Published in 2020
129 pages
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. Ten years later they are a published playwright, novelist, poet and respected recording artist. Their work includes “Balance”, their first album with band Sound of Rum; “Everything Speaks in its Own Way” their first collection of poems, the critically acclaimed plays “Wasted”, “Glasshouse” and “Hopelessly Devoted”. “Brand New Ancients”, their self-performed epic poem to a live score, won the Ted Hughes Award 2012 and the Herald Angel at Edinburgh Fringe. It has sold out tours in the UK and New York and is published by Picador. Their second collection of poetry, “Hold Your Own”, was published by Picador on October 2014. Their debut novel, “The Bricks That Built The Houses”, sold in a highly competitive auction to Bloomsbury and was published in territories including the UK, US, France, Holland and Brazil in Spring 2015.
What is this book about?
From the Ted Hughes award winner and Sunday Times bestselling author Kae Tempest.
The increasingly hyper-individualistic, competitive and exploitative society that we live in has caused a global crisis at the turn of the new decade; in order to survive, numbness has pervaded us all.
In this urgent and incisive pamphlet, Kae Tempest leads the reckoning against this system, placing our legacy in our own hands. Creativity holds the key: the ability to provide us with internal and external connection, to move us beyond consumption, to allow us to discover authenticity and closeness to all others, to deliver us an antidote for our numbness. This is beyond ‘art’. Creative connection is anything that brings us closer to ourselves and fellow human beings, and it has the potential to offer insights into mental health, politics and beyond. Powerful, hopeful and full of humanity, On Connection confirms Tempest as one of the most important voices of their generation.
