Silver linings are hard to find in the midst of this coronavirus crisis. But CNN is providing one with its hauntingly inspirational commercial. This, because it features the poetically named slam-poet Kate Tempest performing voiceover excerpts from “People’s Faces” (2019).
That poem ends as follows:
Even when I’m weak and I’m breaking
I stand weeping at the train station
‘Cause I can see your faces
I love people’s faces
Kate is to poetry and hip-hop what Adele is to R&B and pop. But she also exudes a Janis-Joplin vibe that makes her ecleticism truly otherworldly. The following from an interview in the April 30, 2017, edition of The Guardian teased her forthcoming appeal:
She’s a one-woman bridge between artforms and audiences that are too often Balkanised: a poet for people who don’t read poetry, a rapper for people who don’t listen to hip-hop, and more. Whether on stage or on the page, her language hits like lightning. It illuminates and it burns.
The commercial has become ubiquitous. Kate has not. But that might be only a matter of time. So, before the deluge, I urge you to take a few minutes to see her perform this poem in full: here.
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