The Power of Lyrics

Coming out as non-binary publicly, in their own words, has been “the beginning of a happiness I’ve never known, not since childhood”. Kae Tempest is a poet, a writer, a lyricist, a performer and a recording artist. They have published 3 plays, a novel, a book-length essay, 7 books of poetry including their latest ‘Divisible by Itself and One’ and released 5 albums, two of which received nominations for the Mercury Prize (‘Everybody Down’ and ‘Let Them Eat Chaos’). They’ve also received two Ivor Novello nominations, received the Ted Hughes Award and they were named a Next Generation Poet in 2014 by the Poetry Book Society, a once-in-a-decade accolade. Their books have been translated into eleven languages and published to critical acclaim around the world.

In 2020, Kae came out as non-binary and here speaks, incredibly beautifully as you may imagine, about the pain of going through puberty and struggling with being themselves. Their use of language to describe life, their relationship to change and their journey is, as you may expect, astounding. They are wise, thought provoking and generous, just like their work. This conversation was a privilege and could have extended for hours.

Changes is a deaf friendly podcast, transcripts can be accessed here: https://www.anniemacmanus.com/changes

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