Intelligence Squared An Evening with Kae Tempest (Part Two)
May 3, 2026
A live conversation explores storytelling, identity and a return to fiction. Reflections range from dogs and time travel to childhood influences like music and Ursula Le Guin. There are readings tracing a character’s descent into addiction, crime and incarceration. The narrative follows routine, small awakenings and a fragile path toward return and atonement.
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Childhood Finds That Shaped Kae Tempest
- Kae Tempest loved music and reading as a child and lists unexpected early influences like Michael Jackson, Zig and Zag, Ultimate Kaos, and Ursula Le Guin.
- They remember finding books in pubs and boxes (Hangover Square, Knut Hamsun) which arrived serendipitously and felt life‑saving.
Characters As A Way To Know Real People
- Tempest treats characters as living companions that reveal their own feelings and unresolved relationships through writing.
- They use character creation as a method to observe and process real relationships, gaining clarity they can't get by speaking to loved ones.
Art Comes Through You Not From You
- Creative work comes to Tempest through a lineage of artists who 'charge' them, so their output is not from them but through them.
- They visualise ancestors of influence energising them, which relieves impostor fear and reframes making as transmission.
