Emerging local poet shines

WINNER of the Byron Writers Festival’s 2024 Poets Out Loud Youth Slam, 15-year-old Boaz Blennerhassett is the latest talent to emerge from the long-running local poetry mentorship program.

The Hinterland Christian College student impressed the judges with his deep thinking, skilled word craft, and emotive delivery at a packed house at The Citadel with his poem How will I see myself when I am old?

Boaz also won the competition at his slam debut in 2022, which the young poet said he only entered for the free pizza. Nicole Smede, co-artistic director of Red Room Poetry, said he was a mature poet and wordsmith beyond his years.

“He instinctively knows how to hold and gift a phrase, a line, a poem, to the listener – a sensitivity it takes some decades to find if they ever find it,” Smede said.

“This program and mentorship makes me excited for the future of spoken word and poetry in this country and the power it carries in influencing change.”

Poet, educator and director of Poets Out Loud Sarah Temporal presented the young poets she has mentored through the 2024 Poets Out Loud program, now in its fifth year.

Federal Greens candidate for Richmond and judge Mandy Nolan said the program was amazing.

“For a long time I have been teaching and mentoring comedians, and up in Murwillumbah, Sarah has been running Poets Out Loud,” Nolan said.

“There’s a massive generosity in her work, instilling the confidence in young poets and poets of all ages to find their voice and the language that lives in them.

“I love the way that she does that. She’s been creating, over the years, an incredibly flourishing poetry scene in this region,” she said.

Entries for the 2025 Poets Out Loud Youth Program are open now for Northern Rivers schools and young people aged 12-18.

To watch the winning performance from Poets Out Loud Youth Slam or to sign up for 2025, visit poetsoutloud.org/youth