Brand New Ancients

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This is just so much better than any piece of Art or performance I've experienced in a very long time, possibly ever. Tempest’s remarkable stage presence is wholly audible in this poem, a spoken story written to be told with live music.

We can recognise the events which lead to these outcomes, and this could give us the tools and the insight to change the narrative to make the best of what could be a bad situation.

I'm well impressed with this one, reminds me at times of Ginsberg's Howl, the short lines, long lines and repetition give you a feeling of constantly changing direction. I really like Greek Mythology and loved how Kate played around with it, finding examples of ancient God’s in everyday people. When the narrator announces that, in this world, "There are no clear-cut definitions of what's just," it seems like a sort of exhausted shrug in the direction of ethics. Kae Tempest shows how the old myths still live on in our everyday acts of violence, bravery, sacrifice and love – and that our lives make tales no less dramatic and powerful than those of the old gods. It's a modern "Under Milkwood" and I am playing it to everyone who visits and will be using it with my students at school and I'm playing it over and over again.

Kae Tempest is one of the most exciting and innovative performers to have emerged in spoken-word poetry in many years; their dramatic poem Brand New Ancients won the prestigious Ted Hughes Prize for innovation in poetry. Please read this poem, and read it out loud if you can; it will leave you broken and hopeful and shocked and empowered all at the same time. I've never, in some seriousness, felt the absence of international socialism, or failing that just some vision or abstraction or sense of possibility, more.

Kate Tempest is also skilled at evoking complete scenes from rather minimalist descriptions and at creating vivid imagery. Frankly, it would be easy to dismiss some of her message, to be cynical or guarded, but I tried not to be, and I found a lot of wisdom and love in what she was saying.

They received the Ted Hughes Award for their long-form narrative poem Brand New Ancients and the Leone D’Argento at the Venice Teatro Biennale for their work as a playwright. It took a bit of adjusting to Kate's voice, but its a helluva story - really poignant in places, and a bit upsetting at the climax. Beyond that, the through narrative is utterly devoid of originality and reads like a social services manual. I was drawn to this narrative poem by the cover – Ancient Greeks toting briefcases and smart phones. Their remarkable stage presence is wholly audible in this poem, a spoken story written to be told with live music.Fuck me, but I'd rather be watching "Downton": at least no-one pretends that that anti-socialist fantasy is contemporary. Our blog is written by many different voices and, although everything we share is in line with our values, some of the views expressed are personal and do not necessarily reflect the wider views of GWL. You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie preferences, as described in the Cookie notice. I don't particularly want to discourage others from reading, just don't expect what I expected based on the other works I mentioned.

People glass and get glassed, fuck and get fucked; there's no system to intervene, nor anything one can do save try to be "the kind of god a god can trust. Wankers of the world: you have nothing to lose but some shitty writing about doing shitty cocaine in whatever part of South London is next going condo. Divinità antiche incontrano e si fondono con l'uomo e la donna comune, che sono le divinità contemporanee. I can’t really say that I’m that fond of the plot, it’s not bad in any way but after the appraisal that it was given by friends I was expecting more.Tempest ci racconta la vita, l'amore, la monotonia, la banalità e il male in una chiave inedita e irresistibile. Maybe a predictable storyline, but something that works in Tempest’s favour as it feels normal, the expected outcome for people like this. Kae Tempest is one of the most exciting and innovative performers to have emerged in spoken-word poetry in many years: this dramatic poem won the prestigious Ted Hughes Prize for innovation in poetry. Her poetry flows in a way that translates to the page extremely well but works even better when spoken aloud (as the poem should be, the title page advises).