Kae Tempest Books

Lyricist, novelist, poet and playwright Kate Tempest makes her National Theatre debut with 'Paradise', a potent and dynamic reimagining of the Greek classic 'Philoctetes' by Sophocles. Once comrades, now enemies after Odysseus abandoned Philoctetes to suffer a terrible wound alone, Odysseus is prepared to use any means necessary to get the shell-shocked Philoctetes back to the front and win the Trojan war.

Kae Tempest's powerful narrative poem--set to music on their album of the same title, s hortlisted for the Mercury Music Prize --illuminates the lives of a single city street, creating an electric, humming human symphony.Let Them Eat Chaos, Kae Tempest’s long poem written for live performance and heard on the album release of the same name, is both a powerful sermon and a moving play for voices. Seven neighbors inhabit the same London street, but are all unknown to each other. The clock freezes in the small hours, and one by one we see directly into their lives that are damaged, disenfranchised, lonely, broken, addicted, and all, apparently, without hope. Then a great storm breaks over London, and brings them out into the night to face each other, giving them one last chance to connect.Tempest argues that our alienation from one another has bred a terrible indifference to our own fate, but counters this with a plea to challenge the forces of greed which have conspired to divide us, and mend the broken home of our own planet while we still have time. Let Them Eat Chaos is a cri de cœur, a call to action, and a powerful poetic statement.

Winner of the Ted Hughes Prize for innovation in poetry, Kate Tempest's Brand New Ancients plays with mythology to tell the story of young people in modern times as their lives spiral out of control.

This is a meditation on the power of creative connection. Drawing on twenty years' experience as a writer and performer, Kae Tempest explores how and why creativity - however we choose to practise it - can cultivate greater self-awareness and help us establish a deeper relationship between ourselves and the world. -- Dust jacket

Englisch und deutsch. Übersetzt von Johanna Wange. Tempest sei mehr als modern, sondern praktisch Science-Fiction, schreibt der Guardian . Zu den literarischen und musikalischen Einflüssen zählen James Joyce und Wu-Tang Clan, Public Enemy und Virginia Woolf. Tempest beherrscht den innigen Volksliedton ebenso wie Londons Straßenslang, wandelt virtuos zwischen lyrischer Tradition und Hip-Hop. Die Gedichte in Hold Your Own bemächtigen sich auf radikal heutige, politische Weise des antiken Mythos von Teiresias, einer zweigeschlechtlichen Figur, von den Göttern geblendet und prophetisch begabt. In vier Teilen folgt der Zyklus dem Kind, dem Jüngling, der Frau und dem Mann, vermittelt eindrucksvoll, wie es ist, alt zu werden und »sehend«, dazu verurteilt, unserer neoliberalen Gesellschaft die Wahrheit zu sagen – und keiner hört zu. Lyrik-Empfehlung 2016 der Deutschen Akademie für Sprache und Dichtung, der Stiftung Lyrik Kabinett und der Literaturwerkstatt Berlin.

Staggering talent Kae Tempest's first work of non-fiction: a meditation on the power of creative connection. Beneath the surface we are all connected . . . This is a meditation on the power of creative connection. Drawing on twenty years' experience as a writer and performer, Kae Tempest explores how and why creativity - however we choose to practise it - can cultivate greater self-awareness and help us establish a deeper relationship to ourselves and the world. Honest, tender and written with piercing clarity, On Connection is a call to arms that speaks to a universal yet intimate truth.

First performance at the Orange Tree Theatre on 12 November 2014--Page facing colophon.

Running Upon The Wires is Kate Tempest's first book of free-standing poetry since the acclaimed Hold Your Own. In a beautifully varied series of formal poems, spoken songs, fragments, vignettes and ballads, Tempest charts the heartbreak at the end of one relationship and the joy at the beginning of a new love; but she also tells us what happens in between, when the heart is pulled both ways at once. Running Upon The Wires is a departure from Tempest's previous work, and unashamedly personal and intimate in its address - but will also confirm Tempest's role as one of our most important poetic truth-tellers: it will be no surprise to readers to discover that she is no less a direct and unflinching observer of matters of the heart than she is of social and political change. Running Upon The Wires is a heartbreaking, moving and joyous book about love, in its endings and in its beginnings. 'Whether on stage or on the page, her language hits like lightning. It illuminates and it burns.' Guardian

It gets into your bones. You don't even realise it, until you're driving through it, watching all the things you've always known and leaving them behind. Young Londoners Becky, Harry and Leon are escaping the city in a fourth-hand Ford Cortina with a suitcase full of stolen money. Taking us back in time - and into the heart of London - The Bricks that Built the Houses explores a cross-section of contemporary urban life with a powerful moral microscope, giving us intimate stories of hidden lives, and showing us that good intentions don't always lead to the right decisions. Leading us into the homes and hearts of ordinary people, their families and their communities, Kate Tempest exposes moments of beauty, disappointment, ambition and failure. Wise but never cynical, driven by empathy and ethics, The Bricks the Built the Houses questions how we live with and love one another

Three old friends in their mid-twenties. One remarkable day. For Ted, Danny and Charlotte, it's time to seize control. Make a difference. Change things. This is it. A day trip through the parks and raves and cafes of South London, where life is what you make it. The rapid-fire words of Kate Tempest paint a picture of lives less ordinary in an unforgiving world, soundtracked by an exhilarating score. A play about love, life and losing your mind, Wasted heralded the dramatic career of one of the UK's most exciting performance poets, Kate Tempest. It was originally produced by Paines Plough and is published here as a Methuen Drama Student Edition alongside commentary and notes by Katie Beswick, lecturer in Drama at the University of Exeter. The ancillary material is geared at students and includes: - an introduction outlining the play's plot, character, themes context and performance history - the full text of the play - a chronology of the playwright's life and work - extensive textual notes