LONDON poet, rapper, playwright and performance artist Kate Tempest will perform her poetry at Pocklington Arts Centre on October 21, buoyed by her nomination for the 2014 Barclays Mercury Music Prize for her hip-hop album Everybody Down and her naming as one of the next generation poets by the Poetry Book Society.

Tempest's Pocklington debut coincides with the October publication of her new poetry collection, Hold Your Own, by Picador on the back of her becoming the first writer aged under 40 to win the Ted Hughes Award for innovation in poetry last year for her epic narrative poem Brand New Ancients.

"I was delighted to hear news of Kate's thoroughly deserved nomination for her album Everybody Down," says Pocklington Arts Centre's manager, Janet Farmer.

"I saw her perform her last show, Brand New Ancients, at the West Yorkshire Playhouse in Leeds earlier this year and was mesmerised by her stage presence and level of ability. I'm really looking forward to her performance here."

Tempest, 28, was born in South-East London where she still lives. She started out as a rapper on the London battles scene, toured the spoken-word circuit and began writing for theatre in 2012.

Her past work includes Balance, an album recorded with her band Sound Of Rum; Everything Speaks In Its Own Way, a collection of poems published on her own imprint Zingaro; GlassHouse, a forum theatre play for Cardboard Citizens; and the plays Wasted and Hopelessly Devoted for Paines Plough.

Brand New Ancients completed a sell-out run in Britain and New York and won a Herald Angel at Edinburgh Fringe and Tempest also has performed at British and European music festivals, including Glastonbury.

She has written poems for Barnardo’s, the BBC, Amnesty International and the Royal Shakespeare Company; toured with punk poet John Cooper Clarke and Barking troubadour Billy Bragg; and she has twice won the poetry slam at the Nu-Yorican poetry café in New York.

Everybody Down, her debut solo album, came out on Big Dada Records in 2014 with its story of three characters facing up to loneliness in the big city. Now the focus turns to Hold Your Own.

Tickets for Tempest's 7.30pm Pocklington show are on sale at £14 and £12.50 on 01759 301547 or at pocklingtonartscentre.co.uk