Rupi Kaur, Poet Extraordinaire, at Toronto Reference Library
On April 28, in celebration of National Poetry Month, Rupi Kaur, feminist, multi-faceted artist and poet, drew a crowd of 700 people to the Atrium of the Toronto Reference Library. Her diverse audience was totally engaged and enraptured, as she read/performed from her recently published book, milk and honey. She was interviewed by Maureen Halushak, Deputy Editor at Flare magazine, and responded to questions from the audience. Her book-signing took hours, as fans lined up several feet deep around the perimeter of the floor, to have a chance to talk with her personally.
Her Background
Kaur migrated with her mother at the age of three from Punjab, India, to join her father in Montreal, but after living in dozens of places, she is now based in Toronto. She studied economics, and practiced visual arts, but later switched to rhetoric and writing at the University of Waterloo.
Her self-published debut poetry collection, milk and honey, released in November 2014, sold thousands of copies. Andrews McMeel Publishing re-released the book in Canada and the US with additional poems and her own artwork in 2015. It received many excellent reviews, such as those in Goodreads and Wildspice Magazine. Kaur describes the whole book is a "single poem", a "visual experience", and a very personal one. During the interview, Halushak admitted that milk and honey was the first poetry book she'd really enjoyed, as it is both playful and accessible.
Her Success
Quill and Quire writes that 2015 was a “wildly successful year [for her]… with public endorsements by such celebrities as Martha Stewart and Mark Ruffalo.” She has just become a New York Times best-selling author, and Flare magazine has featured her in its May 2016 “60 Under 30” list, noting that both Miley Cyrus and Ariana Grande are fans. She has also been featured in several other magazines, including Spain’s Playground magazine, the UK’s The Underground, The Huffington Post and The Walrus.
Her Performance
Kaur used her beautiful voice to read/perform her poetry both lyrically and rhythmically, and made use of musical accompaniment for her final piece, Broken English. Dedicated to her immigrant paren'ts, it is a moving honorific to them and all like them who have made the journey from one country to another. Kaur told her audience that she "loved (them) all" and they reciprocated as they followed along in their copies of her book (she announced the page numbers) as she read. They also showed their agreement, appreciation or pleasure by snapping their fingers or hooting. Kaur became so comfortable that she started to incorporate some improvisation into her performance, making it unique and of the moment.
Her Interview
After her performance, she responded openly and honestly to Halushak's questions, one of which concerned an issue discussed recently in CBC Books online. In it, they wrote that Kaur “first drew notice with her eloquent photo series on menstruation, entitled "period" shot with her sister Prabh. When one of the photos was deleted twice by Instagram for violating community guidelines, Kaur's successful battle with the social media giant sparked both high praise and death threats from strangers." Kaur explained that she became so passionate about the censorship involved that she felt compelled to fight back, and initially used Facebook as a means of doing so. However, she confirmed that she is still on a break from social media, which she called "the biggest and darkest struggle". She felt that her poetry had started to feel forced and unnatural. As it is very important to her to be authentic, she is taking time for "self care", in order to regenerate and stay healthy.
What's Next for her?
When asked what's next for her, Kaur said that she wants to explore the spoken word, record it and "make it real", thereby creating a "whole different world".
For More
Listen to the eh List podcast of Rupi Kaur and Maureen Halushak soon to be available for download on iTunes and Sound Cloud.
Check out our eh List page to find out about upcoming events in this series, and in particular Anne and Nicholas Giardini on May 19, and Craig Davidson on May 26. Follow the conversation on Twitter using the hashtag #ehList.
3 thoughts on “Rupi Kaur, Poet Extraordinaire, at Toronto Reference Library”
Is it really necessary to point out that her audience was “mostly young women of colour”? I find it a bit strange that this post points out the racial demographics of the author’s following. Does this really need to be included? I’ve never seen any other post on these blogs that include a sentence along the lines of the audience being mostly middle aged Caucasian women.
Hi anonymous,
I did wonder whether to mention this, but Rupi herself read a poem specifically to “women of colour”, and I wanted to honour her.
No offense intended, but only celebration. However, I have revised the phrase slightly.
Sincerely,
Michal
“racial demographics”?
Black lives matter.
Ignoring the obvious fact that, yes, we are people of colour diminishes us. It is absolutely necessary that people of colour be noticed in order to combat the prevalent attitude that only middle aged Caucasians matter.