Brand New Ancients

Product Information

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. One thing I noticed it that some of the wording on the audio differs from the printed version, and in most cases the words used on the audio are better. We’re proud to share the words of our staff, volunteers and placement students and we hope you enjoy reading their thoughts. Tempest’s gods and heroes are the everyday characters, the little people who keep getting up and keep carrying on despite all odds. Questo poema è un invito a ritrovare la deità che è in ciascuno di noi, un invito a ritrovarla attraverso l'amore.

I got this and a 'Slam poetry' audio CD at the same time, and its been a brilliant combination of the ancient and the modern. Kate Tempest is indeed a skilled wordsmith, and Brand New Ancients showcases the full range of her lyrical talent, stylistic repertoire, and linguistic creativity. We can recognise the events which lead to these outcomes, and this could give us the tools and the insight to change the narrative to make the best of what could be a bad situation. 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.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. 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. Their books have been translated into eleven languages and published to critical acclaim around the world. In short, this one doesn't really do a good job of living up to the whole Ancient/Modern mash-up because it really just uses the idea of the gods as a mask. It took a bit of adjusting to Kate's voice, but its a helluva story - really poignant in places, and a bit upsetting at the climax.

I had heard about this and loved other such Ancient-Modern fusion stuff like some of Gaiman's works or Alice Oswald's Memorial or Atwood's the Penelopiad or Anders Nilsen's Rage of Poseidon, etc. 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. 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. The story within is not a bad one, the female character solves her own problem rather than getting saved.We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. And I have to add that reading this book with the author reading it + the music was excellent, it added a real tension, an authentic atmosphere.

If Homer got bladdered with Ken Loach in a south London pub, they might come up with something like this. To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average.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. I really like Greek Mythology and loved how Kate played around with it, finding examples of ancient God’s in everyday people. Kate Tempest connects this very familiar tale of love, disillusionment, violence, betrayal, and personal tragedy with the idea of everyday heroism, which she understands as analogous to ancient Greek myth. It’s truly impressive how much story and characterization get packed into such a small number of pages. The one thing Tempest did not manage to achieve quite so successfully, in my opinion, was the ‘plot’ of her poem and especially its links to ancient heroism.