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Still smarting about poetry
Engel Schmidl
30Jul08
Steve Smart gets raw with his poetry at Watsonia library. Picture: MARK FRECKER N05DV403
STEVE Smart started his poetry career as an angry young man.
Ten years on, the performance poet has mellowed a little but not too much.
"I'm possibly not quite as blunt as I used to be, but it's still inherently pretty raw," Smart said.
He started performing his poetry as a 20-year-old at a night organised by his sister in Ballarat.
Smart loves performing poetry and is looking forward to leading an open mic night at Watsonia Library next month.
"On a good night, there's an amazing diversity to open mic nights," he said.
Poetry was an important part of many cultures, so, as an art form, it could cross many cultural boundaries, he said.
"It doesn't matter where you come from, poetry is there," Smart said.
He said open mic nights gave people a great chance to experience poetry.
"When I started getting into it I discovered all these amazing Australian poets.
A lot of my education came through listening to those people," he said.
* Open mic night at Watsonia library is on Monday, August 11, at 7pm.
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