The first thing that I can say about Kae Tempest (who previously went by the name Kate Tempest) comes in the form of a warning, from National Public Radio’s Tiny Desk Concert Series: “Warning: Kate Tempest will connect you with your emotions and the cold, callous world around you. You may cry.” The warning comes on NPR’s 2015 Tiny Desk Concert with the spoken word poet/rapper/playwright, and the warning is well advised. The writer notes that few people in the room were after Kae’s very first piece, about military veterans. Kae’s work (pronounced the same way that you pronounced the letter ‘K’ in English) has a way of getting to the very heart of the contemporary moment while still, as this New York Times review of her work notes, finding connections and resonances in the most ancient literature: the reviewer is reminded, by this young artist, simultaneously of Sophocles and T.S. Eliot.
Recently I bought Kae’s most recent album, The Book of Traps and Lessons on vinyl. Again, an NPR headline from summer before last all too accurately sums up my own take on the record: “Kate Tempest’s ‘The Book of Traps and Lessons’ is a blissful antidote to now.” If this was true in 2019, when the album was released, it’s even more true deep into 2020. My favorite tracks, “People’s Faces,” and “Europe is Lost,” feel like they were front-loaded for 2020, anticipating the chaos, confusion, and global grief of the pandemic. The pieces—part chant, part rap, part song—capture something of the political chaos and entropy of our current time, especially in the wake of 2016’s Brexit and the political failures of the European Union since the Greek crisis.
Yet, at the same time, I should emphasize: the songs are by no means depressing. While Tempest looks at so many current social problems with complete honesty, these tracks also bring a human warmth to them—an empathy—that feels rare and precious in any art form. Although, if pressed, I might compare their spoken word performances to the cinematic empathy expressed in films by Ken Loach, including films like Kes, The Angel’s Share, I Daniel Blake, and The Wind that Shakes the Barley. Like Loach, Tempest cares about themselfself, their subject, and their audience, seeking always to make a solid connection between that holy triangle, and their subjects often include working-class characters overlooked in literary history’s obsession with the mighty. When it comes to the cast of a Shakespeare tragedy or history, Tempest appears to be firmly on the side of the fools and the working-class, far less interested in Kings and Dukes. That empathy is ultimately comforting.
Tempest’s critical are nothing to sneeze at; if you need your poetry to be award-winning, Tempest has the reviews and the credentials. But my guess is that if you give their work a chance, ten minutes in you won’t care what Tempest has won or not won. The work will speak for itself.
English learners in North America may find Tempest’s English accent a bit of a challenge at first, but their videos, complete with lyrics, should help many to learn new vocabulary. And, as with all poetry, their lyrics and their poetry may help students of English to continue to discover the of the English sentence.
You may have noticed that I have used both ‘Kate’ and ‘Kae’ in this short review: Kae recently announced that they are gender non-binary and requested that the broader public move to a place where they use the pronoun ‘they/them’ instead of ‘she/her.’
by Nathan R. Elliott
1. “Tiny Desk: Kate Tempest.” NPR. June 21, 2015. 12:31 listen. Intermediate.
2. “Review: Kate Tempest, a Young Poet Conjuring Ancient Gods.” The New York Times. March 18, 2015. 5 mins. Intermediate/Advanced.
3. “Kate Tempest’s ‘The Book of Traps and Lessons’ is a blissful antidote to now.” NPR. June 6, 2019. 5 mins. Advanced.
4. “People’s Faces.” Kate Tempest. 5 min listen. Intermediate/Advanced.
5. “Europe is Lost.” Kate Tempest. 5 min listen. Intermediate/Advanced.
6. “Kate Tempest Announces they are Gender Non-Binary, changes name to Kae.” The Guardian. Aug 6, 2020. 3 mins. Intermediate.