Jump to content

Rupi Kaur

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by 129.100.205.214 (talk) at 23:29, 29 April 2017 (→‎Work: fixed grammar). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Rupi Kaur
Born (1992-10-05) 5 October 1992 (age 31)
Punjab, India
OccupationAuthor, poet
LanguageEnglish
CitizenshipCanadian
Notable worksMilk and Honey
Website
www.rupikaur.com

Rupi Kaur (Punjabi: ਰੂਪੀ ਕੌਰ) is a Canadian poet, writer, and illustrator. She is popular for her use of poetry with illustration, all of which she does herself. Rupi works to transform experiences of pain and longing into anthems of acceptance and triumph.[1] She published a book of poetry and prose entitled milk and honey in 2015. The book deals with themes of violence, abuse, love, loss, and femininity and has been met with wild success, selling over a million copies and becoming #1 on the New York Times bestseller list.[2]

Life

Rupi Kaur was born in Punjab, India to a Sikh family and emigrated with her parents to Toronto, Canada when she was 4. As a child, she was inspired by her mother to draw and paint, especially at a time when she was unable to speak in English with the other children at school.[3] She used to write poems to her friends on their birthdays or messages to her middle school crushes.[4] Growing up, she yearned for access to words written by people who looked like her, writing about things that she was going through.

She studied Rhetoric and Professional Writing at the University of Waterloo, Ontario.[4] Kaur and her family moved around many times before settling in Brampton, where she lived until recently.[5] She currently resides in Toronto, Ontario.[1]

Work

Rupi Kaur’s first performance took place in 2009, in the basement of the Punjabi Community Health Centre in Malton.[3] Among her more notable works is her photo-essay on menstruation, described as a piece of visual poetry intended to challenge societal menstrual taboos.[6]

Throughout high school, she anonymously shared her writing, and in 2013 she began sharing her work under her own name on Tumblr. Kaur took her writing to Instagram in 2014 and began adding simple illustrations.

All of her work is written exclusively in lowercase, and the only punctuation used is the period. In the Gurmukhi script, there is only one case and only periods are used. She decided to write this way to honour her culture. She also says that she enjoys the equality of letters and that the style reflects her worldview.[3] Her written work is meant to be an experience that’s easy to follow for the reader, with simple drawings to elevate her words.[7]

Common themes found throughout her works include abuse, femininity, love, and heartbreak. In October 2015, Kaur published her collective works in the book milk and honey.[8] She has been contracted to release two more books with Andrews McMeel Publishing and Schuster Canada, the first of which is to be released in fall of 2017.[9]

In a recent TED Talk, Kaur performed a piece called “I’m Taking My Body Back,” which centres on sexual violence—a crime committed on a car ride home. Kaur began writing poetry as a response to her trauma, but it’s not the story she wants to tell—she’s more interested in survival.[1]

Inspiration

Rupi Kaur says she draws inspiration from other people's stories and experiences, as well as her own.[10] Notable writers that she admires are Kahlil Gibran, Alice Walker, and Sharon Olds. She also draws inspiration from Sikh scriptures in her writing and her life.[4]

Kaur’s passion for writing began when she was young, when she entered and won a speech and essay competition in middle school. She also took to writing letters to friends and crushes, and eventually started journaling.[11] She has said that empowerment is her favorite thing to write about because "its like becoming my own best friend and giving myself the advice I need"[11]

milk and honey

Kaur's first and only book is an anthology titled milk and honey. A collection of poetry, prose, and hand-drawn illustrations, the book is split into four chapters, and each chapter deals with a different theme.[4] The sections are titled "the hurting", "the loving," "the breaking," and "the healing." Kaur designed the book from cover to cover, illustrating pictures that were seamlessly woven in with her words.

Amidst warnings of being barred from prestigious literary circles, Kaur originally self-published the book of poetry on Amazon in 2014.[12] The book was so popular that Andrews McMeel Publishing decided to pick it up for a second print in October 2015.[13] The book was on the top-seller list for Canadian literature on Amazon, amongst writers such as Margaret Atwood. It also landed in the number two spot on Amazon's bestseller list for poetry. The collection even made it to the New York Times bestseller list and remained on it for 25 consecutive weeks. As of April 2017, it has sold over a million copies.[2] milk and honey focuses on themes such as love, loss, trauma, sexual violence, womanhood, and healing.[11]

Controversy

In March 2015, as part of a photo project for a university class, Kaur posted a photo of herself lying in bed with a menstrual blood stain on her sweatpants on Instagram.[14] The picture was part of a menstruation themed photo-series to destigmatize taboos around menstruation.[15] On her Instagram page, Kaur makes an explicit statement about such stigmatization, noting that "a majority of people. societies. and communities shun this natural process. some are more comfortable with the pornification of women. the sexualization of women. the violence and degradation of women than this. they cannot be bothered to express their disgust about all that. but will be angered and bothered by this."[16]

Instagram removed it - and the other photos in the series - twice because the picture didn't "follow (their) Community Guidelines."[17] Kaur took to Facebook to critique the removal of the post: "Thank you Instagram for providing me with the exact response my work was created to critique. You deleted my photo twice stating that it goes against community guidelines. I will not apologize for not feeding the ego and pride of misogynist society that will have my body in an underwear but not be ok with a small leak when your pages are filled with countless photos/accounts where women (so many who are underage) are objectified, pornified, and treated less than human."[18]

The picture on Facebook was shared by thousands, went viral, and made headlines around the world. Later, Instagram restored her picture and apologized to Rupi Kaur, saying it had removed it by mistake.[15]

References

  1. ^ a b c "How Rupi Kaur Became the Voice of Her Generation". Flare. 11 November 2016. Retrieved 15 April 2017.
  2. ^ a b Desk, BWW News. "#1 New York Times Best Seller MILK AND HONEY by Rupi Kaur Hits One Million Copies". Retrieved 15 April 2017.
  3. ^ a b c "bio | rupi kaur". Rupi Kaur. 17 November 2016. Retrieved 15 April 2017.
  4. ^ a b c d "Milk & Honey: A Poet Exposes Her Heart". Kaur Life. 20 November 2014. Retrieved 8 October 2016.
  5. ^ "How Rupi Kaur Became the Voice of Her Generation". Flare. 11 November 2016. Retrieved 8 December 2016.
  6. ^ Briscoll, Drogan. "Feminist Artist Rupi Kaur, Whose Period Photograph Was Removed From Instagram: 'Men Need To See My Work Most'". Huffington Post. Huffington Post. Retrieved 22 March 2016.
  7. ^ "thetimesofindia". Rupi Kaur. 31 July 2016. Retrieved 15 April 2017.
  8. ^ "Poet and artist Rupi Kaur battled taboos about women's bodies – and broke the internet". CBC. Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 22 March 2016.
  9. ^ "Rupi Kaur to Publish Two with Andrews McMeel". PublishersWeekly.com. Retrieved 8 December 2016.
  10. ^ Charleston, Erin Spencer Digital Marketer in; SC (22 January 2015). "Rupi Kaur: The Poet Every Woman Needs To Read". The Huffington Post. Retrieved 8 December 2016.
  11. ^ a b c "A poet and rebel: How Insta-sensation Rupi Kaur forced her way to global fame". http://www.hindustantimes.com/. 22 October 2016. Retrieved 8 December 2016. {{cite news}}: External link in |newspaper= (help)
  12. ^ Kassam, Ashifa (26 August 2016). "Rupi Kaur: 'There was no market for poetry about trauma, abuse and healing'". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 15 April 2017.
  13. ^ Kassam, Ashifa (26 August 2016). "Rupi Kaur: 'There was no market for poetry about trauma, abuse and healing'". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 8 December 2016.
  14. ^ "Student's final project goes viral and makes change happen - period". 7 May 2015. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |dead-url= (help)
  15. ^ a b "The picture Instagram didn't want you to see". The Independent. 30 March 2015. Retrieved 8 October 2016.
  16. ^ "Instagram post by rupi kaur • Mar 25, 2015 at 4:02am UTC". Instagram. Retrieved 1 March 2017.
  17. ^ Lese, Kathryn. "Padded Assumptions: A Critical Discourse Analysis Of Patriarchal Menstruation Discourse". commons.lib.jmu.edu. James Madison University.
  18. ^ "Instagram deletes woman's period photos - but her response is amazing". The Telegraph. Retrieved 8 October 2016.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Rupi_Kaur&oldid=777891596"