Brand New Ancients

Kate Tempest is an English poet, spoken word artist and playwright. In 2013 she won the Ted Hughes Award for her work Brand New Ancients, which was developed at Battersea Arts Centre. Kate first performed when she was 16, at open mic nights at Deal Real, a small hip hop store on Carnaby Street in London's West End. She went on to support acts such as John Cooper Clarke, who performed at BAC in 1980.A force of nature, Kate is a spoken-word performer who incorporates rap, hip-hop, music, singing, theatre and poetry into spine-tingling tales that draw equally on ancient myth and ordinary life in her South London neighbourhood. Kate won the 2013 Ted Hughes award for innovation in poetry, and last year the show went on to win a prize at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. She has been nominated for the Mercury Music Prize Album of the Year 2014.