Rupi Kaur is a Canadian poet, illustrator, photographer, and author. She is popular for her Instapoetry in which she confronts social taboos. Her vulnerable, short but shareable verses about love, trauma, feminism, and abuse have gathered widespread fanbase. She is known for her three poetry collections Milk and Honey (2014), The Sun and Her Flowers (2017), and Home Body (2020).
Wiki/Biography
Rupi Kaur was born on Sunday, 4 October 1992 (age 31 years; as of 2023) in Punjab, India. Her zodiac sign is Libra. Her father immigrated to Canada before her birth. He had been forced to flee India due to the violent hate crimes against Sikh men. She spent her early childhood with her mother and maternal grandparents. Rupi didn’t meet her father until she and her mother immigrated to Canada when she was three.
Childhood picture of poet Rupi Kaur with her parents
Her family moved around for a while looking for job opportunities before settling in Toronto’s Brampton neighbourhood. She had a tough childhood. She couldn’t speak English fluently until the age of 10. Her father, who worked as a truck driver, a couple of hundred dollars a month, which was not enough to support a family of six. Growing up, she lived with her parents and three younger siblings in a one-bedroom basement flat, where they all slept in the same bed. Talking about her humble background in an interview, she said,
We couldn’t afford toys growing up. My parents would take us to the thrift store, and we would buy books for a dollar each.”
Her typical Indian parents encouraged her to study science and precluded her dream of enrolling in a fashion school. However, she applied to business programs. She attended Turner Fenton Secondary School. She pursued a Bachelor of Arts in English at the University of Waterloo.
Physical Appearance
Height (approx.): 5′ 4″
Hair Colour: Black
Eye Colour: Black
Family
Parents & Siblings
His father was a truck driver. She has three siblings, two sisters and a brother. Her brother’s name is Saaheb. One of her sister’s names is Prabh Kaur.
Poet Rupi Kaur with her parents
Rupi Kaur with her sisters and brother
Husband & Children
She is unmarried.
Religion
She follows Sikhism.
Signature/Autograph
Poet Rupi Kaur’s signature
Career
She began performing poetry in 2009. During her high school years, Kaur anonymously posted her writings. Around 2013, she started sharing her work without a pseudonym on Tumblr before moving to Instagram in 2014, where she would upload her illustrations. The first poem she posted on Instagram was about a wife coping with her husband’s alcoholism. In 2014, she self-published her first poetry collection Milk and Honey through Amazon’s CreateSpace platform. In March 2015, Kaur posted a series of photographs to Instagram as a part of her university photography project. The pictures showed her from behind, lying on her side, with menstrual blood leaking through the crotch of her sweatpants and stains on bedsheets. She intended to challenge the societal menstrual taboos and the objectification of women.
Instagram removed the image due to censorship following which she posted a viral critique on Facebook and Tumblr. She wrote,
Their patriarchy is leaking.
Their misogyny is leaking.
We will not be censored.
Later, Instagram backtracked saying that the photo had been “accidentally removed.” This incident led to increased recognition of Kaur’s poetry, gaining immense popularity for Milk and Honey (2014). It was then reprinted by the publisher Andrews McMeel and saw widespread commercial success. The book’s theme centres around survival, feminism, relationships, immigrant experience, and overcoming sexual trauma. The book sold two million copies in 25 languages and was on The New York Times Best Sellers list for over a year (77 weeks).
Cover of Rupi Kaur’s first poetry collection, Milk and Honey (2014)
After self-publishing her first poetry collection, Milk and Honey, Kaur signed a two-book deal with Simon and Schuster. Her second collection The Sun and Her Flowers was published in 2017. The book is divided into 7 sections reflecting the life cycle of a flower and it focuses on themes of love and loss, trauma and abuse, healing, femininity and the body. The book ranked second on Amazon’s best-seller list a week after its release. Within the first two weeks of publication, it secured a spot among the top ten on the New York Times Best Sellers list.
Cover of Rupi Kaur’s second collection, The Sun and Her Flowers (2017)
She published her third collection, Home Body, in 2020. The collection features illustrations from Kaur and became one of the best-selling books of 2020.
Cover of Rupi Kaur’s third collection, Home Body (2020)
In 2021, she self-produced Rupi Kaur Live, the first-of-its-kind poetry special on Amazon Prime Video.
Facts/Trivia
- She is skilled in playing the harmonium and singing. She performed kirtan for about seven years. She used to perform on stage at various religious events.
- In an interview, Rupi shared that her father used to write Punjabi poetry for her mother in letters when he lived in Japan shortly after their marriage. Her mother used to practice painting.
- She was officially inducted into The City of Brampton’s Arts Walk of Fame. Her induction ceremony came along with the celebration of Sikh Heritage Month in April 2018. During the ceremony, she performed a selection of poems from her second collection, The Sun and Her Flowers, at The Rose Theatre.
- She adopted the stage name “Kaur” because it is the common last name for all Sikh women and symbolizes the elimination of the caste system in India. She believed it would be empowering for a young Sikh girl to encounter her last name in a bookstore.
- Her favourite poet is Bulleh Shah.
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