The Tempest — Poetry is for everyone #5

The whirlwind of spoken-word poetry -- when it works and when it doesn't.

Kae Tempest Performs At La Sala La Paqui In Madrid, image courtesy of Getty

Welcome to the latest edition of poetry is for everyone. Each week I intuitively send out a poem that is speaking to me that hopefully in some numinous way speaks to you too. It is my intention to keep the selection diverse and interesting and introduce you to some new writers along the way. Feel free to make suggestions or recommend your favourite poets/poems to the group in the comments.

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This week I’m going to do something slightly different, I will be sharing a video!

I want to celebrate the venerated performance artist Kae Tempest. I first saw Kae perform in around 2007 at Latitude Festival — where I was also performing in the Theatre Tent and is the only reason I have ever attended any festival in my life. I realise now it’s probably something to do with the large crowds of people and the scarcity of clean toilets that means they’re not my favourite place to be, but Kae Tempest was certainly one of the performers that somehow made the mud and the queues and the overpriced food, worthwhile. I hadn’t known Kae’s work before then but I have followed them avidly ever since.

The best thing about festivals are these discoveries, which feel deeply personal at the time even when the person goes on to become a megastar — Janelle Monáe who was relatively unknown in the UK then, also performed that year and blew most of the headliners out of the water. The magic of stumbling upon an acoustic set in the woods, or being woken by a surprise 9am set by Thom Yorke, or discovering that there is a spoken-word poet you actually like, is totally unique to the festival experience.

As a self-proclaimed aversionist to the performance of poetry — I’ve said it before but perhaps it bears repeating, the shape of poetry printed on a page to me is integral to both its artistic integrity and its beauty, lift it off that canvas to perform it and you do it a grave disservice — you’re probably wondering how it was that Kae Tempest won me over but what actually distresses me most about performed poetry is its earnestness. It’s something I struggle to contend with in acting too. It is not grounded in reality. Actually, it is not grounded full stop. It can feel indulgent. It can feel cringey. Kae Tempest for me, is the exception. (Ok, and Yrsa Daley-Ward.) Perhaps because their performances move beyond the spoken-word — some parts are almost sung, some are rapped — and all of it comes from the core depths of Kae’s very being. Notably their work is written in a way where they are the only person who can justifiably perform it. I have seen them live at least three times now, and always came away thrumming with the full spectrum of emotion. Not all of us were blessed with a surname we could seek to tangibly embody but Kae Tempest is a storm of truth and provocation. What they have to say is both a political outcry and a call to action and like Shakespeare, they have been deeply inspired by ancient texts and how their very existence in our present can ground us more profoundly within ourselves and our modern experience. I believe Kae’s work is just as timeless and not unlike Shakespeare or the theatre where it can take you a second to relax and surrender to the world, the language, the rhythm of the performance, to suspend your disbelief, you almost have to give it a second to tune your ear in.

“…the beautiful thing about performed language is that it can reverberate with whatever’s happening in the moment. The text holds it.” Kae Tempest

If I were to include some of Kae’s work as written here, I would have to print a whole book. And even to include the full length version of one of their performances would only be for the very committed so here is a performance of an extract from their 2013 play Brand New Ancients (it also works wonderfully on the page!). I saw them perform this at the Battersea Arts Centre in full and it was transcendent. (And of course for those who are up for it, I’ve also included the full version beneath it!)

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I am now an affiliate of Bookshop.org so if you’d like to read more from any of the featured artists on our growing poetry curation, I have put together a selection on my page <3

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