a b "William Shakespeare: A digital reinvention". The Economist. 28 August 2012 . Retrieved 15 September 2012. In Doors, they reveal how they used drugs and alcohol to cope with anxiety, depression and gender dysphoria, though, in the end “creativity reached through the fog when nothing else could”. Inspired by Carl Jung’s The Red Book, the psychoanalyst’s dive into the unconscious mind, Tempest advocates looking inwards to “face what is in ourselves”. Most powerful are the author’s reflections on the mysterious magic of performance during which they are “granted access to a freedom so resolute it leaves me shining head to toe. I emerge ... covered in a gluey light. Looking out at the crowd, I see reality at last. People really feeling things.” In dit essay - geschreven tijdens de eerste Covid-19 golf - gaat Tempest op zoek naar de essentie van creativiteit en de zin daarvan in hun en ons leven. Hoe gedetailleerder zij naar zichzelf kijken en hoe eerlijker ze dat beschrijven, hoe universeler hun boodschap; schrijven ze zelf en daar raken ze meteen nagels met koppen.

Tempest asks: Who are you, apart from your work achievements and what you can afford in life? Who are you when nobody is watching, when you are brutally honest with yourself, no stage to perform on? Kae Tempest [3] [4] (formerly Kate Tempest) [5] [6] is an English spoken word performer, poet, recording artist, novelist and playwright. Alison Flood (11 September 2014). " 'Next Generation' of 20 hotly-tipped poets announced by Poetry Book Society". The Guardian. They have a command of language and rhythm that makes you listen; makes you care about what they have to say. I was resigned to living the life I was in,” they say, “and then maybe at 50 when I stopped having this career I thought I might be able to finally transition. But increasingly I couldn’t bear it.” In January 2020, they chopped their hair short. Their eyes light up when recalling the sense of liberation. And then, the pandemic hit. For the first time in what felt like for ever, Tempest was forced to take a beat. A few months later, they came out publicly.

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Helder verwoord, krachtig uitgewerkt, nergens pedant of belerend en steeds met oog voor falen en het recht daarop. En niet half zo zweverig als mijn laatste zin van de vorige alinea leek. :) waarvoor excuus. Music wasn’t just an escape for Tempest, it also shifted people’s attention away from their body. “When I had rapping and lyricism,” says Tempest, “ that’s what I was. Everything else disappeared. I almost left my body behind, and became an artist.”

The role – which she describes as a “damaged, defiant, old, smelly, naughty, lost, lost, lost soul” – was hers. “It feels like one of those moments that don’t come along very often in an artistic life,” Sharp says. “The role is extraordinary. And usually, a man gets to do it.” Tijdens de jaren in Antwerpen die volgden op mijn soloreizen naar India greep ik steeds terug naar dat ene woordje om mezelf bij de kraag te vatten als ik in een alledaagse valkuil trapte: opgenaaid in een ellenlange rij van de supermarkt, ongeduldig op het treinperron, struikelend over kleine tegenslagen. De krachtterm ‘India’ stond lange tijd voor (zelf)relativering, geduld en het besef dat je altijd (altíjd!) kunt kiezen om de dingen anders te zien; om van een verloren gewaand moment iets waardevol te maken. Het gif van gehaastheid trachtte ik te neutraliseren met de herinnering aan Indiërs die een halve dag rechtstonden in een gammele bus met de neuzen in elkaars okselvijvers. De saaiheid van een wachtkamer, de traagheid van een rij aan het loket, het groeiende besef van een baaldag, de sleur van werk, poogde ik te compenseren door datgene te gebruiken wat je te allen tijden bij je hebt: je hoofd. Herinneringen, dagdromen, de geuren en kleuren dankzij je zintuigen, het inzoomen op gezichten en het uitzoomen naar een ander sterrenstelsel van waaruit het waanzinnig is dat ik hier überhaupt (be)sta… Nietigheid vernietigt niemendalletjes.

In October 2014, their first poetry collection for Picador, Hold Your Own, was published. The collection was a commercial and critical success and its release coincided with Tempest being named a Next Generation Poet. Sommige hoofdstukken smaken naar 'De meeste mensen deugen' van Rutger Bregman en andere weer naar 'This is water' van David Foster Wallace. Maar heel het boek is een prachtig pleidooi om oprecht te leven en oprecht te zijn ten midden van je omgeving. Een pleidooi om bewust te zijn en mededogen te hebben met jezelf. Geen eisen, geen verplichtingen. Wel de oprechte vraag om het te proberen, steeds opnieuw. Want connectie maken met je omgeving, staat je toe connectie te maken met jezelf.

In September 2013, their play Hopelessly Devoted was produced by Paines Plough and premiered at Birmingham Rep Theatre. [20] a b "Books Are My Bag Readers Awards 2017 sponsored by National Book Tokens". National Book Tokens . Retrieved 6 February 2018. All that fear was about shame,” Tempest says. “I was afraid, because of internalised homophobia and transphobia. I was afraid to be who I was, because I’d learned that it was ugly. I was resigned to being wrong all my life. Coming out and saying I’m trans, non-binary, is me saying I’m on a journey.” They’re still not certain where it’ll take them. “But I realised the ramifications of what might happen didn’t seem as scary as living with this boiling hot secret in my heart for eternity.” I am aware my brain is intense. It’s like this weird mate always hanging out with me

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Tempest is on more solid ground expressing themselves through their work, and their latest offering is no exception. Next month sees the release of their fourth solo album, The Line Is a Curve. Their first two albums received Mercury prize nominations. Tempest has already written three plays, a novel and six poetry books and last year published On Connection, their debut work of nonfiction. “But it’s starting to hit me how different this album is from everything else,” they say, “how far it could potentially go. It’s reaching for something beyond what the others have been.” Their latest collection of poems, Running Upon the Wires, was published in September 2018 to critical acclaim (Picador). Their new play Paradise, a retelling of Sophocles’ Philoctetes, is due to be staged at the National Theatre in 2021, having been postponed due to the Coronavirus pandemic. Its play text will be published by Picador. Kae makes reference at one point to been given a brief for this book, and I think that’s the problem- it feels a little forced and, well, random. They are clearly passionate about the overall message of being present in your own life, meaningfully connecting with others, and respecting that all life around you is just as valid and complex as yours. Unfortunately though, I (ironically) struggled to connect with all of the essays and found the content a bit repetitive. Since then, they've produced six poetry collections, five studio albums, four plays, a novel, and a non-fiction book, and won a number of awards, including the prestigious Ted Hughes Prize for poetry. This is a book about connection. About how immersing ourselves in creativity can help us cultivate greater self-awareness and bring us closer to each other.

Beaumont-Thomas, Ben (6 August 2020). "Kate Tempest announces they are non-binary, changes name to Kae". The Guardian. Kae’s album Let Them Eat Chaos was released in 2016, alongside a volume of poetry of the lyrics (Picador), and was also nominated for the Mercury Music Prize and the Costa Prize for Poetry, respectively. Their third album, The Book of Traps and Lessons, was released in 2019 and nominated for the Ivor Novello.

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In September 2016, it was announced that Tempest would curate the 2017 Brighton Festival. They released the album Let Them Eat Chaos on 7 October 2016. [26] It debuted at no. 28 on the UK Albums Chart, and was also released in book format (Picador). [27] The album was also nominated for the Mercury Prize, this time in 2017. [28] They were nominated for Best British Female Solo Performer at the 2018 Brit Awards. [12] In On Connection, Tempest reveals the “strange and passionate relationship” they have had with their own creativity since the age of 12, “suffering from mental health problems and using drugs and alcohol to cope with a difficult brain, troubles at home and gender dysphoria”. I was always me on stage,” they say, “but I was hiding who I was, including from myself … When I perform I go to the depths; beyond gender, beyond body. I leave everything behind. That’s why it was addictive.” Drawing on two decades of experience as a writer and performer, Kae Tempest champions the role of creativity — in whatever form we choose to practice it — as an act of love, helping us establish a deeper relationship to our true selves, and to others and the world we live in. I have the impulse of doing the same with "On Connection". Carry it with me, correlate its values with my life, really work through it. I probably can't and won't carry it around with me everywhere (can I tho) but I for sure will read it again and again. It already had a very real impact on my life and I'm curious to see where it leads me.