On Connection

by Kae Tempest

Overview

Staggering talent Kae Tempest's first work of non-fiction: a meditation on the power of creative connection.

Beneath the surface we are all connected . . .

This is a meditation on the power of creative connection. Drawing on twenty years’ experience as a writer and performer, Kae Tempest explores how and why creativity – however we choose to practise it – can cultivate greater self-awareness and help us establish a deeper relationship to ourselves and the world.

Honest, tender and written with piercing clarity, On Connection is a call to arms that speaks to a universal yet intimate truth.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780571370436
Publisher:	Faber and Faber
Publication date:	10/11/2022
Pages:	144
Product dimensions:	4.37(w) x 7.00(h) x 0.39(d)

About the Author

Kae Tempest is an award-winning, Sunday Times-bestselling author, poet and recording artist. Tempest won the 2013 Ted Hughes Award, was nominated for a Costa Book Award and a BRIT Award, has been shortlisted for the Mercury Prize twice and was nominated for two Ivor Novello Awards. They were also named a Next Generation Poet by the Poetry Book Society, a decennial accolade. They released their fourth studio album, The Book of Traps and Lessons, in 2019, produced by Rick Rubin. Tempest grew up in South-East London, where they still live today. @kaetempest

Editorial Reviews

"Tempest … doesn’t just leap off the page, but leaps into your throat and demands to be shouted all the way out." —Marlon James

"A precious small book with a huge punch right at the heart of the problems of today."— Cosey Fanni Tutti

"The powerful On Connection came to me when I needed it most, and reminded me that the links we have to places, people, words, ourselves, are what keep us alive." — Candice Carty-Williams

"A lyrical, tender linguistic balm." — Kirkus

"Elegant and well-turned. This thoughtful meditation will resonate with anyone looking for new ways to engage with their creativity." — Publishers Weekly

"Tempest’s prose is crisp and thoughtful, and they are as willing to own up to their own mistakes and flaws as they are eager to insist upon the importance of the arts as a resource for cultivating greater self-awareness." — New Statesman

"On Connection is medicine for these wounded times." — Max Porter

"An authentically soothing, powerful, thought-provoker." — Matt Haig

From the Publisher

10/19/2020

Poet Tempest (Running upon the Wires) ruminates on making art and the importance of staying connected to others while being true to oneself in this slim, eloquent work composed during the 2020 pandemic lockdown. “reativity is an act of love,” Tempest declares. “It takes creativity to dress well, for example. To parent. To paint a windowsill. To give someone you love your full attention.” Tempest urges readers to bring forth their creativity and to engage with art, whether it’s books, music, or film, because “Immersion in other people’s stories cultivates empathy.” They also argue that connecting with others is the key to self-discovery rather than the oft-touted rugged individualism. They touch on their battle with “debilitating” depression and social anxiety and write that making art saved them from the streets and “leeping in churchyards with my best mate and his heroin addiction.” Though Tempest isn’t communicating anything groundbreaking in this short treatise, their prose remains elegant and well-turned. This thoughtful meditation will resonate with anyone looking for new ways to engage with their creativity. (Nov.)

Publishers Weekly

2020-10-21
A critically acclaimed poet and recording artist reflects on the relationship between creativity and human connection.

In a book that Tempest wrote in response to a publisher's request for "a work of non-fiction for a series of short pamphlets,” they avoid political statements about connection in a divided world and focus instead on “how immersion in creativity can bring us closer to each other and help us cultivate greater self-awareness.” Drawing on 20 years of experience as a spoken word artist, author Tempest titles each essay to reflect a component or element of a spoken word or musical performance. In "Set Up," they suggest that creativity in all domains of life allows individuals to "access and feel connection [with]” everything from ideas and emotions to other individuals. Disconnection, which Tempest discusses in "Sound Check,” arises from a "numbness" that serves as "a logical response" to the onslaught of modern life. In "Doors," the author describes their own creative journey and reveals how poetry became the avenue for connection with others, including a homeless man who forced Tempest to look past their own prejudices and cultivate a deeper understanding of the inequities of life and chance. In later sections, the author reflects on performance. In "Going Out There," for example, they suggest how social media has transformed performance art into a mindless act done for approval rather than communion. “Anything we think, feel, witness, imagine or partake in becomes ammunition for the next pithy tweet, political statement, glamorous image or sarcastic caption,” writes the author. For Tempest, connection only comes about through conscious artistic effort, and when it happens, it brings together performer and spectator "in a communal feeling that takes the whole room or none of us.” With its emphasis on empathy and the importance of being present, this slender book, which will appeal mostly to readers with an interest in mindfulness, is a welcome tonic to the fractured dissonance of modern life.

A lyrical, tender linguistic balm.

Kirkus Reviews