Kate Tempest

Kate Tempest's first full-length collection for Picador is an ambitious, multi-voiced work based around the mythical figure of Tiresias. This four-part work follows him through his transformations from child, man and woman to blind prophet; through this structure, Tempest holds up a mirror to contemporary life in a direct and provocative way rarely associated with poetry. A vastly popular and accomplished performance poet, Tempest commands a huge and dedicated following on the performance and rap circuit. Brand New Ancients, also available from Picador, won the Ted Hughes Award for New Work in Poetry and has played to packed concert halls on both sides of the Atlantic.

Hold Your Own

Winner of the Ted Hughes Award for New Work in Poetry--a dazzling modern myth in verse from an under-30 poet set to be star.

Brand New Ancients

Let Them Eat Chaos, Kate Tempest's new 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: 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--and their own last chance to connect. Tempest argues that our alienation from one another has bred a terrible indifference to our own fate, but she 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 and a call to action, and, both on the page and in Tempest's electric performance, one of the most powerful poetic statements of the year.

Let Them Eat Chaos

From award-winning poet, novelist, playwright, rapper, and recording artist Kate Tempest, an unabashedly intimate poetry collection that confirms her as one of our most important poetic truth-tellers. My body was like a harp and her words and gestures were like fingers running upon the wires. (James Joyce, Dubliners) Award-winning writer, spoken-word star, and spellbinding performer Kate Tempest's raw and exhilarating new collection is a heart-breaking, moving, and joyous book about the experience of love in its endings and beginnings. In a sense a departure from her previous work, Running Upon the Wires charts the dissolution of one relationship, the budding of another, and what happens in between, when the heart is pulled both ways at once. It's about joy and despair, confusion and clarity, self-destruction and revival. And it will come as no surprise to readers that Tempest is as direct, distinctive, and unflinching an observer of matters of the heart as she is of social and political change. Calling in its title upon the classical poet's harp, the technological wires of communication, and the neural wires of feeling, Tempest's electrifying new verse weaves interpersonal struggle into a powerfully cathartic and memorable work of art. Explosively lyrical, rhythmic, and throbbing with feeling, this collection is frayed yet powerful in its pain, determined to speak and to find love in a human community of “terrifying beauty.”

Poems

Running Upon the Wires

I'm making a decision. I'm changing things. This is it. 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, sound-tracked by an exhilarating score. The drama mixes rap-style poetry delivered with microphones and self-reflexive addresses to the audience. A play about love, life and losing your mind, and the first play from one of the UK's most exciting performance poets, Kate Tempest.

Wasted

Acclaimed writer and spoken-word artist Kate Tempest's latest play, set in a women's prison, which looks at the possibility of redemption through music, love and human connection.

Hopelessly Devoted

"Becky, Harry, and Leon are leaving London in a fourth-hand Ford with a suitcase full of stolen money, in a mess of tangled loyalties and impulses. But can they truly leave the city that's in their bones?....Rich in character and restless in perspective, driven by ethics and empathy, it asks-and seeks to answer-how best to live with and love one another." -- page [2] book jacket.

The Bricks that Built the Houses

Die preisgekrönte Rapperin und Lyrikerin Kate Tempest presst mit ihrem Debüt ihre Hand ans finstere, schlagende Herz der Metropolen, das im allesüberdauernden Takt von Drogen, Begehren und Freundschaft schlägt. Ihre Helden Becky, Pete, Leon und Harry haben Jobs, für die es keine Ausbildung und Geld, für das es ungewaschen keine Verwendung gibt. Sie müssen raus, raus aus London – und kommen doch nicht davon los. Tempest nimmt uns mit in die Häuser und Herzen der kleinen Leute, in ihre Familien und zeigt uns Momente voller Schönheit, Enttäuschung, Ehrgeiz und Scheitern. Klug, niemals zynisch und immer voller Empathie stellt «Worauf du dich verlassen kannst» die Frage, wie wir leben und einander lieben – und zeigt uns, dass gute Absichten nicht notwendigerweise zu den richtigen Entscheidungen führen.

Worauf du dich verlassen kannst

Everything Speaks in Its Own Way

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

Connectar

Mantente firme

Prendendo spunto dal mito del profeta cieco Tiresia, Hold Your Own è un appassionante racconto che si muove tra gli opposti: giovinezza ed esperienza, sesso e amore, ricchezza e povertà, comunità e alienazione. Mentre cammina una mattina nella foresta, un giovane uomo disturba due serpenti che si stanno accoppiando e per questo la dea Hera lo punisce, trasformandolo in una donna. Questo è solo l’inizio della sua avventura... Intrecciando elementi del mito classico, autobiografia e opinioni sulla nostra società, Tempest sfrutta la storia di Tiresia, costretto a cambiare genere e dotato di poteri divinatori, per creare un poema diviso in quattro sequenze che attraversano l’infanzia, la maturità dell’uomo, la maturità una volta che è stato tramutato in donna, e infine l’esperienza da profeta cieco. Tempest costringe la società contemporanea a guardarsi allo specchio e a prendere coscienza di sé in un modo diretto e provocatorio. Il risultato è un tour de force ritmato e ipnotico, che rappresenta un sorprendente salto in avanti per una delle più talentuose e promettenti giovani scrittrici inglesi.

Hold Your Own / Resta te stessa

Cuando la vida te da un martillo

Lyrik

Let Them Eat Chaos / Sollen sie doch Chaos fressen

Becky, Harry, Leon. Ils quittent Londres en pleine nuit, une valise d'argent pour seule ressource, avec la furieuse envie de se réinventer. Comment en sont-ils arrivés là ? Que cherchent-ils à fuir ? Kate Tempest attrape le lecteur à chaque phrase en évoquant ces enfants du désordre, abîmés par la solitude et les déceptions avant même d'avoir trente ans, mais qui s'obstinent à poursuivre leurs rêves. Immense succès dans le monde entier, Ecoute la ville tomber a imposé Kate Tempest comme la romancière la plus singulière et puissante de sa génération.

Ecoute la ville tomber

De debuutroman van bekroonde dichter en succesvolle rapper Kate Tempest De jonge Londenaren Becky, Harry en Leon verlaten de stad in een vierdehands Ford Cortina met een koffer vol gestolen geld. Pete, Becky’s vriendje, laten ze ook achter, op de avond van zijn surpriseparty. In De stenen die de huizen bouwen laat Kate Tempest je het hedendaagse leven in rauw Londen verkennen, bekeken door een haarscherpe morele microscoop. Ze neemt je mee naar de huizen en harten van gewone mensen en hun families en laat je op die manier momenten van schoonheid, teleurstelling, ambitie en mislukking zien. En ze laat zien: goede bedoelingen leiden niet altijd tot goede beslissingen. Scherp maar nooit cynisch, en gedreven door empathie en ethiek roept De stenen die de huizen bouwen de vraag op hoe we met elkaar kunnen leven en van elkaar kunnen houden Over De stenen die de huizen bouwen ‘Een van de meest briljante Britse talenten.’ The Guardian ‘Met stuiterend, ritmisch proza trekt Tempest je diep haar wereld binnen.’ Ronnie Terpstra, boekhandel Van der Velde ‘Ik wilde hier een kritiekloze ode houden aan Kate Tempest. De 29-jarige rapper, dichter, toneelschrijver uit Londen is “aanstormend” – ze won poëzieprijzen en treedt op in uitverkochte concertzalen – maar in Nederland is ze nog onbekend bij het grote publiek.’ Simone van Saarloos, NRC Handelsblad

De stenen die de huizen bouwen

Becky, Harry och Leon lämnar London i en Ford Cortina och med en resväska full av pengar. De drar från svartsjuka pojkvänner, meningslösa jobb, uppgivna föräldrar och galna knarklangare. De flyr från tristessen i sydöstra London där de växt upp. "Tills det dödar oss" skildrar en grupp unga människor som ser sin stad förändras. Långt från de nyrenoverade husfasaderna, de trendiga butikerna och hippa barerna lever de sina liv. På mörka bakgator och stökiga klubbar drömmer de om en annan framtid. Harry och Leon säljer droger till rika affärsmän och Becky vill bli dansare men försörjer sig som erotisk massös. De slits mellan självförtroende och självhat, ensamhet och begär, framtidsdrömmar och rädslan att aldrig få någonting gjort. Kritikerhyllade rapparen och poeten Kate Tempest tar oss med till det moderna Londons bultande hjärta. "Tills det dödar oss" är en ung och rå roman om kärlek, vänskap, droger, drömmar och sex. Med ett sällan skådat berättardriv och en unik språklig begåvning har Tempest skrivit en omskakande generationsroman.

Kate Tempest

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