Brand New Ancients

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Winner of the Ted Hughes Prize for innovation in poetry, Kae Tempest’s Brand New Ancients plays with mythology to tell the story of young people in modern times as their lives spiral out of control. The poems tell a connected set of stories, intended somewhat as old myths recast as stories of regular, flawed modern people. 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. A modified version of this poem, with actors but also the poet performing an abridged/revised version of the poem, is available in an almost 12 minute film in YouTube. They have published plays, poems, a novel, a book-length essay, released albums and toured extensively, selling out shows from Reykjavik to Rio de Janeiro.

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.Honest, insightful, heart wrenching, fun, philosophical, angry, inspired, revolutionary, hopeful, ironic, and pragmatic all with an internal rhythm that you can't help but be pulled along into. Tempest’s gods and heroes are the everyday characters, the little people who keep getting up and keep carrying on despite all odds. Here, 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.

Tempest is an accomplished musician as well as a poet, and this short book has a lyrical, musical quality.Tommy and Clive, half-brothers who don’t know it remind me a little bit of the half-brother’s in my favourite play, Blood Brothers. 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. 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. Un poema che nasce per essere letto a voce alto e che fa della musicalità un elemento fondante e fondamentale del racconto.

In the end, I was kind of fascinated with this as the ultimate incarnation of something I really don't like; and it's absolutely not without power, in a way that really banal things sometimes are. It’s the kind of story that deserves to be read all in one go, preferably with tea, and lose yourself into the world of these characters whose lives intersect in ways that are recognisable to the reader. 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. I was drawn to this narrative poem by the cover – Ancient Greeks toting briefcases and smart phones. Maybe a predictable storyline, but something that works in Tempest’s favour as it feels normal, the expected outcome for people like this.

I didn't want to read a story/poem about the intertwining fates of people trying to people and people trying to be monsters. It is entirely possible that this issue is one I only noticed because I read the poem instead of listening to it being performed; I might not have paid so much attention to the narrative structure otherwise. I read this out loud in its entirety (sitting outside on the porch, lying on a bed, waiting for the potatoes to boil in the kitchen, sitting on the couch after dinner), and parts of the poem made me raise my voice and speed up, unintentionally. effective - speedy and punchy; at others, it seemed to me, it's lazy, and the contents a bit preachy. Their remarkable stage presence is wholly audible in this poem, a spoken story written to be told with live music.

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. Un'umanità, quella di Tempest, primordiale e barbara che ha forti legami con l'arcaico e con l'antichità. Kate Tempest’s Brand New Ancients pushes the idea of what poetry can be, telling a complete story through verse rather than serving as a collection of individual poems. Kate started her writing as a rapper outside London, and that comes across in word choice, rhythm, and the way the poems scream for performance.She deftly weaves together two generations of modern families, telling stories of love, betrayal, anger and revenge with a minimum of verbiage. Kae Tempest (pronouns: they/them) started out when they were 16, rapping at strangers on night buses and pestering MCs to let them on the mic at raves. I don't particularly want to discourage others from reading, just don't expect what I expected based on the other works I mentioned. The story within is not a bad one, the female character solves her own problem rather than getting saved.