Poetry aloud: Kae Tempest at the Royal Court

Kae Tempest's poetry performance includes poems from their latest collection, Hold Your Own.

Kae Tempest's poetry performance includes poems from their latest collection, Hold Your Own.

In order of performance:

  1. Tiresias
  2. For My Niece
  3. I Was So Much Older Than, I'm Younger Than That Now
  4. Snakes in the Grass
  5. Thirteem
  6. School
  7. The Cypher
  8. The Woman The Boy Became
  9. On Clapton Pond at Dawn
  10. India
  11. These Things I Know
  12. Man Down
  13. Ballad of a Hero
  14. Progress
  15. Prophet
  16. Hold Your Own

Hold Your Own

by Kae Tempest

Book cover for Hold Your Own

Hold Your Own, Kae Tempest's first full-length collection for Picador is an ambitious, multi-voiced work based around the mythical figure of Tiresias. This four-part work follows him through his transformations from child, man and woman to blind prophet; through this structure, Tempest holds up a mirror to contemporary life in a direct and provocative way rarely associated with poetry.

A vastly popular and accomplished performance poet, Tempest commands a huge and dedicated following on the performance and rap circuit. Brand New Ancients, also available from Picador, won the Ted Hughes Award for New Work in Poetry and has played to packed concert halls on both sides of the Atlantic.