Mon 19 Oct 2015 In: New Zealand Daily News View at Wayback View at NDHA
British poet, rapper and award winning writer Kate Tempest is coming to New Zealand for the first time ever! The Mercury Music Prize nominated recording artist, award winning poet, playwright and novelist is coming to our shores in January and will no doubt be wearing her heart on her sleeve. Kate and her four piece band have spent the last eighteen months playing the major festivals and touring the world, winning over audiences wherever she goes, The Guardian have described her as “One of the brightest British talents around”. As with all of her words Kate passionately believes they are meant to be heard, to be spoken out loud, to be played live and shared with people. Her debut album Everybody Down was shortlisted for the Mercury Music Prize and the phenomenal response she’s received has made taking the album on the road the most natural and instinctive of things to do. In the same year she was selected as one of this decade’s Next Generation Poets by the Poetry Book Society, and in 2013 was the youngest person ever to win the Ted Hughes Award - for her epic narrative poem Brand New Ancients. Ask Kate what she is and she’s more than likely to say a rapper. That’s her true and first love. Coming out at high school and trying to find her way in what she describes as a homophobic hiphop scene, she once told the New York Times; “I was a weird gay woman in a homophobic, misogynistic culture. It took me a long time to be able — rather than just trying to hide all those parts of myself — to realise that actually it’s O.K.” Tickets for both shows are on sale now from Ticketmaster. Kate Tempest Bodega | Wellington | Thursday 14th January The Kings Arms | Auckland | Friday 15th January.
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Monday, 19th October 2015 - 7:15pm