poetry collection Fear Not, published by Arlen House. In April 2019, he released a poetry pamphlet Here Now with 10 poems and 10 haikus inside.
In January 2019, Smith assisted The Words That Bind Us, a new artistic initiative from St. Patrick’s Festival 2019 and the Scottish Government, which explored the contemporary connections of culture, traditions and heritage between Ireland and Scotland through the prism of spoken word, poetry and performance. Over a three-month period, Stephen worked as ‘poet in residence’ at Axis in Ballymun, collaborating with a group of teenage students from local secondary school Trinity Comprehensive who had to create and perform their own original spoken word pieces in front of a live audience on the Axis stage.
In 2019, Stephen worked with service users of St. Patrick’s Mental Health Services, writing text for How Aria?, a community opera project, which was premiered in January 2020 as part of the First Fortnight Festival in collaboration with Irish National Opera.[1]
In May 2020, Stephen released a new poetry video Collectively Counting, directed by Craig Kenny, with accompanying music from Gareth Quinn Redmond and Conor O’Brien (Villagers). The poem and video highlight the need for cohesion and solidarity at the time of disruption resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic.[2]
Stephen's most recent work, a poetry video Synonymous with Strength, is a collaboration with Derry musician Elma Orkestra. This new piece, commissioned by Derry’s Gasyard Wall Féile, takes inspiration from the surrounding landscape of the North of Ireland.[3]
Works
Commissions
- We Must Create – poem and poetry video for Creative Ireland
- Iomramh – poem and poetry video for Listowel Writer’s Week
- This Community and Dead Man’s Shirt – poems and poetry videos for London Irish Centre
- My Ireland – poem and poetry video for St Patrick’s Festival
- Dublin You Are – poem and poetry video for Dublin City Council
- It’s That Time Again – poem and poetry video for RTE Online, Christmas campaign
- What If – poem and poetry video for Focus Ireland
- EVERYthing – poem and poetry video for Science Foundation Ireland
- Synonymous with Strength – poem and poetry video for Derry's Gasyard Wall Féile
Publications
- 2018: Fear Not (collection of poetry)
- 2019: Here Now (poetry pamphlet)
Other works
- “Arise And Go!” by Stephen James Smith and Enda Reilly (Audio CD, 2011)
- “Dig” by Runabay feat. Stephen James Smith (from the album “Between the Lines”, 2019)
- “My Island” by Ryan Vail, Elma Orkestra feat. Stephen James Smith (from the album “Borders”, 2019)
References
- ↑ "How Aria". FirstFortnight. Retrieved 2020-09-28.
- ↑ "Collectively Counting". FirstFortnight. Retrieved 2020-09-28.
- ↑ Nialler9 (2020-08-19). "Stephen James Smith & Elma Orkestra collaborate on 'Synonymous with Strength'". Nialler9. Retrieved 2020-09-28.
External links
- Official Website
- Stephen James Smith's channel on YouTube
- Stephen James Smith on SoundCloudLua error in Module:WikidataCheck at line 23: attempt to index field 'wikibase' (a nil value).
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