Rupi kaur

 

Hi Charlie,

 

For my first article, I have chosen to talk about a poet that I really like, Rupi Kaur. You may or may not know her, but she is fairly young, and very active on social media, which is how I discovered her work. 

 

She was born on the 4^th of October 1992 in the state of Punjab, in India. She and her parents emigrated to Canada when Rupi was 3 years old, to escape the persecution of Sikhs. Shikhs are a group of people who believe in the monotheistic religion of Sikhism. Rupi’s father left India to go live to Japan, because of the hate crimes against Sikh men. He would send supplies and Punjabi poetry to Rupi’s mother. She and her family moved to Brampton, Ontario, Canada, after living in poor conditions with her three younger siblings. 

 

She started writing poetry at the young age of 17 years old (in 2009). At first, her poetry wasn’t appreciated much. The young poet was told that her poetry was too aggressive, and made some people uncomfortable. She started to write because of her personal trauma, caused by an abusive relationship (which we can still recognise in most of her poems). After writing anonymously through high school, she decided to take the surname of Kaur (a very common name for Sikh women). Rupi Kaur’s success is due to her popularity on Instagram, which defines her as an “Instapoet”. She then studied at the University of Waterloo, where she was able to obtain a Bachelor of Arts.

   

 

 In March 2015, after posting pictures of her depicting herself with menstrual blood for an art project, Instagram decided to hide her post. Once she discovered what happened, Rupi decided to post a complaint against the application’s actions, which went viral. As a result, she gained more followers, and in 2016 she was able to reprint her book, Milk and honey, originally published in 2014. Reprinting the book allowed her to have more commercial success. I haven’t yet read Milk and honey, but I am really looking forward to reading it!

 

  

 

In 2017, her other book, The Sun and her Flowers was published. Although she managed to publish this book that also knew a great success, Rupi struggled writing the book, while knowing that a lot was expected of her, because of her fame. After the release of the book, Rupi Kaur felt burnout. Thankfully for the young poet, these feelings didn’t last very long.

I have read The Sun and her Flowers, and I truly enjoyed the book. I love to pick it up once in a while and remind myself of her poems.

 

 

 

 

Home body was published in 2020. It is the last book the poet wrote. It is a response to COVID-19 and to the stress that she had been feeling because of her fame. I haven’t read that book either, but I am sure I will enjoy it! 

 

However, even if Rupi Kaur is a successful poet that other people and I really like, she has received a lot of criticism about her books, and sometimes just her way of writing. Some people describe her work as plain and too short. The Glasgow guardian has published a critic about Home body, her last book, saying that they felt no emotions reading the book, and insisting on their disappointment. I believe that most of her poems are really beautiful (even if I don’t enjoy all of them). What I like about the artist is the fact that all of her poems, while being very poetic, are easy to read. They are accessible to everyone, whether it be on social media, in her books, or even during her world tours (she is coming to Paris on the 9^th of October for all of you who are interested!)

 

 

I hope this article has made you want to discover Rupi Kaur, and if you do, I hope you will love her poetry as much as I do. For all of you who are interested, here is her Instagram account so you can discover her new short poems:

 @rupikaur_ 

 

Thank you for reading, and have a great day!

Bye Charlie!